Early attempts to program BUILDER revealed a wealth of underlying complexity. A huge number of programs had to be included in the simulation. "In attempting to make our robot work, we found that many everyday problems were much more complicated than the sorts of problems, puzzles, and games adults consider hard. At every point, in that world of blocks, when we were forced to look more carefully than usual, we found an unexpected universe of complications." For example, how do you index a used block, so that you won't attempt to use it again? "Thousands and, perhaps, millions of little processes must be involved in how we anticipate, imagine, plan, predict and prevent -- and yet all this proceeds so automatically that we regard it as `ordinary common sense.'
"In general, we're least aware of what our minds do best." (NB: In my view, this is the key insight provided by AI research. Minsky's basic point is this: we can't trust our judgement about what is simple!)
Pearl Street | Society of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |