Artificial Intelligence
Perhaps one of the most complex pieces to the human puzzle is our sense
of
humor. A sense of humor not only involves intelligence and comprehension
but
also an array of emotions. It is not enough to just understand
something
humorous, but it is also necessary that an emotional and
physiological response
be able to occur for a person to have a sense of
humor. However, though there is
much involved in ‘‘getting’’ a joke, there
are even more factors
involved in telling a joke (Ziv 27). This is,
unfortunately, an oversimplified
explanation of what a sense of humor
entails, as many people have their own
opinion about what a sense of humor
is. It is possible that we may be able to
measure the level of humor a joke
has. It would seem that the greater the
positive reaction a joke can evoke
and the larger the amount of people it
effects, the funnier a joke is.
Conceivably then, it can be said that though it
may not be all too difficult
to create a joke, creating a really good joke
requires much more capability.
Now that there is some establishment of what a
sense of humor is, the next
question is, can a sense of humor be taught? To a
human, perhaps it can be,
but whether a good sense of humor can be taught to a
computer is doubtful.
Where our technology lies today there is little chance of
computers
replicating true human emotion (Beale 45). As our world
simultaneously
shrinks and expands through the growing abilities and
applications of computers
in our everyday lives, it seems that the role of
the computer has been reversed.
Before we knew that the computer only
understood what we programmed it to
understand; however, now the majority of
our society is learning more from
computers than they are able to input into
it. As stated, it only seems that the
roles are being reversed, because
somewhere far down at the beginning of the
line someone is programming the
computer. However, a transition is occurring
among computer programmers, as
they attempt to create machines that learn rather
than machines that must be
programmed. It has become the hope of many engineers
that the "mechanisms of
human thought could be precisely modeled and
simulated on a computer". This
is known as Artificial Intelligence
(Artificial 3). Artificial Intelligence,
or AI, since its conception, has grown
from a dozen researchers, to thousands
of engineers and specialists; from
programs capable of playing checkers, to
systems designed to diagnose disease (Dumm
4). With all that the computer
is learning now a new question arises: How long
before a computer can learn
to understand and execute the attributes of a good
sense of humor? It is
believed that the theory of AI has existed long before
recorded, but was not
made conceivable until the invention of the electronic
computer in 1941
(Dreyfus 6). Since then many scientists and engineers have been
working on a
way to make the computer more human. Once it was noticed that the
computer
could perform simple tasks such as mathematical problems and memory
recall
much faster than humans the idea began that they should become more like
us
(Beale 2). However after almost sixty years scientists have still not
been
able to create AI in the sense that they had hoped. Even the
Intelligence that
they have given computers, which at the time was considered
a triumph in
reaching towards AI, is no longer considered valid(Kurzweil
14-16). This
includes such "simple" machines as intelligent chess boards and
other
programs for elementary games. In the mid 1960’’s, however, Marvin
Minsky
created and interactive computer program that many believed to be
Artificial
Intelligence. Though Minsky was even doubtful of his
achievement another
scientist, Joseph Weizenbaum, quickly stepped forward
with an even stronger
representation of AI. This new program was called Eliza
and was able to imitate
a nondirective therapist. This form of AI was
extremely believable to those who
tested it, but Weizenbaum promptly
explained the simplicity of his program. He
then pointed out the directions
and commands the program used to fake
comprehension (Dreyfuss 69-72).
Weizenbaum proved through his contest that both
his and Minsky’s programs
were
Bibliography
"Artificial Intelligence." Online. Internet. 16
April 1998.
Directory:
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/8751/ Beale, R., and
T.
Jackson. Neural Computing: An Introduction. Bristol: Adam Hilger, 1991
Dryfus,
Hubert L., and Stuart E. Dryfus. Mind Over Machine. New York:
Free Press, 1986.
Dumm, Tim, Adam Dyess, and Bill Smitzes. "