Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Would '
consonant OR even
' be a good rule to try?
Yes, try this rule
...
.'
consonant OR even
'
Only these cards need be checked
...
[a7]
Both sides of the checked cards:-
[[a6][c7]]
This is a rule that works
...
' consonant OR even
'
Shall we try to find another rule? (y or n):-
n
3.4
Nature's Intelligence
Although intelligence has been described in terms of functional boxes there is no
necessity for these boxes to be found as separate mechanisms. They represent an
abstraction of what is observed. Further, there is no need for intelligence to reside in
a single organism, since what we have described is a system and systems can be any
distributed but connected set of active elements. So ant colonies or eco-systems are
open for investigation.
The material form of an intelligent system is not important. An intelligent system
could be constructed from any mechanism that provides constraints. Engines as
devised by Babbage or the siphon system as in the Europa Water Clock (Berlin, See
Fig.
3.10
) could all potentially be employed as intelligent engines.
The time span over which intelligence operates is not a critical property, although
it will have practical consequences. The time limitations imposed for IQ tests is
required because the test is unique to people. We can imagine a very slow intelligence
that would operate over many years or an extremely fast intelligence as might be found
in a short lived species. What emerges is that intelligence has a set of parameters,
which define what problems it may solve and what it will never solve. These solutions
depend on the battery of concepts, perceptions, heuristics and criteria as well as the
range of actions available.
The process of evolution has all of the mechanisms of intelligence (see Fig.
3.11
).
Insight is born through changes in the genetic code, and is the starting point for the
generation of an organism (morphogenesis). The laws of complex systems govern
the organism's structure. These laws form stable patterns that explain the shape of
living things (Goodwin
1994
). The success or failure of a species is judged by its
ability to survive the current environment. The memory of the success is contained
in the distribution of successful individuals in the population of the species. These
individuals are the candidates for reproduction, and so the search for an optimum
solution is automatically provided. In this way validation and memory are combined
into a single concept.
The consequence of this view would suggest that not only will the same solution
(type) be 'reinvented' from different starting points (see rabbits and their marsupial
equivalents, the wallaby, in New Zealand) but the evolutionary system may well
'reinvent' the same species all over again. This might explain the rediscoveries of
prehistoric animals, such as the 'thought to be extinct' fish the coelacanths. The
