From: Phillip E. Pournelle <pepourne@n...>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 1997 15:18:36 -0400
Subject: Artificial Intelligence in Full Thrust
Having been a Fire Control Officer on an AEGIS ship I have a pretty good idea
of what a computerized combat system can do. Computers are very good at number
crunching, prioritizing, queing, tracking etc. In the future they might even
be able to recognize patterns and propose solutions to complicated problems
("Expert Systems" do things like this now)
Some programs can even take deriviatives and do other non-linear
arithmetic. I think that it is reasonable to see some of these things expand,
but there is a limit as to how far this will go. The human brain is far more
efficient than any computer out there, but it has so much to take care of
regulating the body, directing the eyes, directing senses, sorting
data...
A computer system can only do what it is programed for and monitor what
sensors it has available. Humans can monitor senses in a manner that machines
can't. Humans can combine data in a manner unproducable by machines and may
have
"Sixth Senses" that give them non-emperical data.
The U.S. Navy had some remote control helicopters designed to drop torpedoes
on enemy submarines. We had a lot of trouble with them because the remote
pilot could not get the "feel" of the crafts operations. It is true that with
current
technology we could design better drone craft but the "sense/feel" issue
would still remain. The obvious answer is to use both systems where a human
makes the
operational/
strategic decisions and lets the computer's expert systems fire the weapons at
their optimum timing. However, the human commander better be prepared to make
adjustments and take over when the system hicups... I've seen that situation
many times...