Mule Intelligence

Mule Intelligence by Ian Woolf and Peter Eisler

The meeting opened with Graham Stone showing us the latest completely
unsolicited strange magazine sent to him, "Harsh Mistress", NOT a S & M
bondage magazine but a science fiction story journal, now called
"Absolute Magnitude" to avoid ambiguity.

The night's topic of "machine intelligence" was not seen as straight
forward by some of the attendees, as other science fiction fans might
have expected. The definition of the word "machine" was hotly debated.
One of our members declared that unless a device did useful and
valuable mechanical work, it was not a "machine". This was taken up by
another member who solemnly made the point that therefore a computer
was not a "machine". He further declared that we should therefore be
careful not to include any computer based entities as "machine
intelligence".

When Greg Egan's "Permutation City" was raised as a perfect example of
sentience in computers, he rejected this because the computer was only
simulating "intelligence", although he admitted he'd never read the
book. He then completely demolished any future hope of "machine
intelligence" by defining "intelligence" only to be applicable to
entities that can move. He pointed out that this also ruled out
computer based consciousness. Amazingly the definition was further
narrowed by restricting the definition of "machines" to inorganic
materials. Plastic and wood could only be used for "machines" if they
were dead first.

From there the definition of ""life" itself came into question.
It was asserted that the fundamental test of possession of life,
itself, was the capability to reproduce. Mules were ruled to be dead,
except for the one in a million who was not a mule and able to
reproduce.

Gently moving the topic back to "machine intelligences" in science
fiction, Robert Heinlein's method of arousing sentience in computers in
"Time Enough for Love" arose. Heinlein suggested that with very large,
fast and complex computers, if you spoke to them and were nice to them,
they would one day "wake up". However, it was ruled by someone who had
read Roger Penrose's "Emperor's New Mind" that computers can't contain
"intelligence" because they don't move. It was further ruled that they
would become intelligent if legs were attached and they became robots.
Androids were raised at this point, and were shouted down with cries of
"organics!", until a lone voice protested "but android just means
shaped-like-a-man!". A great silence fell. Vernor Vinge's "A Fire Upon
The Deep"'s `Blight' was mentioned as an example of a "machine
intelligence" in a computer. This was rejected because computers don't
move. It was given special dispensation, however due to its habit of
implanting radio modems in people's heads to control them, despite the
fact that the people were live organics converted to androids.

Members would admit that authors had somehow still managed to write
about "machine intelligence". Books on the topic discussed were:

Great Sky River by Gregory Benford
My Name is Legion by Roger Zelazny
True Names by Vernor Vinge
The Turing Option by Marvin Minsky and Harry Harrison
Queen of Angels by Greg Bear
Cybernetic Samuri by Victor Milan
The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker
Software by Rudy Rucker Wetware by Rudy Rucker
Isaac Asimov's Robot stories
Code of the Lifemaker by James P. Hogan
Permutation City by Greg Egan
Illuminatus! By Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
Synners by Pat Cadigan
Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein
We can Build You by Phillip K. Dick
Watchbird by Phillip K. Dick
Answer by Frederic Brown
The Warlock in Spite of himself by Christopher Stasheff
Extro by Alfred Bester
Berserker by Fred Saberhagen
Bolo by Keith Laumer
Rim a novel of artificial intelligence by A. Besher
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Epilogue by Poul Anderson
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Consider Phlebus Iain M. Banks
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks