Word: homeostat
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Practical calculating machines, explains Dr. Ashby, merely take orders and act upon them, in complicated but predetermined ways. His machine, which he calls a "homeostat," is different. The present model is pretty simple, but it really thinks, he says-at least in the sense that it takes action on its own, according to any change in situation affecting it. So, for that matter, does a seesaw, compass needle, or a sunflower. Dr. Ashby contends that his machine acts in a more complicated way, adjusts itself to a greater variety of circumstances. That, he holds, constitutes thinking...
...homeostat has not thought out anything very deep or complicated. When it is normal and "comfortable," says Dr. Ashby, the four magnets are centered, each above its box. By setting switches in the boxes, Dr. Ashby can make the magnets swing out of place. Then the machine is "uncomfortable," and begins at once to figure out how to get comfortable again...
...Ashby does not consider his first homeostat particularly intelligent, but he says he feels sure that a really bright model can be built on the same principle. "The method which would be used to enable it to play chess," he says confidently, "is now clear, though how long it will take to achieve this performance is uncertain...
| 1 |