A POLITE CAT..is a .........

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>>>>> "Steven" == Steven Hall <shall2@bellsouth.net> writes:

    Steven> Skunks are supposed to be
    Steven> better pets and much smarter than cats,

Back in the eighties, the heyday of artificial intelligence, I
attended a conference where a very famous person discussed the issue
of just how intelligent should we make our artificially intelligent
computers.  He put up a slide that showed the comparative intelligence 
of various domesticated animals, both pets and beasts of burden.
These are animals man used for either getting work done, or for
pleasure. 

He pointed out that the camel was about the stupidest animal that
could be useful as a beast of burden to man.  The chart also showed
that the horse was somewhere around the middle.  The suprise to me was
that the donkey -- the Biblical "ass" -- was the most intelligent
domestic animal.  This is significant, as God put Israel on donkeys,
while her enemies rode horses and camels.

The chimpanzee is probably the most intelligent animal that is kept as 
a pet.  The problem with using animals that are too intelligent as pet 
or beasts of burden is that the more intelligent animals may come to
resent being used this way and rebel or revolt.  The worst case of a
too intelligent beast of burden is the human slave.

The speaker's concern was that if we made computers too intelligent,
they would turn on use and we would serve them.  Sometimes I get the
feeling that this has already happened. :-/

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
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