In the Beginning was Information
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“Speaking birds”: Parrots and budgies have <strong>the</strong> ability to faithfully imitatewords and even sentences of human language. They simply reproducewhat <strong>the</strong>y hear. When a parrot says, “Polly wants a glass of water”, thisdoes not reflect an actual desire. Even when it says, “Good morning”, itstill is not a real greeting. There is no real meaning behind this “speech”of <strong>the</strong> bird; it does not speak English or German or even its own languagewhen it makes <strong>the</strong>se sounds. <strong>In</strong> contrast to <strong>the</strong> previous examples, thismimicry does not represent a communication system.A2.3 Does “Artificial <strong>In</strong>telligence” Exist?The concept “artificial intelligence” – abbreviation AI – increasinglyappears in catch phrases in many scientific journals as well as in popularliterature [N1, S6, W1, and W7]. This falsely used catchword creates <strong>the</strong>impression that <strong>the</strong>re will be no distinction between human intelligenceand that of a computer in <strong>the</strong> future. The first computers were optimisticallycalled electronic brains. Fortunately this idea has been discarded,since <strong>the</strong>re is no comparison between <strong>the</strong> human brain and a computer[G10]. But unfortunately <strong>the</strong> American expression “artificial intelligence”<strong>was</strong> adopted uncritically, and caused more confusion than enlightenment.The question actually involves <strong>the</strong> following aspects:– The objective is not (we hope!) to create systems which would artificiallyimprove <strong>the</strong> intelligence of somebody with insufficient intellect,like one can employ an artificial kidney in <strong>the</strong> case of poor kidney performance.– The word “intelligence” does not only refer to <strong>the</strong> intellect, but alsoincludes <strong>the</strong> ga<strong>the</strong>ring, transmission and evaluation of messages. Onoffice specialising in intelligence does not deal with intellectual matters,but is concerned with information.There is no fixed definition of AI, but <strong>the</strong> envisaged objective could bebriefly described as follows: It involves a certain software technology andnot for example <strong>the</strong> hardware of a new computer generation, or some newkind of computer architecture. But it does involve <strong>the</strong> development of programmingsystems for dealing with issues like <strong>the</strong> following:1. Expert systems: This involves information systems where questionsand answers in some area of specialisation can be stored in <strong>the</strong> form ofif-<strong>the</strong>n-else rules; new cases are incorporated as <strong>the</strong>y occur. <strong>In</strong> medicaldiagnosis, in <strong>the</strong> search for mineral resources, and even in income taxconsultations, <strong>the</strong> branching nature of <strong>the</strong> questions and <strong>the</strong> materialrequires special programming. An expert system essentially comprises adatabase containing single facts as well as <strong>the</strong> relevant rules and an infer-218