Clergyman's

The techniques of artificial intelligence are to the mind what bureaucracy is to human social interaction.
- Terry Winograd

The techniques of artificial intelligence are to the mind what bureaucracy is to human social interaction.
- Terry Winograd

Seekers after the glitter of intelligence are misguided in trying to cast it in the base metal of computing. There is an amusing epilogue to this analogy: in fact, the alchemists were right. Lead can be converted into gold by a particle accelerator hurling appropriate beams at lead targets. The AI visionaries may be right in the same way, and they are likely to be wrong in the same way.
- Terry Winograd

The main activity of programming is not the origination of new independent programs, but in the integration, modification, and explanation of existing ones.
- Terry Winograd

There is a tendency to throw computers at third world problems, which I think is often a distraction. Putting computers in the schools is great, but it may be more important to put teachers in the schools.
- Terry Winograd

There is a tendency to throw computers at third world problems, which I think is often a distraction. Putting computers in the schools is great, but it may be more important to put teachers in the schools.
- Terry Winograd

If we assume that the person asking the question is serious, there is an underlying background of purposes and understanding into which the question fits. If a questioner were to ask ""Can pigs have wings?"" a respondent within the analytic tradition might have difficulty answering, because although the idea is outrageously farfetched, current work in genetic engineering does leave open the logical possibility of creating a beast with the desired characteristics. Admittedly, there might be some refuge in challenging the asker as to whether such a monstrosity would still properly be called a pig,11 thereby invalidating the question. But if the question were asked seriously, neither the logical possibility nor the precise meaning of ""pig"" would be the issue at hand. The questioner would be asking for some reason in some background of understanding and purpose, and the appropriate answer would have to be relevant to that background.
- Terry Winograd

If we assume that the person asking the question is serious, there is an underlying background of purposes and understanding into which the question fits. If a questioner were to ask ""Can pigs have wings?"" a respondent within the analytic tradition might have difficulty answering, because although the idea is outrageously farfetched, current work in genetic engineering does leave open the logical possibility of creating a beast with the desired characteristics. Admittedly, there might be some refuge in challenging the asker as to whether such a monstrosity would still properly be called a pig,11 thereby invalidating the question. But if the question were asked seriously, neither the logical possibility nor the precise meaning of ""pig"" would be the issue at hand. The questioner would be asking for some reason in some background of understanding and purpose, and the appropriate answer would have to be relevant to that background.
- Terry Winograd

A reason to have computers understand natural language is that it’s an extremely effective way of communicating. What I came to realize is that the success of the communication depends on the real intelligence on the part of the listener, and that there are many other ways of communicating with a computer that can be more effective, given that it doesn’t have the intelligence.
- Terry Winograd

A reason to have computers understand natural language is that it’s an extremely effective way of communicating. What I came to realize is that the success of the communication depends on the real intelligence on the part of the listener, and that there are many other ways of communicating with a computer that can be more effective, given that it doesn’t have the intelligence.
- Terry Winograd