DOCSLIB.ORG

Viewing the History of Science As Compiled Hindsight Lindley Darcien

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Viewing the History of Science As Compiled Hindsight Lindley Darcien Viewing the History of Science as Compiled Hindsight Lindley Darcien hen I was invited to give a should be aware of the need to pre- talk on AI and the history of serve records of their activities. This article is a written version of an science, I declined the sugges- Pamela McCorduck’s entertaining and invited talk on artificial intelligence (AI) tion that I discuss the place of AI in journalistic account of AI, Machines and the history of science that was pre- the history of science. The field is too Who Think (1979,) will be the first of sented at the Fifth National Conference on new, developing too rapidly, to try to many chronicles of this field. Profes- Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-86) in assess its place in the history of sci- sional historians will soon follow the Philadelphia on 13 August 1986 Included ence just yet. Some aspects of AI are journalists. is an expanded section on the concept of an abstraction in AI; this section responds applied and more like engineering The difficulty in preserving pro- to issues that were raised in the discussion than science. Some aspects, those in grams and the hardware on which which followed the oral presentation which AI researchers aim at modeling they run will make the historians task The main point here is that the history human intelligence, merge into cogni- even more difficult than the usual of science can be used as a source for con- tive science. Those researchers trying problem, for example, of coping with structing abstract theory types to aid in to understand intelligence, human or scientists who cleaned out their files solving recurring problem types. Two theo- otherwise, are forging a new area that and threw away their notebooks. ry types that aid in forming hypotheses to might or might not ultimately be Those of you working in the field solve adaptation problems are discussed: called scientific. I don’t believe it is should be careful about preserving selection theories and instructive theories. profitable to argue over whether a material. Consider donating your Providing cases from which to construct theory types is one way in which to view field deserves the honorific title of papers to university or corporate the history of science as “compiled hind- “science.” Each field needs to develop archives, and be aware that future gen- sight” and might prove useful to those in its own methodologies, which are erations will likely want to trace your AI concerned with scientific knowledge shaped by the needs and problems steps of thinking and implementing. and reasoning within the field, without succumbing One scientist whose work I have tried to the disease of physics envy. If some to trace cleaned out his files every five of the many characteristics attributed years. Another researcher destroyed to science are useful within a new his notebooks when he retired. Be- field, then they should be considered. cause we cannot date a key discovery Some fields, for example, might find on the basis of information in this re- controlled experimentation useful; searcher’s notebooks, which are the others might strive for quantitative best historical source, we are left with results; and still others might find the- trying to reconstruct what he said in ory-driven methods of use. However, his classes during this period to see if adopting methods simply to obtain he discussed as yet unpublished the label scientific and not because results in his lectures. Would you they are demanded by the problems want to count on your students’ lec- seems to me to be misguided. ture notes to substantiate your claim Although I believe it is too early to that you made a discovery? Certain try to assess AI’s place in the history large projects, such as the space tele- of science, it is not too early to begin scope, hire a historian at the outset so preserving records for the historians that appropriate records can be kept who will be writing the history of AI. and interviews done as the project AI is an exciting and rapidly develop- proceeds. Scientists interviewed many ing field. Those persons shaping it years later might or might not accu- SUMMER 1987 33 some remarks about AI that are worth recalling. Schank discussed the some- Although I believe it is too early to try to assess times tenuous connection between AI AI’s place in the history of science, it is not too and the rest of computer science. He said that AI is a methodology applica- early to begin preserving records for the historians ble to many fields other than computer who will be writing the history of AI. science because it is “potentially, the algorithmic study of processes in every field of inquiry. As such the future rately remember what happened and (not the social or artificial]. I am inter- should produce AI anthropologists, AI when. Having a historian involved in ested in scientific knowledge and rea- doctors, AI political scientists, and so the early stages is a good way to record soning. My topic deals with the ways on” (Schank 1983, p. 7). I would add to AI work on large projects. in which AI and the history and phi- this list AI historians and philosophers losophy of science can profit from The Babbage Institute and the of science. Smithsonian Institution have strong interacting. Successes already exist Students educated in computer sci- with such an interface, and I would interests in the history of computing, ence as undergraduates who then spe- like to suggest additional points of but they have done little yet on the cialize in AI as graduate students learn history of AI. Arthur Norberg of the potential contact. a lot of skills, maybe some mathemat- Babbage Institute told me that they When I was invited to speak, I was ics, but they might be exposed to very will be happy to advise anyone with asked to be entertaining and provoca- little actual knowledge, scientific or tive. Because I am normally rather archival material in AI about appropri- otherwise, or to problems examined by ate places for storage. A major exhibit matter-of-fact and, I guess, sad to say, a researchers in other fields. I think this on the information revolution is bit dull, such a task isn’t especially lack of training in knowledge-rich easy for me. AI has some very bright, scheduled to open at the Smithsonian fields accounts in part for so many of Institution in 1990. Currently, nothing clever, and entertaining people who the toy problems and games that have on AI is scheduled to appear in this give very lively talks. I can’t hope to been the domain of much AI work. Al match their liveliness and wit. Also, exhibit. efforts that address real, rather than In contrast, the Computer Museum being provocative requires one to take toy, problems, especially scientific in Boston has an exhibit entitled, dogmatic stands so that others will ones, are of much greater interest to “Artificial Intelligence and Robots,” disagree. Philosophical training has those researchers in other fields sharpened my ability to see both sides opening in the summer of 1987. Oliver attempting to make connections with of an issue and dulled my ability to be Strimpel is the curator working on the AI. exhibit. The museum already has dogmatic. However, in an effort to sat- The work in expert systems has Shakey and other artifacts and is inter- isfy this request, let me attempt to been all for the good in getting Al ested in acquiring still more. It is also make a few provocative remarks before researchers involved with real-world interested in collecting programs, getting on to the serious--and I hope knowledge and reasoning. Some Al either in listings or in other usable not too dull--points. systems have been driven by researcl forms, for their archives. For the To give an overview of what is com- problems and needs in other areas exhibit, they need rugged, state-of-the- ing, first I will make some provocative, including science. Such success art AI systems which might be of introductory remarks. Then, I will dis- requires those involved in AI to learr interest to the public and which could cuss fruitful interactions between AI about other fields and become con withstand museum use. and the history and philosophy of sci- cemed with the research problems ant The AI field is fortunate to have its ence. Next will come a discussion of reasoning strategies in various conten key founding fathers still alive. It is an important idea developed in AI, fields. Graduate programs in AI shoulc certainly time for professional histori- namely, abstraction. This idea will be have less training in computer science ans--those trained in oral history applied in a discussion of abstractions More of the students’ time should bc methodology--to begin collecting that I have found by analyzing the his- spent in research fields where AI tech audiotapes and videotapes, deciding on tory of science as well as an illustra- niques can be applied and where the key historical questions that need to tion involving two types of theories needs of these fields can drive the be asked, and filling in the gaps in doc- from the biological sciences--selection development of new areas of AI. The umentation. The American Associa- and instructive theories. The conclu- history of science has been marked b! tion for Artificial Intelligence might sion is a summary of the compiled successful interfield interactions lead wish to fund such a project, just as hindsight provided by the examples ing to new developments (Darden ant many of the scientific societies have discussed and suggests ways in which Maul1 1977).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Foucauldian Scientificity: Rethinking the Research, Policy, Practice Nexus
    Foucauldian Scientificity: Rethinking the Research, Policy, Practice Nexus Patti Lather AESA, November, 2005 Symposium: The Uses of Foucault in Educational Policy Analysis The nature of scientificity is on the feminist agenda (Lather, 2005; Wilson, 1998). I first encountered the term in my reading of Foucault and began a kind of genealogy of it once I noticed that I was slipping between scientificity and scientism in my in-process book, Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts Toward a Double(d) Science. This paper, then, is part on an on-going project in probing the uses of a reinscribed scientificity in the “science wars,” particularly as those wars play out in what might be termed the “rage for accountability” in educational research. Foucault’s ideas concerning the thresholds of positivity, epistemologization, scientificity and formalization in the human sciences will be used to argue against the methodological reductionism in US policy discourse and how this affects the research, policy, practice nexus. This Cloudy Distribution My work? . There is beneath that which science knows of itself something that it does not know. .. I have tried to extricate. the unconscious of knowledge. (Foucault in Davidson, 1997, p. 7) In The Order of Things, Foucault (1970) advises that, rather than looking for a coherent definitional field, we attend to the overlapping, contradictory, and conflictual definitional forces that don’t oversimplify our pursuit of a counter-science. Rather than the “physics envy” that characterizes the parade of behaviorism, cognitivism, structuralism, and neopositivism, he posits a social science that takes values and power 1 seriously.1 Against the objectivist strands with their failure to successfully study human activity in a way modeled after the assumedly cumulative, predictive, and stable natural or “exact” sciences, Foucault locates the human sciences in the interstices of the mathematizable and the philosophical.
    [Show full text]
  • Exploring Physics Teachers' Notss (Nature of the Sciences)
    Electronic Journal of Science Education Vol. 23, No. 2 Exploring physics teachers’ NOTSs (Nature Of The Sciences) conceptions and discussing their relation to the current domain-general NOS (Nature Of Science) agenda Dimitrios Schizas International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Greece Dimitris Psillos School of Primary Education, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki,, Greece Abstract The present study elaborates on a domain-specific approach to NOS (Nature Of Science) and employs a NOTSs (Nature Of The Sciences) agenda to investigate how Greek in-service physics teachers understand the unique features of school physics and biology. Our theoretical framework focuses on the notion of worldview and important differences that exist between the Newtonian and the neo-Darwinian worldviews, whereas our methodology involves questionnaires and mainly individual interviews. The empirical findings indicate that participants understand the nature of the sciences from the perspective of how they understand their own science and tend to share homogeneous NOTSs conceptions that mostly stem from how they have assimilated positivistic tenets. As a result, they have serious misunderstandings regarding (a) the nature of biology because they project upon biology epistemological characteristics that biology does not possess and (b) several NOS items because they erroneously consider domain-specific NOS (or NOTSs) conceptions to be domain-general and disregard important NOTSs conceptions that underpin the understanding of domain-general NOS items. The implications of all such findings for synergies that may exist between the NOTSs agenda and the current domain-general approach to NOS are also discussed. Keywords: misconceptions, Nature Of The Sciences, neo-Darwinian worldview, Newtonian worldview, in-service teachers, preconceptions.
    [Show full text]
  • Title: Do Physicists Have 'Geography Envy'? and What Can Geographers
    Accepted at Annals of the Association of American Geographers p. 1 Not for distribution without authors’ approval Title: Do Physicists Have ‘Geography Envy’? And What Can Geographers Learn From It? David O'Sullivan (corresponding author) Department of Geography University of California, Berkeley 507 McCone Hall #4740 Berkeley, CA 94720-4740 Phone: (510) 642-3903 Fax: (510) 642-3370 Email: [email protected] Steven M. Manson Department of Geography University of Minnesota 267 19th Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55455 Phone: (612) 625-4577 Fax: (612) 624-1044 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Recent years have seen an increasing amount of work by physicists on topics outside their traditional research domain, including in geography. We explore the scope of this development, place it in a historical context dating back at least to statistical physics in the nineteenth century, and trace the origins of more recent developments to the roots of computational science after the Second World War. Our primary purpose is not historical, however. Instead, we are concerned with understanding what geographers can learn from the many recent contributions by physicists to understanding spatiotemporal systems. Drawing on examples of work in this tradition by physicists, we argue that two apparently different modes of investigation are common: model-driven and data-driven approaches. The former is associated with complexity science, while the latter is more commonly associated with the ‘fourth paradigm’, more recently known as ‘big data’. Both modes share technical strengths, and more importantly a capacity for generalization, which is absent from much work in geography. We argue that although some of this research lacks an appreciation of previous geographical contributions, when assessed critically, it nevertheless brings useful new perspectives, new methods and new ideas to bear on topics central to geography, yet neglected in the discipline.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Laws in Ecology: Diverse Modes of Explanation for a Holistic Science? 1
    1 Laws in ecology: diverse modes of explanation for a holistic science? 2 Richard Gunton and Francis Gilbert 3 4 Word-count: 9900 5 Number of pages: 23 6 Number of tables: 1 7 Number of figures: 2 8 Zygon special issue: ISSR project 9 10 ABSTRACT 11 Ecology’s reputation as a holistic and soft science is partly due to widespread misconceptions of its 12 nature as well as shortcomings in its methodology. We show how the pursuit of empirical laws of 13 ecology can foster the emergence of a more unified and predictive ecology based on complementary 14 modes of explanation. Numerical analyses of population dynamics have a distinguished pedigree, 15 spatial analyses successfully generate predictive laws for macroecology and physical analyses are 16 tyically pursued by the ecosystem approach. The most characteristically ecological laws, however, 17 are found in biotic analyses within the ‘functional trait’ paradigm. Holistic credentials for ecology 18 may thus be restored on two bases: its accommodating complementary modes of analysis and 19 explanation, and its having some laws within the least reductionistic mode consistent with its subject 20 matter. These claims, grounded in the aspectual theory of Herman Dooyeweerd, lead to some 21 suggestions for enhancing the versatility and usefulness of ecology – and other sciences – by 22 balancing different research paradigms under a holistic vision. 23 24 Keywords: abstraction, biotic, physical, spatial, numerical, [mode], [holistic], paradigm, reductionism 25 26 27 Ecology, as the study of general patterns in the relationship of organisms to their environments, 28 appears to be a holistic science. This notion is no doubt bolstered by its links to an ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards Quantum Economic Development: Transcending Boundaries
    ii TOWARDS QUANTUM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES Yrd. Doç. Dr. Murat Ali Dulupçu. Murat Okçu Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi Iktisadi ve Idari Bilimler Faküıtesi ••• Kuantum Ekonomik Kalkınmaya Doğru: Sınırlan Aşmak Özet Kalkınma iktisadı ekonomi biliminin diğer alanları gibi "fiziğe imrenme" üzerine inşa edilmiştir. Bundan dolayı kalkınma iktisadı ekonomik olguları açıkladığını varsaysa bile aslında yaptığı bu olguları inşa ve dizayn etmektir. Hem ortodoks hem de heterodoks kalkınma , . yaklaşımları, modernist (Newtoncu) metodolojik ve metaforik tuzak ve hileleri içermektedir. ironik olansa, ciddi kısıtlılıklar, tutarsızlıklar ve yanlış kavramsallaştırmalar bulaşmış olsa bile kalkınma iktisadının modernitenin kendisi tarafından da artık kullanılmamasıdır. Yalnızca iktisadın değişik branşlarının değil, fakat aynı zamanda toplum bilimlerinin farklı alanlarının kavşak noktasında konumlanan kalkınma iktisadı bu doğasıyla, içerisinde ortodoks ve heterodoks yaklaşımları beraberce yaşatmayan (yaşatamayan) modernist proje tarafından görmezden gelinmiştir. Bu nokta çok farklı bir anlayışa -"kuantum sıçramasına"- bir şans tanımaktadır. Bu çalışma, potansiyelolarak pek çok ima, anlam ve metafora sahip kuantum kuramının ("yeni bilimlerin") gözüyle kalkınma iktisadına yaklaşmayı denemektedir. Abstract Development economics has been built on "physics envy" as in other fields of economics. That's why, although development economics presumes to explain economic phenomena, in fact it is constructive, and designs them. Both orthodox and heterodox
    [Show full text]
  • Running Head: SCIENTIFIC STATUS of PSYCHOLOGY 1
    Running head: SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF PSYCHOLOGY 1 Agency, Chance, and the Scientific Status of Psychology Martin E. Morf University of Windsor This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-018-9449-3 Author Note Martin Morf, Department of Psychology (retired), University of Windsor, Canada Parts of this paper have been presented at recent conferences of the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (APA Division 24), the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, and the International Association of Applied Psychology. Email: [email protected]. Correspondence concerning this article should be sent to this address. 1 SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF PSYCHOLOGY 2 2 3 4 Abstract 5 6 7 Psychologists generally reject the reductionist, physicalist, “nothing but” stance of the natural 8 9 sciences. At the same time they consider their discipline a science and wonder why it does not 10 11 12 enjoy the status (and funding) of the natural sciences. Ferguson (2015), Lilienfeld (2012), and 13 14 Schwartz et al. (2016) are among those who adopt a soft naturalism of nonreductive physicalism 15 16 which declares, or implies, that when it comes to humans, there is more than what the natural 17 18 19 sciences can unravel. They envision psychology as scientific in the epistemological sense of 20 21 generating reproducible results, but reject the reductive ontology of science which currently 22 23 24 points to the undeterminable chance of quantum theory as the closest physics has come to the 25 26 beginnings and what might loosely be called the foundation of the universe (e.g., Bridgman, 27 28 29 1929; Eddington, 1948).
    [Show full text]