Arizona Daily Star from Tucson, Arizona • Page 31

He Arizona Bathi Star Tucson, Thursday, July 19, 1984 Advice 2E Entertainment 6E Computers Meeting with Rockwell shouldn't Soda jerk for a night gives a yank to strings of nostalgia De0De fj Ranks I 1 W. Banks By Leo o4 a The Arizona Daily Star Artificial intelligence is just around the corner, and it scares me. Artificial intelligence is the thinking you get from a machine that can see, and understand language, and reason just like people do. The Army is giving the University of Texas $6.5 million to study artificial intelligence for computers. Scores of scientists all over the world are working day and night to create artificial intelligence.

Sooner or later, somebody's going to create it, and then we're in big trouble. The last thing we need are machines that think like people do. We have enough people who do that already. What we need are machines that think better than people do. Maybe you've been reading about all the skydivers who've been jumping off mountains and buildings.

This does not turn out to be a happy experience for everyone who tries it. Ed Severson Tha Arizona Dally Star I spotted you, Norman Rockwell, and right off I knew it was you. Who else would show up at Austin's Ice Cream parlor on a Friday night wearing a black beret tilted over one ear, carrying a pallette and paintbrush. There were reports that you died back in 1978. At least, that's what the newspapers said.

But they didn't fool me, Norman. I knew those stories were, as they say, greatly exaggerated. Anyway, Norman, I guess you know all about Austin's, this fine slice of the old days 1 at Broadway and Country Club Road. It is perfect for you, Norman. Where else in Tucson could you find those old-fashioned green milkshake machines that make that high electric whine, or find little hooks under the counter for women to hang up their purses? Or soda fountain stools you can spin around on until you almost throw up, and regular customers with names like Frankie, who ankle in at the same hour every day to order the same things? I know you understand.

This is your America, Norman. 1 It's mine, too. It belongs to anyone who grew up in the late '50s and early '60s and is willing to admit it. So I went to Austin's to work for a night. Will Morey, the owner, agreed to let me i indulge this fantasy of mine that maybe those days are not really gone.

Maybe we can have them again. It felt good, Norman, like a homecoming. You see, in my mind's eye there is this painting of the first third of my life. It's one of your paintings, Norman, and it's pretty, full of bright colors. It shows me hunkered down at a soda fountain.

I am 10 years old, have an H.R. Halde-! man crew cut, big ears that look more like wing flaps and chocolate blotches stuck to my face that could only be removed with Ajax. I am smiling, of course, because when you are 10 years old and eating a vanilla freezie with hot chocolate in the summertime, there is something wrong with you if you are not smiling. Is it so bad to want to live that way again? Your being there makes everything perfect, Norman, because I know you won't paint anything to get in the way of my little fantasy. I mean, how interesting could it be to paint a guy in a stained white apron bringing water to the wrong table or spilling a boatload of chocolate sauce all over the floor? And those old ladies hunched over their malteds, whispering about my rank incompetence as a waiter? That kind of thing just doesn't cut it in one of your paintings, Norman.

Oh sure, you could go out of your way to "ol If rr ftv I Joy Wdl, The AriioiM Mty SMr Regular Austin's employee Joanne Reese helps novice Leo Banks fulfill fantasies as a soda jerk Cleaver. I could do worse. You remember Wally, Norman? He was the Beaver's older brother who spent a lot of time at soda fountains with Mary Ellen Rogers when he wasn't studying and getting haircuts. Yes, sir. Just a sweet rendering of an adult (sort of), with a stained white apron, a Red Sox baseball cap (official), and a good, deep down feeling on a rainy night.

You know, Norman, they say you can't go home again, but with you and me and Will Morey working together, we'll prove them wrong. thing on someone, he would be the guy. Or ejse I thought about taking a big bite out of his burger, then giving it to him and watching the look on his face. But this painting will be all about long ago, when no one ever had thoughts like that and everyone worked hard, so I know you won't put that stuff in your painting. I'm looking forward to seeing your work, Norman.

It will be solid, I'm sure. Nothing abstract. Nothing obscure. I'll probably come out looking like Wally make me look bad. Especially with that uncanny ability you have to depict things in paintings that are unstated, things that are in his subject's mind and no place else.

I know you could sense the total fear I felt trying to balance a vanilla milkshake in one hand and a banana split in the other and concentrating real hard on not tripping. The worst of it, Norman, was that I wasn't terribly fond of that particular customer. His eyes were a little too close together, you know what I mean? I was thinking that if I had to drop some Summer can be time for learning and fun The other day a guy parachuted from a Norwegian peak called Troll Wall and became the fifth person to kill himself trying it. His wife thought about what happened to her husband, and two days later she leaped from the same mountain, with better results than her husband had had. I'm glad it worked out OK for her.

However, even though she made it, I'm not convinced that people whose reasoning leads them to jump off mountains and buildings are displaying the type of intelligence I'd like to see designed into machines. Some machines already do that type of thinking. For years, Air Force computers have automatically scrapped millions of dollars worth of spare parts. The way it worked was if nobody asked for an item in the previous 12 months, then out it would go. In one case, an $8,000 coil-winding machine still in its original carton was sold for $65.

Sometimes the Air Force would get rid of the stuff, find out it needed the items it had sold, then tum around and buy them back at puffed-up prices. "I know it doesn't make a lot of sense," an official said. "But that's the way it works." And that's the way I think artificial intelligence will work. Artificial intelligence won't be about making a lot of sense it'll be about machines thinking just like people do. To me, a machine throwing away good equipment is as smart as a guy jumping off a mountain.

With the way some machines mess things up, you can't tell me we aren't getting close to creating artificial intelligence. But if scientists really want to build machines that think like people, they have to design something that not only possesses intelligence but will also neglect to use it. The other day, a lawyer ran through the 39th floor window of the Prudential Building in Chicago and was killed. The story said he was running down the corridor with a colleague. Later, somebody found his contact lenses in one of the offices.

The guy had to be pretty intelligent, because you don't get through law school being dumb. I do not like to see anybody goof up and get killed, but most intelligent people do not run down office building corridors with their colleagues. And if they sprint down a 39th-floor corridor that ends with a window, they probably put on their contacts first. I don't think it would be too tough to build a machine to do something like that guy did. However, any machine that has perfect artificial intelligence will have to be able to listen to the voice of reason and tum around and do just the opposite.

A couple weeks ago, Riverside, firefighters evacuated an apartment complex because of a gas leak. The firefighters knocked on this guy's door, explained to him about the gas leak and told him he should clear out of the building fast. So when they left, what did he do? He lighted a cigarette, causing an explosion that destroyed the building, injured 10 people, blew him about 20 feet through a window and left him with bums over his entire body. This is what scientists are up against. If they want to create true artificial intelligence, they've got to build a machine that they can put in exactly the same situation as the Riverside guy.

If the machine is repeatedly told about the gas leak and it still lights up a cigarette then the scientists will know for sure they've created a machine that thinks like a person. If your child's excitement over breaking out of school for the summer has given way to cries of "We're bored," a national teachers group suggests a trip to the zoo as one of many ways to combat the summer doldrums and learn a few things at the same time. The American Federation of Teachers has compiled a free list of indoor and outdoor activities and recommended books for elementary school children titled "Summer Learning Tips," which stresses that summer should not be a vacation from learning. The brochure suggests that kids can leam from a visit to the zoo, particularly 1 if the visit is combined with reading at the library or a look at the family encyclopedia. Younger children can bring along a coloring book and fill in with crayon what they see.

An interesting way to study the neighborhood is to send the children on a scavenger hunt for leaves, twigs, rocks and other natural elements. Their finds can be assembled into a magazine complete with cover, table of contents and displays of what they found (or pictures thereof) as a final product of a good day's work. Indoor activities for the hot and frequently wet days remaining before school begins might include an "international week." Each day your child can research material at home or at the library on a different country, finding out as much as possible about the country's climate, customs, dress and food. Making a costume and preparing meals of that country's traditional foods will make this project more meaningful. A good way of honing math skills during the summer, the pamphlet suggests, is to introduce your kids to the daily stock market reports.

Parents can take their kids on a trip to broker to view the electronic board and might even consider Hi Mm Tkt MM Mr SMr A trip to the zoo can be a fun and educational way to spend a summer day braries, city parks and recreation centers, and to Pima Savings branches. Those wishing to obtain additional copies of the pamphlet should contact the Tucson Federation of Teachers by calling S324S8. Dan Beamer, president of the Tucson Federation of Teachers, said "many people assume (education) only takes place during the school year." Beamer's group has distributed the pamphlets locally to all Tucson area li purchasing a share or two of inexpensive stock as a lesson in savings and investment. Also included are summer reading lists grouped by age level and ideas on interesting places to visit..