ASSIGNMENT: R&N (p. 5) characterize AI approaches by two dimensions: human-like vs. rational/ideal and thinking vs. behaving.
(a) 15 pts. Two additional dimensions for characterizing AI systems and methods are theoretical vs. practical and "strong AI" (consciousness as an objective) vs. "weak AI" (makes no claims about whether systems are self-aware). Characterize the eight definitions on page 5 of R&N and the seven following definitions according to these four dimensions. Some definitions may be neutral with respect to a particular dimension, or fall in the middle of a continuum. Credit will be given for well thought out explanations, even if your answer disagrees with the "official" answer, so you are encouraged to state your reasons.
Artificial intelligence is...(b) 15 pts. Where along these dimensions would you characterize your own interests? That is, in the four-dimensional space defined by these four dimensions, what point, line, plane, or region do you fall into? Write an essay of 200 words (or more) discussing your perception of what's interesting and exciting about AI, and where in this space your interests lie.
- "a collection of algorithms that are computationally tractable, adequate approximations of intractably specified problems" (Partridge, 1991)
- "the enterprise of constructing a physical symbol system that can reliably pass the Turing Test" (Ginsberg, 1993)
- "the field of computer science that studies how machines can be made to act intelligently" (Jackson, 1986)
- "a field of study that encompasses computational techniques for performing tasks that apparently require intelligence when performed by humans" (Tanimoto, 1990)
- "a very general investigation of the nature of intelligence and the principles and mechanisms required for understanding or repicating it" (Sharples et al., 1989)
- "the getting of computers to do things that seem to be intelligent" (Rowe, 1988)
ASSIGNMENT: Give five reasons why Lisp is a cool language (besides the fact that you have to learn it for this course). Compare Lisp's basic constructs and the Lisp programming methodology to two other programming langauges/environments with which you are familiar. How are they similar? How are they different? What problems might be easier (or more difficult!) to solve in Lisp?
(b) Write a function (fact n) to return the factorial of the argument n. (The factorial of an integer is the product of all integers from 1 to that integer.) For example, (fact 3) should return 6; (fact 10) should return 3628800. (What do you think (fact 'hello) should return?) You should use recursion to write this function.
(b) 15 pts. There are often many different ways to solve the same problem in Lisp. In this problem, you will need to use your creativity and knowledge of Lisp functions to write the same function in several different ways. The function (all-odds l) should take a list l of integers and returns a list containing only the odd integers in the list. For example, (all-odds '(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10)) should return (1 3 5 7 9). You can use the built-in function oddp in your solutions.
Find (and turn in) at least three distinctly different ways to implement the all-odds function. At least one of the implementations should use mapcar or a related construct, such as mapcan. (Hint: try looking at the built-in functions dolist, do, cond, and loop.)