Artificial Intelligence - A Case for Agnosticism.

Almost all of the published work on the philosophical question of mechanical intelligence has argued in favor of one or the other of the polarities of possible positions. It is however possible to take a position between these two extremes, those of the True Believer and the Infidel. While this agnostic position is not a strong position in the sense of having a good many logically compelling arguments in its favor, it gains its viability by virtue of the weaknesses in the polar alternatives. Although agnosticism concerning the possibility of artificial intelligence is believed to be a position held by many computer scientists, there has been no attempt to present this position in the literature. In an attempt to remedy the situation, this report presents the agnostic's position regarding artificial intelligence. (Author/NH)