“Artificial Intelligence” needs to change to “Intelligent Algorithms” for the human species
@CaseEngineer @CWRUalumni @cwru
I was reading the History Computer Engineering and Science Programs at https://engineering.case.edu/computer-and-data-sciences/history-computer-science
It is a bit incomplete. I think because it does not consider all the departments. Case Institute of Technology was my first university. My scholarship was based on chemistry, but within a few days of arriving in 1967 I had a job with the Mathematics Departments helping students use the Univac 1107 and Algol to solve problems in numerical calculus. I did not know Algol when I got there. I learned Fortran on my own and used the Denison University computer as my personal computer over the summer. I read the Algol manual the night I got there and could use Algol the next day. It was keypunch and remote job entry in those days. But many DEC computers and much research scattered all over. In a short time I met a researcher who showed me liquid crystals and explained how they would change computing. Also fluidic computers and analog computers.
I was looking at the roughly 4500 entries for ( site:case.edu “artificial intelligence”). There is much said and hinted at but the path from then to now is not simple.
In 1968, my second year, they let me take a graduate course called “Artificial Intelligence”. It was heavy on algorithms, data structures, representations and games. I do not remember just now what department that was in. It might have been the Mathematics department, but in those days, I read everything and sat in on seminars in all departments I could get to.
That course was so tied to an old way of looking at the use of computers that was not collaborative and community building – but a fairly rigid hierarchy and memorization. I was going to put off computers for a decade, but ended up finding that economics, statistics, business and government use of computers was more advanced in real applications. I had interviewed corporation in high school about their plans for computers in their futures and all of them were clear and focused (and right).
I am just writing to put my memories down. I have tried many times to write to groups who have Twitter(X) icons on their pages. My conclusion so far is “corporations and governments, groups and sites never actually use Twitter(X) for communication.” Once I got an answer.
The undergraduate “artificial intelligence minor” mentioned at https://bulletin.case.edu/engineering/computer-data-sciences/artificial-intelligence-minor/ should probably be a major and a major initiative at the school. Those hundreds of vague references on case.edu to “artificial intelligence” can be gathered, disintermediated and made into coherent plans with clear pathways, activities and goals.
The paths and issues related to automating intelligent algorithms are clear now. It is a bit messy, but not that difficult. Cleaning up the Case website (and the 13.5 Million entries for (site:edu “artificial intelligence”) would be a good place to start. And ( “artificial intelligence” ) 1.33 Billion entries with its aliases in all human languages.
Filed as (“Artificial Intelligence” needs to change to “Intelligent Algorithms” for the human species)
Richard Collins, The Internet Foundation
