http://www.slashnot.com/articles/621/ Just another WordPress weblog Sat, 17 May 2008 18:06:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://www.slashnot.com/articles/621/#comment-10495 Jose Rosario Mon, 26 Jun 2006 16:00:33 +0000 http://www.slashnot.com/articles/621/#comment-10495 <p>"In the machine, the notion of finality makes its appearance, a notion sometimes attributed in living beings to some intelligence inherent in the species, innate to life itself. Finality is artificially built into the machine and regulates it, an effect requiring that some factor be modified or reinforced so that the effect itself does not disturb the equilibrium . . . Errors are corrected without human analysis, or knowledge, without even being suspected. The error itself corrects the error. A deviation from the prescribed track itself enables the automatic pilot to rectify the deviation . . . For the machine, as for animals, error is fruitful; it conditions the correct path."</p> <ul> <li>Pierre de Latil, La Pensee artificielle (1952)</li> </ul> “In the machine, the notion of finality makes its appearance, a notion sometimes attributed in living beings to some intelligence inherent in the species, innate to life itself. Finality is artificially built into the machine and regulates it, an effect requiring that some factor be modified or reinforced so that the effect itself does not disturb the equilibrium . . . Errors are corrected without human analysis, or knowledge, without even being suspected. The error itself corrects the error. A deviation from the prescribed track itself enables the automatic pilot to rectify the deviation . . . For the machine, as for animals, error is fruitful; it conditions the correct path.”

• Pierre de Latil, La Pensee artificielle (1952)

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