San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Bits and Bytes Column. (Originated from San Jose Mercury News, Calif.)

Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, August, 1994 by O'Connor, Rory J.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Aug. 31--TIRED OF DEALING WITH THOSE stupid computers? Ever wish they had some common sense?

Someday, they may, at least according to Marvin Minsky, a renowned computer scientist and the father of artificial intelligence. Minsky believes a major goal of computer science should be to develop a data base of common sense, the kind of basic knowledge about the world that even a 10-year-old knows, and put it into every computer.

At a conference on user interfaces in San Jose Monday, Minsky suggested that the basic problem with computers is that nobody has come up with "one that has the faintest idea what we want done." His suggestion: combine all the world's 50,000 or so "expert systems" - programs that mimic the thought processes of a single...