JOSEPH WEIZENBAUM
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One of the most explicit articulations of the way science deliberately and
consciously plans to distort reality and then goes on to accept that distortion as
a "complete and exhaustive" account is the computer scientist Herbert A.
Simon 's own statement of his fundamental theoretical orientation in his book
The Sciences of the Artiji"cial.
An ant, viewed as a behaving system , is quite simple. The apparent
complexity ofits behaviorover time is largely a reflection ofthe complex·
ity of the environment in which it finds itself
the truth or falsity of [this] hypothesis should be independent of
whether ants , viewed more microscopically , are simple or complex
systems. At the level of cells or molecules , ants are demonstrably com–
plex ; but these microsco pic details of the inner environment may be
largely irrelevant to the ant's behavior in relation to the outer enviton–
ment. That is why an automaton , though completely different at the
mictoscopic level , might nevertheless simulate the ant's gross behavior.
· I should like to explore this h ypothesis , but with the word ' man'
substituted for 'ant '.
A man , viewed as a behaving system , is quite simple . The apparent
complexity of his behavior over time is largely a reflection of the com–
plexity of the environment in which he finds himself.
· I m yse lf believe that the h ypothesis h olds even for the whole man .
With a single stroke of the pen , by simply substituting' man' for 'ant,'
the presumed irrelevancy of the microscopic details of the ant's inner environ –
ment to its behavior has been elevated to the irrelevancy of the whole man 's
inner environment to his behavior!
Simon, who is by the way one of America's most prestigious scientists ,
also provides us with an exceptionally clear and explicit description of how ,
and how thoroughly , the scientist prevents himself from crossing the bound–
ary between the circle of light cast by his own presuppositions and the
darkness beyond . In discussing how he went about testing the theses that
underly his hypothesis, i.e., that man is quite simple, etc. , he writes:
· I have surveyed some of the evidence from a range of human per–
formances, particularly those that have been studied in the psychological
laboratory .
The behavior of human subjects in solving cryptarithmetic problems, in
attaining concepts, in memorizing, in h olding information in short-term
memory, in processing visual stimuli, and in performing tasks that use
natural languages provides sttong support .
