Introduction

I am writing this paper only for those people who will agree with me that research in AI very often lacks a disciplined approach and that this situation should be changed. Trying to establish this fact for those who disagree with me and to do so in a way acceptable to a normal scientific community will need much more work than I can afford and, if what I say is true, would be a futile thing to do anyway.

Of course, even though one may agree with me in my above view, one may not agree with me about how the situation should be changed. My fear is that the situation will be hard to change: it will not happen till a number of years have elapsed after there is a change in our approach to the field of computer science.

Even to argue that point I will have to assume that AI depends heavily on computers and on programming. I think that it is safe to believe that we have agreement on that. If there are any proponents of “disembodied AI,” I might be one among them: and I am quite prepared to keep that view in abeyance.