Sept. 24, 1979, entered and modified Nov. 24, 1979

Remarks on intentions (triggered by John Searle manuscript
"The intentionality of Intention and Action"

	1. As a methodology, AI should begin by asking about
a concept like intention, what are the simplest circumstances
in which the concept is usefully used.

	2. One example is the dialog

Pilot: Bay Approach Control, this is Cessna 1656C/T on 137.95,
2500 feet over Concord.

Controller: 1656C, this is Bay Approach Control, what are your
intentions.

Pilot: Request transit TCA en route Palo Alto.

Controller: Squawk ident 3752, climb to 3000, maintain heading 180.

or

Controller: Unable to approve.  Remain clear of TCA.

	In this example, the pilot intends to cross the TCA (terminal
control area) if the controller will let him.  Otherwise, he will
go around it.  In any case, he intends to go to Palo Alto airport.

	There is no question of the existence of all the objects
mentioned in the dialog.  Unless something unusual happens, the options
open to the parties are few.  No questions of possibly false beliefs
arise.  We are not currently interested in issues of whether the
pilot might accidentally fly to Palo Alto, so we can say that his
intention was fulfilled if did fly to Palo Alto.

	The controller asks for the pilots intentions, because the
controller has some influence on whether and (mainly) how these
intentions are fulfilled.

	The controller is uninterested in the pilot's experience
of fulfilling the intentions.  He is interested in helping the
pilot reach his goal in a manner consistent with safety and the
goals of other pilots.

	If either the controller or the pilot or both were
computer programs, the considerations governing the use of
the word "intention" would not be much different.

3. Another example:

	- What do you suppose that turkey intends to do?

	- It looks like he intends to make a left turn
against the light going the wrong way on a one way street.

	- That's not an ordinary turkey.  That's McCarthy's
automatic car driving program.

	- Well, back to the old drawing board.

4. Maybe for practical purposes, the fact that an intention
may not be fulfilled is just as important as the conditions
which we will regard as fulfilling it.  When one asks for
someone's intentions rather than for a prediction of his actions,
the uncertainty of their fulfillment is important.  In
the case of the driver about to attempt an illegal and
possibly impossible left turn, the driver's (wrong) picture of
the world plays an important role in ...

Of course, we may ask for the intentions rather than for a prediction
of action so that we can use information at our disposal to
predict what action may occur.

5. Suppose our concept of intention gives a counter-intuitive
result in Searle's example wherein Bill intended to kill his
uncle, and was so disturbed by the thought that he accidentally
ran down a pedestrian who happened to be the uncle.  Presumably
the jury should find Bill guilty of only negligent homicide.

(lost the thread here.  presumably our concept of intention wouuld
be useful even if it occasionally gave counter-intuitive results).

6. If the pilot said he intended to fly to Palo Alto, tried
to fly to San Jose, but accidentally flew to Palo Alto, this
is presumably a "don't care" case for the traffic controller.

7. Posting intentions to marry.

8. Haugeland doesn't like to admit "I will do it if possible"
as an intention.  It seems fine to me.