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Dear letter writer:

\J	In connection with the article that appeared in the \F1San Francisco
Chronicle\F0, I have received quite a number of letters.  Instead of answering
them individually, I have decided to try a general answer, and I hope
it gives some information relative to the questions and issues you have
raised.

	The largest area of concern expressed was the potential displacement of human
beings by computer programs.  This has two aspects.

	The first concerns the further development of the industrial robot
which will do some jobs in factories now done by humans.  The ones that
have been installed so far (all having very limited capabilities) have been
well accepted, because they have been mainly used to do dangerous jobs like
putting parts in punch presses and welding.  In the future, the displacement
will be larger.  Incidentally, the main gain from automatic manufacture
by flexible machines will be to get the prices of mass production with
individuality of design.  Thus we can hope to have individually designed
clothes and furniture at mass production prices.

	However, the impact of the introduction of such machines on society
will be similar in quality to the increases in productivity that have
already occurred.  Namely, there is some displacement of labor, but since
we still want more products and more leisure, the general economic mechanism
keeps the level of employment about what it always was.  Thus, in spite
of manyfold increases in industrial productivity since 1900, the rate of
unemployment is slightly smaller than it was then.

	The long term possibilities of artificial intelligence affecting
human life are much larger.  When and if we get computer programs
more capable of problem solving than humans, even people like scientists
and writers who live by their creativity will have problems.  At present,
we are so far from having high level artificial intelligence that we don't
know much about what it would be like to have it.  The most immediate use
for it would be to determine the consequences of the various policies
that might be adopted governing its use and their effects on people.
The possibilities include foregoing it, allowing its competitive use,
and in some sense merging human and artificial intelligence.  After one
thinks about it for a while, one sees that there are many more possibilities
than we can now predict.  Therefore, I advocate continuing research and
delaying any kind of policy until we know much more.

	Some correspondents have said that artificial intelligence will be
misused just as other discoveries have been misused.  Whether one is
optimistic or pessimistic about the future of technology depends partly on
how one reads the past.  There is a view that says we were all better off
before we had cars, etc., and that the quality of human life in America
has decreased.  Well, we have more smog than we used to, but now we are
trying to get rid of it.  In my own view, the quality of life has improved
on the whole, and I think the contrary view has some of the elements of
an intellectual fad rather than being the result of an unbiased comparison.
The reason for this opinion is that it is possible to move to more primitive
areas in the U.S., and very few of those who complain back up their statements
by moving.  In fact, there is a large continued migration from the places
in the world with low technology to those with higher technology.  This
perception of what has happened in the past is part of the basis for my
optimism about the future.

	A few people have written saying that they know how to make a large
advance in artificial intelligence.  My advice is to write up their ideas
very carefully, try them out on their friends, try to publish them in
scientific journals, and to attend scientific meetings on the subject.
A conviction of understanding the subject without having written down the
details is usually deceptive.  At least I have found it so.  For students,
there is the possibility of majoring in computer science either as an
undergraduate or graduate student in college.

	Well, I hope this answers some of the questions you have raised,
and moreover, I am enclosing some additional descriptive material about
artificial intelligence and the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.\.

						Sincerely yours,



						John McCarthy