The Computational Metaphor and Artificial Intelligence: A Reflective Examination of a Theoretical Falsework

AI. Specifically, we address three Just how little can be illustrated by the reaction to Winograd and Flores's (1986) recent book Understanding Computers and Cognition. In personal comments, the book and its authors have been savaged. Published comments are, of course, more temperate (Vellino et al. 1987) but still reveal the hypersensitivity of the Penrose's (1989) even more recent book The Emperor's New Mind have been observed. Like Suchman (1987) and Clancey (1987), we feel that insights of significant value are to be gained from an objective consideration of traditional and alternative perspectives. Some efforts in this direction are evident (Haugeland [1985], Hill [1989], and Born [1987], for example), but the issue requires additional and ongoing attention.