"Project-Proposers Anonymous"
Jorn Barger
over-ambitious AI project that's been announced on comp.ai.* in the last
decade or so...
I'm to blame for:
Romantic love adventure game: Jerks on the Loose (1993,
rec.arts.int-fiction, actually)
Game knowledgebase: SimTown (1994?, shortlived mailinglist)
Word processor: DecentWrite (1994?)
Global-economy sim (1997?)
Others that never got as far as a project announcement included a
toolkit for building Elizas, and a political campaign sim.
(It's unfortunate when this sort of idealism gets attacked. The
programs we need most _necessarily_ take the longest to design.)
--
I edit the Net: <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/weblogs/weblog.html>
"The real gem among his musings is the weblog, a detailed daily account
of Jorn's travels around the web. Watch a highly observant and
thoughtful web surfer at work." -- UK Guardian, 21 October 1998
Mentifex
Jorn Barger in comp.ai on 27 Dec 1998 has called us together:
> It would be enlightening, I think, to compile a timeline
> of every over-ambitious AI project that's been announced
> on comp.ai.* in the last decade or so... [...]
At last! An on-line AI/PPA support group, thanks to Jorn!
> (It's unfortunate when this sort of idealism gets attacked. The
> programs we need most _necessarily_ take the longest to design.)
It keeps getting worse; it's terminal. Jorn, can any of your co-
dependent co-pathetics top this sad narrative of how AI project-ism
ruined a promising career in... (uh-oh, even the career is history)
embourgeoisement (for lack of a better term)?
My fellow stumblers on the AI heapslag, do any of you recognize
these tell-tale signs in your own **Entgleisung approach to AI?
For instance, not only do you spend every waking hour on your
AI mindscheme (such as http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/ chez moi),
but you inflict it upon hapless netnewsers who shan't escape?
Oh, yes, and to top it all, do you have a DIAGRAM? Gotta see
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/mindmap.html Q.E.D.
If so, get help fast, before... before your mega-mungo-karma
unravels into recent afflictions like sideswiping the book of
Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming" and meta-mangling it
into http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/acm.html "The Art
of Computer Mindmaking" (Association for Computing Machinery).
Whatever you do, do not FINISH your AI project (you're done,
in more ways than one). That's the scary part, Jorn: Project
Mentifex is actually drawing to a close. Lo, the source code
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/m-forth Mind.forth
is at Internet Web Release number eighteen (18) and counting!
The program is about to come alive and quicken, frankly, Frank-
ensteinically. Remember that line in Vernor Vinge's article on
http://www.gcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html The
Singularity: "We were just tweaking some parameters..." and
then the AI came to life?
And fellow recovering AI Project Proposers Anonymous, have you
ever tried to "harness the collective IQ of the Internet" as per
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ Eric Raymond's
theories about Linux and how Microsoft is afraid of free software?
Have you proposed an AI Project like the "pdaimind" after filching
http://www.clickshop.com/pdkb/pdkb.html the PDKB ideas of Seth
Russell from his posts on the "Public Domain Knowledge Bank"?
Tsk! At your current burn rate, which will come first, AI or DOA?
> --
> I edit the Net: <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/weblogs/weblog.html>
>"The real gem among his musings is the weblog, a detailed daily account
> of Jorn's travels around the web. Watch a highly observant and
> thoughtful web surfer at work." -- UK Guardian, 21 October 1998
* Mentifex (Latin for "Mindmaker")
** Entgleisung (German for "derailment" -- from life, from reality)
SCN User
[ Corrected version -- with the hyper links fixed so they work ]
Hello, my name is *Mentifex, and I am an AI Project Proposer.
Jorn Barger in comp.ai on 27 Dec 1998 has called us together:
> It would be enlightening, I think, to compile a timeline
> of every over-ambitious AI project that's been announced
> on comp.ai.* in the last decade or so... [...]
At last! An on-line AI/PPA support group, thanks to Jorn!
> (It's unfortunate when this sort of idealism gets attacked. The
> programs we need most _necessarily_ take the longest to design.)
It keeps getting worse; it's terminal. Jorn, can any of your co-
dependent co-pathetics top this sad narrative of how AI project-ism
ruined a promising career in... (uh-oh, even the career is history)
embourgeoisement (for lack of a better term)?
My fellow stumblers on the AI heapslag, do any of you recognize
these tell-tale signs in your own **Entgleisung approach to AI?
For instance, not only do you spend every waking hour on your
AI mindscheme (such as http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/ chez moi),
but you inflict it upon hapless netnewsers who shan't escape?
Oh, yes, and to top it all, do you have a DIAGRAM? Gotta see
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/mindmap.html Q.E.D.
If so, get help fast, before... before your mega-mungo-karma
unravels into recent afflictions like sideswiping the book of
Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming" and meta-mangling it
into http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/acm.html "The Art
of Computer Mindmaking" (Association for Computing Machinery).
Whatever you do, do not FINISH your AI project (you're done,
in more ways than one). That's the scary part, Jorn: Project
Mentifex is actually drawing to a close. Lo, the source code
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/m-forth.html Mind.forth
is at Internet Web Release number eighteen (18) and counting!
The program is about to come alive and quicken, frankly, Frank-
ensteinically. Remember that line in Vernor Vinge's article on
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html The
Donald Tees
my complete sympathy.
Mentifex wrote in message <36867...@news.victoria.tc.ca>...
>Hello, my name is *Mentifex, and I am an AI Project Proposer.
>
>Jorn Barger in comp.ai on 27 Dec 1998 has called us together:
>> It would be enlightening, I think, to compile a timeline
>> of every over-ambitious AI project that's been announced
>> on comp.ai.* in the last decade or so... [...]
>
> At last! An on-line AI/PPA support group, thanks to Jorn!
>
>> (It's unfortunate when this sort of idealism gets attacked. The
>> programs we need most _necessarily_ take the longest to design.)
>
> It keeps getting worse; it's terminal. Jorn, can any of your co-
> dependent co-pathetics top this sad narrative of how AI project-ism
> ruined a promising career in... (uh-oh, even the career is history)
> embourgeoisement (for lack of a better term)?
>
> My fellow stumblers on the AI heapslag, do any of you recognize
> these tell-tale signs in your own **Entgleisung approach to AI?
>
> For instance, not only do you spend every waking hour on your
> AI mindscheme (such as http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/ chez moi),
> but you inflict it upon hapless netnewsers who shan't escape?
>
> Oh, yes, and to top it all, do you have a DIAGRAM? Gotta see
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/mindmap.html Q.E.D.
>
> If so, get help fast, before... before your mega-mungo-karma
> unravels into recent afflictions like sideswiping the book of
> Knuth, "The Art of Computer Programming" and meta-mangling it
> into http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/acm.html "The Art
> of Computer Mindmaking" (Association for Computing Machinery).
>
> Whatever you do, do not FINISH your AI project (you're done,
> in more ways than one). That's the scary part, Jorn: Project
> Mentifex is actually drawing to a close. Lo, the source code
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/7256/m-forth Mind.forth
> is at Internet Web Release number eighteen (18) and counting!
> The program is about to come alive and quicken, frankly, Frank-
> ensteinically. Remember that line in Vernor Vinge's article on
> http://www.gcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-sing.html The
Rick Harker
> Hello, my name is *Mentifex, and I am an AI Project Proposer.
*Rick stands up*
Hello everyone, my name is Rick. And I am addicted to AI. <grin>
> For instance, not only do you spend every waking hour on your
> AI mindscheme
-AND- every sleeping minute...
(Sorry, couldn't resist!)
Rick.