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From: noble@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Noble)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: AI is a waste...?
Message-ID: <39933@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 6 Dec 90 22:48:02 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: noble@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Brian Noble)
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Lines: 24


publius writes...

>>I generally agree with Russell's view in this thread.  I simply want to point
>>out that even the higher education does not escape the problem of chasing
>>after passing fads.  Just consider the amount of money wasted in AI research,
>>which adds little to our industrial strength.  I have seen some PhDs in
>>Computer Science who wrote dissertations on AI yet know little about
>>the fundamentals of computer systems.

This sounds like a personal gripe to me.  There is a tremendous number
of fields upon which money is spent that has no bearing on industrial
strength.  What good to industry is a graduate student with a fellowship
pursuing Shakespearean poetry?  I would like to see someone tell Dr.
Harry Edwards that the sociology of sport is a waste of time because it
does nothing to benefit industry.  The (pitifully small) amount of money
we are spending on Women's Studies is just dollars down the tubes.  The
idea of doing advanced, original research is not what it can directly do
for someone, but that there may be some interesting conclusions that someone
can adapt for their own use.  (This says nothing about the skills that the
candidate will pick up along the way.)

Brian Noble
noble@tenet.berkeley.edu


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