Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!seismo!rlgvax!cvl!umcp-cs!israel From: israel@umcp-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Recommended Reading - Hogan Message-ID: <3045@umcp-cs.UUCP> Date: Fri, 7-Oct-83 21:26:23 EDT Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.3045 Posted: Fri Oct 7 21:26:23 1983 Date-Received: Sun, 9-Oct-83 19:21:09 EDT References: <12081@sri-arpa.UUCP> <1382@gatech.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of Maryland, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 56 The technology in tTFoT was excellent. I especially enjoyed a scene where one of the AI researchers was showing a visitor the reasoning system his research group was developing. It was in the sub-world of a kitchen. The researcher explained that the computer program was trying to fry an egg; a task it had never done before. It was learning through a combination of experience and instruction when it needed it. It had recently learned that it must open the cabinet door to take the frying pan out of the cabinet (or maybe it was unwrapping the butter before cutting off a slice; I forget). Anyway, as the visitor watches the program makes it past this major hurdle, gets an egg out of refrigerator, and then places the egg carefully into the center of the frying pan. The AI researcher groans with frustration. This is quite a difference from your standard AI in SF, which is about the same level as your '50's SF which has one lone scientist in his basement develop and build the technology necessary for the first manned flight to the moon (or Mars, or Sirius ...). The above is my major complaint about "The Adolescence of P1". While I felt that it was a very well written book (it has some great scenes with characters learning about computers in college, and then turning into hackers and skipping classes to hack), I ended up not finishing it because I couldn't get over some of the abysmal technology. The major plot of tAoP is that this guy writes a simple learning program, and then sets it off to learn to be a syscracker by finding computers (thru telephones and direct connections) and breaking into them. The programs main goal was to accumulate the super-user privileges on as many systems as possible. Now, I can deal with that, but what I had a hard time with, was that about a year after the guy set his program off, it contacted him! It seems that P1 not only accumulated many thousands of computers in that time, but also learned english, developed intelligence, learned a lot of the common-sense information that we take for granted, and figured out who its creator is and how to contact him! Anyway, if you don't get upset by egregiously fallacious AI, you will probably enjoy it. -- ~~~ Bruce ~~~ Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland {rlgvax,seismo}!umcp-cs!israel (Usenet) israel.umcp-cs@Udel-Relay (Arpanet)