Gary Miller writes: > We're thinking Don't feed the Trolls! Yeah, typical trollish behavior -- upon failing to "stir the pot" with one approcah, start adding blanket insults. I put Steve Richfield in my killfile a week ago or so, but I went back to the archive to read the message in question. The reason it got no response is that it is incoherent. Seriously, I couldn't even understand the point of it. Something about dreams and brains being wired completely different and some "thumbnail calculations" which are not included but apparently conclude that AGI will need the entire population of the earth for software maintenance... um, that's just weird rambling crackpottery. It is so far away from any sort of AGI nuts and bolts that it cannot even be parsed. There are people who do not believe they are crackpots (but are certainly perceived that way) who then transform into trolls spouting vague blanket insults and whining about being ignored. That type of unsupported fringe wackiness is tolerated because, frankly, the whole field is fringe to most people. When it turns into vague attacks, blanket condemnation, and insults (a la Tintner and now Richfield) it simply isn't worth reading any more. For others in danger of spiraling down the same drain, I recommend: * Be cordial. Note: condescending is not cordial. * Be specific and concise. Stick to one point. * Do not refer to decades-old universally ignored papers about character recognition as if they are AI-shaping revolutions. * Do not drop names from some hazy good old days * Attempt to limit rambling off-topic insights into marginally related material * If you are going to criticize instead of putting forward positive ideas (why you'd bother criticizing this field is beyond me, but if you must): criticize specific things, not the "herd" or "all of you researchers" or "the field of AGI"... as Ben pointed out earlier, no two people in this area agree on much of anything and they cannot be lumped together. Criticizing specific things means actually reading and attempting to understand the published works of AGI researchers -- the test for whether you belong here is whether you are willing and able to actually do that. Mr. Richfield may find a more receptive audience here: http://www.kurzweilai.net/mindx/frame.html
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