Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
You can start a PhD without having an MS first, but you'll still need to take all the coursework corresponding to the MS Like what kind of courses are those MS ones? I may or may not have those background knowledge, through self-teaching... And I think this makes sense! The PhD is supposed

[agi] Re: [OpenCog] Re: What is the role of MOSES in Novamente and Open Cog?-----was---- internship opportunity at Google (Mountain View, CA)

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
You have interpreted my below post in an overly defensive manner. Sorry ... I'm dealing with some other frustrating things this morning so maybe the frustratedness unintentionally rubbed off on this email exchange ... (Are you saying Novamente is not scaleable to human level without

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Russell Wallace
On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Paul Cray pmc...@gmail.com wrote: In the UK, it is certainly possible to proceed directly to a PhD without doing an MSc or much in the way of coursework, provided you have a good enough Bachelor's degree. As a self-funded student, it would just be a matter of

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 3:54 PM, Paul Cray pmc...@gmail.com wrote: In the UK, it is certainly possible to proceed directly to a PhD without doing an MSc or much in the way of coursework Regarding admission, the same is true in the U.S., but one still has to take the coursework after admission.

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Paul Cray
Typically in the UK, there wouldn't be any coursework as such. It varies from institution to institution, but often there would no equivalent of having to take formal classes/lectures and a US-style qualifying exam (and if there is, such requirements would usually be departmental rather university

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Pei Wang
YKY, As many people have said, US universities usually have coursework requirements for PhD. Furthermore, in most US universities the application deadline for 2009 has passed or will pass soon --- our deadline is Dec. 15. Therefore, you'd better consider Europe. Pei On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Pei Wang
As Ben said, the fact that both of us have relations with Temple University is indeed a coincidence. Peter enrolled in my AI course a few years ago, though I don't know how much influence it has on him --- probably not too much. Pei On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Joshua Fox

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
On 12/17/08, Pei Wang mail.peiw...@gmail.com wrote: Furthermore, in most US universities the application deadline for 2009 has passed or will pass soon --- our deadline is Dec. 15. If I remember correctly, GA Tech will still be accepting PhD applications until February 1st. Some deadlines for

Re: [agi] CopyCat

2008-12-17 Thread Richard Loosemore
Vladimir Nesov wrote: On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Ben Goertzel b...@goertzel.org wrote: I happened to use CopyCat in a university AI class I taught years ago, so I got some experience with it It was **great** as a teaching tool, but I wouldn't say it shows anything about what can or can't

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
Thanks for all the info... I'll try both UK and US... (OK and Ireland too!) --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription:

Re: [agi] Re: [OpenCog] Re: What is the role of MOSES in Novamente and Open Cog?-----was---- internship opportunity at Google (Mountain View, CA)

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
Well, this whole chapter of the wikibook deals with these issues... http://www.opencog.org/wiki/OpenCogPrime:WikiBook#Probabilistic_Evolutionary_Learning most of that chapter is about various strategies for using background knowledge to guide probabilistic evolutionary learning As you note From

[agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
Hi group, I'm considering getting a PhD somewhere, and I've accumulated some material for a thesis in my 50%-finished AGI book. I think getting a PhD will put my work in a more rigorous form and get it published. Also it may help me get funding afterwards, either in academia or in the business

[agi] CopyCat

2008-12-17 Thread Vladimir Nesov
[repost from opencog list; I should've posted it on AGI in the first place, instead of opencog] On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:01 AM, Ben Goertzel b...@goertzel.org wrote: First thing: CopyCat doesn't work. Not just in the sense that it's not AGI ... in the sense that it can't even solve hardly

Re: [agi] Re: [OpenCog] Re: What is the role of MOSES in Novamente and Open Cog?-----was---- internship opportunity at Google (Mountain View, CA)

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
Every thing is a constraint Everything is not much of a constraint ;-) On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:52 AM, Lukasz Stafiniak lukst...@gmail.comwrote: Talking on a very abstract level, MOSES could be ultimately developed so that it explores what you could call constraint relaxation strategies;

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Steve Richfield
Yan, Your quest incorporates some questionable presumptions, that you will literally be betting your (future) life on. 1. That AGI as presently conceived won't be just another dead end along the way to intelligent machines. There have already been several dead ends and the present incarnation

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
To add to what Ben is saying, the only thing that some U.S. students I know test out of are undergraduate courses that are a prerequisite to graduate admission. (For computer science, this can be done by taking the GRE Computer Science Subject Test, which started to lose relevance over two

Re: [agi] CopyCat

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
I happened to use CopyCat in a university AI class I taught years ago, so I got some experience with it It was **great** as a teaching tool, but I wouldn't say it shows anything about what can or can't work for AGI, really... ben On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Ben Goertzel b...@goertzel.org

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
Do you have an MS degree? In Europe, it's sometimes the case that after you get an MS, you can do a PhD with no additional coursework, only thesis work. In the US, considerably more coursework is generally required (with rare exceptions) ben g On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 8:30 AM, YKY (Yan King

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
On a related note: http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/ --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription:

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
I got my PhD there in 1989 in math, not AI Let me see... you were about 22 in 1989? I was still an undergrad at that age... --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
It's just a coincidence. I got my PhD there in 1989 in math, not AI And Pei is the only AGI guy there in the CS department... ben g On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Joshua Fox joshuat...@gmail.com wrote: About graduate programs and AGI: It seems that Temple University has an affinity for

Re: [agi] CopyCat

2008-12-17 Thread Vladimir Nesov
On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 6:03 PM, Ben Goertzel b...@goertzel.org wrote: I happened to use CopyCat in a university AI class I taught years ago, so I got some experience with it It was **great** as a teaching tool, but I wouldn't say it shows anything about what can or can't work for AGI,

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
An overly simplistic way of framing the issue: Life is too short to get a PhD. vs. Life is too long not to get a PhD. But seriously, I do enjoy reading job ads because it is one way of seeing what tech companies are up to:

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
On the contrary, getting a PhD is an astoundingly poor strategy for raising $$ for a startup. If you have a talent for biz sufficient to raise $$ for a startup, you can always get some prof to join your team to lend you academic credibility. It is also useful in terms of lending you more

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
If you want to raise **business** $$ for an AGI project 5 years from now, the best thing you could do IMO would be to spend the next 5 years becoming successful **in business** Then you will be able to go to investors with a load of biz credibility. You'll also have some of your own $$ to invest.

[agi] Re: [OpenCog] Re: What is the role of MOSES in Novamente and Open Cog?-----was---- internship opportunity at Google (Mountain View, CA)

2008-12-17 Thread Lukasz Stafiniak
Talking on a very abstract level, MOSES could be ultimately developed so that it explores what you could call constraint relaxation strategies; combo trees are built such that they meet the constraints optimally with more-or-less random exploration of different trade-offs. Pure MOSES (current)

Re: [agi] CopyCat

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
Do you mean that examples that Hofstadter/Mitchell used in their papers for CopyCat did not in fact work on their codebase? I remember downloading second copycat implementations (in Java IIRC), it seemed to be working. Besides, they don't claim anything grandiose for this model, and it seems

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Joshua Fox
About graduate programs and AGI: It seems that Temple University has an affinity for AGI people--Ben Goertzel, Pei Wang, and now Peter de Blanc. Is this just a coincidence? Joshua On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 5:48 PM, Ben Goertzel b...@goertzel.org wrote: Can I start the PhD directly without

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
OK, sounds like YKY should go to the UK then ;-) I'll be sure to pay you a visit there! On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Daniel Allen mtsoftw...@gmail.com wrote: To add to what Ben is saying, the only thing that some U.S. students I know test out of are undergraduate courses that are a

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Paul Cray
In the UK, it is certainly possible to proceed directly to a PhD without doing an MSc or much in the way of coursework, provided you have a good enough Bachelor's degree. As a self-funded student, it would just be a matter of finding a sympathetic supervisor (and the UK speaks English!).

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
Do you have an MS degree? I don't have an MS. In Europe, it's sometimes the case that after you get an MS, you can do a PhD with no additional coursework, only thesis work. That sounds good, but in Europe I may need to spend some time learning a third language... =( In the US, considerably

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 12:29 PM, YKY (Yan King Yin) generic.intellige...@gmail.com wrote: I got my PhD there in 1989 in math, not AI Let me see... you were about 22 in 1989? I was still an undergrad at that age... Yep... I was already interested in working on AGI, but didn't feel like

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Hector Zenil
Quoting myself (regarding PhDs): Why one if you can have two, and at the same time! ... Well, I can tell you, it is not exactly a great idea. Do people thing PhDs are additive? I would say perhaps they follow a logarithmic law or so, although Germans think they are additive since they write name

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Terren Suydam
I'm no expert in these matters, but it seems this conversation is lacking the following point(s). Ability to score funding for any venture usually requires salesmanship and connections. Salesmanship in turn requires that you are able to tell a good story about your product/approach, and be

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
On the other hand, if you want to get government research grants for your AI work, then having a PhD is definitely a humongous plus... ben On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:55 PM, Terren Suydam ba...@yahoo.com wrote: I'm no expert in these matters, but it seems this conversation is lacking the

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
A gross overstatement that makes a point, nonetheless: If...you want a non-research career, a Ph.D. is definitely not for you. http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed:

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
If...you want a non-research career, a Ph.D. is definitely not for you. I want to be either an entrepreneur or a researcher... it's hard to decide. What does AGI need most? Further research, or a sound business framework? It seems that both are needed...

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
To complicate the issue, even some PhD students are undecided about their career path: My ultimate goal is undecided; I would be happy as a professor, an entrepreneur, or a researcher at IBM, Microsoft, or Google. I trust that I'll know the right path in a few years. http://aiphd.blogspot.com/

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 6:12 PM, YKY (Yan King Yin) generic.intellige...@gmail.com wrote: If...you want a non-research career, a Ph.D. is definitely not for you. I want to be either an entrepreneur or a researcher... it's hard to decide. What does AGI need most? Further research, or a

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
How about funding from academia -- would that be significant? I mean, can I expect to get research grants right after I get a PhD? --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Trent Waddington
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 9:52 AM, YKY (Yan King Yin) generic.intellige...@gmail.com wrote: How about funding from academia -- would that be significant? I mean, can I expect to get research grants right after I get a PhD? Depends how much time your thesis supervisor has gotten you writing grant

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread YKY (Yan King Yin)
Depends how much time your thesis supervisor has gotten you writing grant applications during your third year ;) Generally speaking, if the $$ amount of research grants is bigger than, say, investing my tuition fees on some business projects, then it seems that the PhD is worth it (in terms of

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
Concerning opportunity costs, it's better to do neither and become a UPS driver: http://www.er-doctor.com/doctor_income.html --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Daniel Allen
Regarding tuition fees, most PhD students in computer science (at least at the top 50 CS departments), are funded from day one, though they may start as TAs before getting an RA position. --- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Benjamin Johnston
Hi YKY, I'm considering getting a PhD somewhere, and I've accumulated some material for a thesis in my 50%-finished AGI book. I think getting a PhD will put my work in a more rigorous form and get it published. Also it may help me get funding afterwards, either in academia or in the business

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Colin Hales
Hi, I went through this exact process of vacillation in 2003. I have a purely entrepreneurial outcome in mind, but found I needed to have folk listen to me. In order that some comfort be taken (by those with $$$) in my ideas, I found, to my chagrin...that having a 'license to think = PhD' (as

Re: [agi] Should I get a PhD?

2008-12-17 Thread Ben Goertzel
Research grants for AGI are very hard to come by in the US, and from what I hear, elsewhere in the world also So, as a prof, you would probably be faced with the choice of -- getting no research grants, or struggling to get small ones versus -- getting moderate sized research grants for work