On Wed, May 2, 2012, Logan Streondj wrote to the AGI list: > [...] Mentifex, so I've been wishing to write a book > for a while now, but can't seem to get one completed > from start to finish. I usually start with an outline, > and fill it in a little, but then ... > So how did you go about getting this book written? > Ben G is also an author, maybe he has some authorship tips also.
As Tim Tyler pointed out when he launched this discussion with Tim's e-mail of Thu, 29 Mar 2012: > I fished a 2003 version out of archive.org. Part of "The Art of the Meme" went up on the Net in 1998 and other parts were published on Usenet over the years, but I did not seriously knuckle down and write it until six weeks before the 1 May 2012 upload for publication. The Amazon Kindle e-book reader came out in 2007 and changed the face of book-publishing forever. Now, before Dr. Killthread comes in here and tells us to stop talking about this topic, let us remind Ben that we need to develop sources of AI funding for our endeavours in artificial intelligence. The golden opportunity to write e-books for AI funding is most definitely on-topic here on the AGI mail list. On 20 March 2012 I printed out five dummied-up copies of potential e-book manuscripts to carry around with me: 1) AI SF -- artificial intelligence: science fiction; 2) The Art of the Meme (now available on Amazon); 3) Autobiography of Mentifex; 4) Crawdad Man of Green Lake (an aspect of my life) 5) Sasquatch story (Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest). The idea was to write ideas and vignettes on the back of the print-outs of each pertinent e-book manuscript, so that over time each book would almost "write itself". Gradually I settled on "The Art of the Meme" as the book that I was most eager to write. Instead of coding AI in JavaScript or Forth, I started writing a single chapter or two of "The-Art-Meme-ebook" every morning with the freshness and alertness of the break of day. I would rush through the completion of the chapter with an excitement and a breeziness. Now, I would like to take the considered position here that an e-book is meant more for entertainment and pleasure than for serious scientific discourse. Typically a consumer of e-books will sit in a coffee shop and read while sipping coffee and munching pastry. The available on-line literature advises us to write e-books that are shorter than a print novel. "The-Art-Meme-ebook" seems to take two hours to read, and is only fifty-six (56) pages when printed out. But I really gave it my heart and my soul during the writing of it. I revealed personal things that I would hate to have out there on a Web page, but could stomach them being behind the 99-cent pay-wall of an e-book where the human consumer has entered into the quid-pro-quo relationship of giving up some cash in return for the cache. (Please see my forthcoming answer to Tobg G on the subject of the low price of the memetic e-book.) I have a memetic opportunity here to respond to the following illustrious individuals and co-creators of the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) now afoot: C:\MAY01Y12\E-Mail\TimT0502.txt -- Chris Petersen C:\MAY01Y12\E-Mail\TimT0503.txt -- Logan Streondj C:\MAY01Y12\E-Mail\TimT0505.txt -- Matt Mahoney C:\MAY01Y12\E-Mail\TimT0506.txt -- Toby G C:\MAY01Y12\E-Mail\TimT0507.txt -- Mike Tintner But since each of the above movers and shakers shook a different branch of my AGI-Meme-Art tree, I get to spread the responses out over the Spammer's Delight of a not-really-spam interval. So, Dr. Streondj, the writing of the e-book accrues on an almost daily basis. Typically I would upload an excerpt somewhere and then print it out for proofreading. Maybe we're not supposed to upload parts of our e-books, but I could not stop myself. I actually used two different computers to publish "The Art of the Meme" as an HTML e-book. I wrote it on a standard desktop computer with a large keyboard, and then I transferred the 128K file to an Acer Aspire One $300 netbook for Wi-Fi upload to Amazon -- which came in and "sucked away" the manuscript after I did the "browse" function to locate the file. People on this AGI list are the founding fathers and den mothers of Artificial General Intelligence. We could all write e-books over time about our contributions to the field, and our self-excusals from blame if answered AGI prayers go horribly wrong. Mentifex (Arthur) -- http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Meme-ebook/dp/B007ZI66FS/ http://bookstore.iuniverse.com/Products/SKU-000540906/AI4U.aspx ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-c97d2393 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-2484a968 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
