Gary: thanks for your comments... You are right that this does take a lot of courage. If I tried to push a business plan based on AI I would get laughed at, and for good reason!
So my business plan is _NOT_ to go directly for the grand prize but make a run for profitability but in a field that will directly (and indirectly) service the needs of AI devels. Think of it as a stealth AI venture. ;) While I thank you for trying to suggest some general AI products but I'm affraid that the AI won't be good for those at all, not while its still under development at least, and after its developed I wouldn't need to market it at all... I would be on to other projects. ;) Really, If there are any recognisable ASCII strings in a dump of the thing then you've done it wrong. =P This is not to say that intelligence is some kind of voodoo that is "emergant" from the system but rather it requires a much deeper comprehension of what's going on than can be expressed by hexidigits... Part of controlling how the AI develops is in controlling its environment. Its ability to relate to us, and hopefully be sympathetic to our needs is a key goal. That is why I feel it is important to make sure that it functions in as human-like a manner as possible, for the near term at least. Today I simply do not have the software to do this and that is why I need the $5M. urk... I just read Ben Goertzel's suggestion not to ask for money in E-mail. =P As for MS.net, NO. I don't want my AI to be a slave to Bill Gates, even for the time it takes it to write its own OS. Beyond that, the MS.net stuff is not good for AI. I mean most of the crap is superfluous to AI work. The virtual world system could definitely take advantage of database integration, a thing which is lacking in Squeak, but I think its critical to keep things simple and free. ============================= now, to ben: Yes I know it was a long post and I did try to strip it down by saying as little as possible about my actual virtual world design and nothing about my actual AI plans. Its probably among the top 5 longest postings I've ever written from scratch. -- even I wasn't expecting it to be as long as it was. As to your point about language fetishes, Yes I agree with you. I wouldn't even mind entering it into core memory with toggle switches. >>>>>>>>> The problem is that AI experimentation is time-intensive using current computer software and hardware. Prototyping new ideas is time-consuming because the tools aren't "AI-natural." This does slow down development a lot, no doubt there. <<<<<<<<< Yes, this exactly the boat anchor my plan is intended to ditch. =) -- pain (n): see Linux. http://users.rcn.com/alangrimes/ ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?[EMAIL PROTECTED]
