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I was
at Starlab one week after it folded. Hugo was the only one left
there -- he was living in an apartment in the building. It was a huge,
beautiful, ancient, building, formerly the Czech Embassy to Brussels.... I
saw the CAM-Brain machine (CBM) there, disabled by Korkin (the maker) due to
non-payment...
There
is a CBM in use at ATR in Japan [where Hugo used to work], but it's mostly being
used for simple hardware-type experiments, not advanced
learning...
;
there was one at Lernout-Hauspie, but I don't know what became of it when that
firm went under...
Hugo
is currently designing the CBM-2, and I've given him some possibly useful ideas
in that regard...
I can
sympathize somewhat with Korkin: he spent his own $$ on the hardware, and then
starlab did not pay him, breaking its contractual obligations. He is
struggling financially. And Hugo was not at all politic or sympathetic in
dealing with him, because Hugo is always so wrapped up in his own
problems. Well, such is human life.... I tried briefly to help
smooth things over w/ Korkin, but Hugo's attitude was sufficiently out-there
that it was not possible...
--
Ben
Ben,
I just read the Bio. You gave alot more
play to his ideas than the show did. You probably know this, but Starlab
has folded and I think he was off to the states...
The show seemed to indicate that nothing of note
ever came out of the project. In fact, it appeared to not generate one
new network . What they didn't detail was the cause of this. It
could have ben hardware related, I don't know. They were also having
serious contract problems with the Russian fellow who built it. He had
effectively disabled the machine from the US until he got some more money,
which eventually killed the whole thing. What a waste. Maybe you
can buy the machine off Ebay now. They said it would be
auctioned...
They did give alot of play to his seemingly
contrarion ideas about the implications of his work. It was a rather
dismal outlook on societies lack of general acceptance of AI and\or
enhancement. I hope he was off base in this area, but I wouldn't be
surprised if a small group of radical anti-AI people emerge with hostile
intent. Another good reason to not be so visible!!
Kevin
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 11:26
AM
Subject: RE: [agi] AI on TV
There was a show on the tube last night on
TechTV. It was part of their weekly Secret, Strange and True
series. They chronicled three guys who are working on creating
advanced AI. ![]()
One guy was from Belgium. My
apologies to him if he reads this list, but he was a rather quirky and
stressed character. He had designed a computer that was basically a
collection of chips. He raised a million and had it built on
spec. I gather he was expecting something to miraculously emerge
from this collection, but alas, nothing did. It was really stressful
watching his stress. He had very high visibility in the country and
the pressure was immense as he promised a lot. I have real doubts
about his approach, even though I am a lay-AI person. Also, its
clear from watching him that its sometimes good to have shoestring budgets
and low visibility. Less stress and more forced creativity in your
approach...
Kevin: Was the guy from Belgium perhaps Hugo de
Garis?? [Who is not in Belgium anymore, but who designed a
radical hardware based approach to AGI, and who is a bit of a quirky guy??
...]
I visited Hugo at Starlab [when it existed] in Brussels
in mid-2001
See my brief bio of Hugo
at
-- Ben
G
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