I would imagine that the goals align with the task of "augmenting human intellect", to borrow Engelbart's phrase.
The STEPS project, in particular, seems concerned with compact representations that approach the entropies of the systems being simulated. Computing, to me, anyway, is very closely linked to simulation. A compact representation is (hopefully) easier understand, thus making it suitable for educational purposes. However, it should also be more computationally efficient, as well as enabling greater productivity. I think it's also about regaining control of our technology. A modern computer system is composed of layer upon layer of ad hoc mechanics, short on architecture and long on details. There are few people who have a truly good understanding of the complete system from firmware to UI, including all the details in between, and it's not because the details are fundamentally complex - they simply involve huge amounts of rote learning. Something like Linux has grown somewhat organically, without any of the robustness that organic growth might imply. Given concerns about security and privacy - not to mention demonstrable correctness of operation - an easily decomposable, understandable system is hugely desirable. There should be bonus side effects, such as running well on lightweight mobile devices. I hope to see computing systems becoming vehicles for training intelligent agents that assist human endeavours - by automating menial tasks, freeing humans to concentrate on more interesting problems, while also leveraging the abilities that are trivial for computers, but hard for humans (large scale data processing, correlation and statistical analysis, particle simulation, etc.). I also hope to see more of the abilities that have traditionally been described as A.I. entering mainstream computation (goal-seeking behaviour, probabilistic reasoning). Disclaimer: http://www.peralex.com/disclaimer.html _______________________________________________ fonc mailing list [email protected] http://vpri.org/mailman/listinfo/fonc
