You give compression as an example of a powerful computation primitive. Are you interested in the similarity between Matt Mahoney's ZPAQ virtual machine http://mattmahoney.net/dc/zpaq.html which implements predictive compression by mixing a swarm of predictors, each expert at a different domain. And Miller and Drexler's idea of "Agoric Computing" http://e-drexler.com/d/09/00/AgoricsPapers/agoricpapers.html where they propose routinely combining untrusted agents into reliable services.
I think your focus has been on eliminating the software complexity caused by history. But there's another slightly different focus - reducing the size of the trusted or kernel infrastructure by creating ways to delegate out to a service provided by untrusted and potentially enormous code. The enthusiasts (such as Miller and Drexler) think of these potentially enormous swarms as actually enormous and long-lasting; I think it's fairly likely that one or a few strategies per market eventually mostly defeat everyone else, so that the system as a whole is not particularly large. However, the point is that you don't necessarily have to choose between LZ77 and LZW or whatever. Johnicholas
-- To unsubscribe: http://lists.canonical.org/mailman/listinfo/kragen-discuss
