Joe,
Most of the time when you mention AI, people roll their eyes and think of
sci fi. To a large extent it is still a somewhat discredited field in the
computer industry.
Personally, I think that it's time has come or will be coming shortly.
Computers are becoming powerful enough to begin to handle the complexity
that "intelligent design" requires. Expert systems have been around for a
long time and databases of all sorts of information are well established.
The next "breakthrough" in my humble opinion will be interactive and
learning algorithms which will reduce the high maintenance that all current
AI systems require. Perl's almost limitless flexibility with text
processing and pattern recogition make it my choice as a language to
achieve the goal of an interactive self programing algorithm.
Real world applications are search engines, web site navigational
assistants and program tutors. "Ask Jeves" is similar to what I envision,
but almost all the work of that application is done by a team of persons.
Ah, I am dreaming but I continue to believe it can be done. Time will
tell.
- Peter
