Ben, I think these things go in cycles. AI had its time of big funding, but that didn't produce much and so it stopped. The impression I get with string theory is that pressure is building up to cut it back unless it comes up with better results. At least in the case of string theory they can produce lots of fancy mathematics which counts as a kind of "evidence", or more accurately, it makes it count as "serious science". With the Genome project at least it was clearly a finite goal that would eventually be achieved. Funders like that because they feel confident that what they are funding will eventually be done. With AGI, well a lot of people still seem unsure if it is even possible, and if it is then it might happen in a few hundred years. Funders don't like that story much.
Of course some of us believe otherwise... Shane ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?list_id=11983
