I'm thinking we need more threads like this one.
What are you thinking about? Page 4
There was I, minding my own business, not thinking about anything ... then I stumbled on this thread!!!
A flick-through-my-library-later I un-earthed John L. Casti's book 'The Cambridge Quintet'. Its about the conversation around the table at a dinner party given in Cambridge by C.P.Snow who invites Alan Turing, J.B.S. Haldane, Erwin Schrödinger and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Of course it's a work of fiction ... a kind of 'how it might have happened' tale. Now I've just got to read it again! Love that kind of stuff ... I ran an artificial intelligence group for several years in my old job so it all feels 'close to home'.
Wow, an artificial intelligence group sounds interesting.
AI is my favourite 'bore the pants off everybody while propping myself up at the bar' subject. I'm probably the only person on this forum who is mad enough to believe they can actually get a machine to think!!! I'll send you the diagrams if you like, although it helps if you have some sort of understanding of programming, associative memory ... and also know a bit about what Alan Turing was trying to do! Personally I find being totally mad (together with knowing rather a lot of people of that same persuasion ... although they haven't done it yet either!) is kind-of helpful if you're also into trying to write comedy!
I dont get you if you can send me a diagram then surely the machine isnt thinking but running a random variable?
My post count is too high, come on David overtake me!
because ure a sad git Lee
Quote: Gavin @ June 5, 2007, 10:35 PMI dont get you if you can send me a diagram then surely the machine isnt thinking but running a random variable?
My theory (which I must admit I've not done much about for a couple of years) is based around something I term a Child State Machine (CSM). There is no pre-supplied information/knowledge in it whatsoever ... the objective is for the machine in such a state to be taught, as one would teach a child. There is obviously a control program involved, but this will loop for ever if not given some sort of external stimulus. It has no initial 'memory' content ... it acquires it through being mentored. The control program is made up of many non- self-modifying and separate modules which it isn't too difficult to imagine we might have in our own heads somewhere or other, although our brains work using a mishmash of electrical and bio-chemical interactions. Clearly if one can get the first of these CSM things to work, and train it up, cloning others is kind-of simple!
I suppose this is the wrong forum for this subject, but if you're really interested then I'd be quite happy to carry on via email (see my profile) or whatever ... but be warned, it's a long and pretty hairy story!!!
Tits. Always. Damn.
Chocolate...
Quote: Leevil @ June 5, 2007, 10:35 PMMy post count is too high, come on David overtake me!
Piss off! I can't be bothered.
I'm thinking of having a scratch, then i might burp, throw my empty can somewhere near the bin and then i might scratch, burp and throw my empty tin somewhere near the bin and then i might scratch, o.k you get the point, sometimes for a change, because this routine can get a bit boring, i might alternate the routine, how about burp, scratch and o.k and we are now in rambling shite territory again, so i'm just going to scratch, burp and throw my empty o.k this could go on all night, but then i wouldn't have time to scratch and burp and throw my, f**king hell me, shut up.
I Apoligise for this post i can not find the drunk thread, but when i do, it will be worse than this.
I'm thinking, why can't Alan Alexander give at least one helpful or positive review on a forum consisting of mostly amateur writers?
Why does he feel the need to put everyone down and what does it achieve?
I'd like to know what happened in his life or career that made him so bitter towards writing?
Best Wishes
Quote: Leevil @ June 6, 2007, 10:09 PMI'm thinking, why can't Alan Alexander give at least one helpful or positive review on a forum consisting of mostly amateur writers?
Why does he feel the need to put everyone down and what does it achieve?
I'd like to know what happened in his life or career that made him so bitter towards writing?
Best Wishes
I personally think that he (could be a 'she' of course!) does serve a useful need here. As a bunch of mostly amateurs we tend, in the main, to write critiques that highlight any good bits we notice in something ... or we avoid saying anything at all. Amateur writers (who presumably would like to be professionals one day) all probably need a few jolts now and again. AA's detached and seemingly emotionless style has some appeal to me in that, if I write something and chuck it into the world, then it has to survive on its own. I'm no longer there to stand up for it like a doting parent. AA's comments are a darn sight more useful than a bald 'we don't want it' rejection slip. Yes, it would be nice if he added some guidance on how a piece might be improved but I don't see that happening and I think we have to be content with whatever we get from that source. Yes it would also be nice if he owned up to something he'd written himself. What would we do then though? Rip it up just for the revenge of it? Dammit, it's late here, I'm turning in!!!