[ai_group] books
- From: "David Garner" <dgarner@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ai_group@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 12:38:38 -0500
John,
Glad to see you're making progress. Hope to find time to review your
work.
My major accomplishment for yesterday was to buy 20 computer related
books (5/6 were AI related). Who said the credit card bill would not be
as large this month as last?
I'm a book addict. I don't read them like I should, but I like to buy
them.
I found several in the local computer store's bargain bin. One was $.99
and one of the others I purchased was $70. Most were somewhere in
between.
I have not seen AI related books at the book stores till yesterday.
Yesterday, I found a whole shelf of them at a couple of Border's stores.
I'm pretty sure they did not just appear. Several did have 2002
copyrights though. A couple of them are really thick and from just
glancing through them they're really theoretical. I had enough math to
have a math minor in college (back in the '70's), but I seldom really
understood math until I could apply it in some practical way. I'm not
sure if I'll get much out of those books, but I'm sure I won't if I
don't attempt them.
I've had a couple of the sharpest programmers that I know tell me that
AI is not practical. One said I should not waste too much time on it.
They're probably right, but wouldn't it be cool to harness the power of
these machines to do more for us than they currently do?
I really don't care if they can start with nothing and learn. If they
can just follow a set of rules and assist with various repetitive,
mundane, tasks without someone having to define each step exactly as it
is to be performed, I think that's worth exploring.
Unfortunately, I think I feel a nap coming on. I'm sure, if I attempt
one of those new books, it will win.
David Garner
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