Re: the 69 of us

From: Christopher Barton (CJB153@mercury.anglia.ac.uk)
Date: Fri Nov 17 2000 - 06:07:34 MST


I did Physics & Philosophy as an undergrad, and can confidently assert that I understand neither.
I am not a hardware guy, and everything between solid-state physics and assembler programming leaves me cold :-(
I'm doing a Computer Science postgrad course, so I will be a software guy eventually.

Although I'm fascinated by software techniques to create intelligence, the real reason I'm lurking on this list is to see if anyone has answers to the philosophical questions involved.

Sideline:
philosophy is often outdistanced by science , [e.g. argument from design loses out to evolution (IMHO)] or transformed in to it [e.g. Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry &c.]
So I'm wondering, for instance, if a programmed moral sense, that people agreed was moral, might not neatly tidy up some centuries-old arguments.

Mainline:
My current big interests are information theory, cryptography, and SGML. The meeting ground between [artificial distinction ahead] human information and computer information, I suppose. If anyone has any ideas for a relevant dissertation topic, please let me know.
Oh, I also enjoy second-guessing post-singularity AIs :-)

James



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