Taking a spin with John Warfield's humorous story about Artificial
Intelligence, I am reminded of the fact that work on cellular array
automata is now alluded to as Artificial Life, an even worse misnomer than
AI.... which spins along to the allusion to InterNet browsing which I
heard from a software engineer..
Recalling the old, and unfortunately still current, practice in software
development of announcing software releases before their development had
really gotten started as a way of getting funding for the development... a
practice known as "vapour-ware".
When asked to comment upon all the excitement about the InterNet, he said
that it was the natural evolution of vapour-ware into "vapour-life", it
seems to be real life, but the experience of it, was a pale reflection of
the actual thing.
Taken with Keith Cowan's remarks in LO904, about the lack of sufficient
common context in List communications, I have been seriously contemplating
the vapour-life allusion. Although I enjoy the chat and the intellectual
stimulation of InterNet communications, especially since it gives me a
feeling of "being connected" all around the Planet, I really wonder
whether I am just avoiding the real thing in my own non-electronically
mediated life.
Cheers, Doug Seeley
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Dr. Doug Seeley: compuserve 100433,133... Fax: +41 22 756 3957
InterDynamics Pty. Ltd. (Australia) in Geneva, Switzerland
"Integrity is not merely an ideal; it is the only reality."