Subj : Guest:  Ray Kurzweil
To   : ROY J. TELLASON
From : AUGUST ABOLINS
Date : Tue Mar 20 2001 05:13 am

->  AA> Pamela Wallin's Talk TV
->  AA> On CTV Sundays at 5:00 p.m.
 ->  AA> Guest:  Ray Kurzweil

-> Dunno what this is,  sounds like some cable thingy
-> (and I don't have cable here.  Or a dish.).

Yep.. it's primarily a cable-thingy program.  This news was primarily just
to provide some recent info on Kurzweil.


->  AA> In the next couple of decades, computers will achieve something 
->  AA> like "conscious" intelligence..
->  AA> Kurzweil joins us to discuss his book, The Age of Spiritual 
->  AA> Machines:  When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence..

-> Not bloody likely,  anytime soon if at all.
-> For a real good discussion of this,  James P. Hogan 
-> has a book out that talks it up extensively,  his only 
-> nonfiction publication I'm aware of,  though the
-> title escapes me at the moment.  I got it from the local library.

I like Hogan's writings. However, I must admit that I've only read about 3
of his novels. I didn't know he had a non-fiction subject.  But I looked it
up on amazon.com:

Mind Matters : Exploring the World of Artificial Intelligence (pub.1998)

" Editorial Reviews Amazon.com ...
Will a computer ever come up with a really good joke? If it does, will we
still call it a computer? Questions like this have been bugging us ever
since we adapted machines to mental as well as physical labor. After all,
if they can outrun us and outlift us, why shouldn't they be able to
outthink us? Ask Garry Kasparov, whose misfortune it was to be the first
international chess champion defeated by a computer.
Questions like these are thoroughly explored, though never answered, in
Mind Matters. Author James P. Hogan certainly knows his material--he was
involved in the computer industry almost from its inception in the early
1960s. He knows the nuts and bolts (or vacuum tubes and printed circuits)
of artificial intelligence and, better yet, tells a riveting story about
its history while keeping an eye on its near future. His vivid portrayals
of Marvin Minsky, Alan Newell, and Alan Turing keep the reader hooked, and
his lucid, sometimes brilliant, explanations of the science and engineering
behind each advance are simple, creative, and dead-on accurate.

"Proponents of artificial intelligence have always had difficulty
convincing their opponents of the field's legitimacy. If they devise a
machine able to write as compelling a story as Mind Matters, they may just
rest their case. --Rob Lightner 

"Computers cannot feel compassion, anger, or fear, and they cannot see or
hear well. But ever since machines demonstrated their ability to outclass
human beings in mathematical calculations and other manipulations of
rigidly defined systems (such as chess), people have been intrigued by the
idea of intelligent computers. In Mind Matters: Exploring the World of
Artificial Intelligence, James P. Hogan explores the history and present
state of the quest to create machines in our image.

"December 27, 1998 Reviewer: William bishop (see more about me) from
hayward,CA
I feel a computer helps humans to consider more complex ideas and that it
is an adjunct to the human mind. I don't believe in AI. This book and Mr
Hogan's comments support me in that. It is thoroughly enjoyable and written
in an interested reader's level and not too Hi-tech.

"A rehash of other books, but with a better style, June 11, 1998 
Reviewer: A reader from Massachusetts
This isn't the first "history of AI" book in my collection, and won't be
the last. I picked this one up because of Hogan's name, and am happy with
that choice. I like his style. He knows where to put in the jokes (although
he could use a few more during the weaker parts toward the end). The
beginning, which starts wayyyyy back with the philosophers, is a little
dry, and the end (with lots of time spent on what computers still can't do)
didn't interest me. I like knowing about the trials and tribulations of
what worked and didn't, and why. I'm hoping that one of these days somebody
will do an entire book on the Cyc project.


"Tough going, but worth the effort., May 14, 1998 
Reviewer: jlewallen@mindspring.com (see more about me) from Tucker, GA
I started to say I "enjoyed" this book, but it seems to be this is not the
type of book that one "enjoys." I have read everything of James P. Hogan's
work I could get my hands on, and he is one of my top two or three favorite
writers. This is non-fiction, but it reflects the same clear and
interesting style of his fiction. I would say that this book is not for a
casual reader, nor was it intended as a textbook, though at some points it
may seem that way. Artificial intelligence is a very interesting and widely
misunderstood subject, and perhaps the greatest value of this book is in
exploding some of the myths about AI. This is not a quick, easy read, but
for the layman who wants to learn more about AI, it is well worth the time
and effort involved in reading it."

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