From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Wed May 30 2001 - 16:40:31 MDT
At 04:44 PM 5/30/2001 -0500, Randy Smith wrote:
>Gee, this sounds like the most advanced use of AI, ever...in the history of
>this big, wide world, all courtesy of the biggest, fattest, tax-funded-est
>government in the history of this big, wide world.
>
>Of course that fact will be conveniently ignored by the
>Libertarian-Extropians on this list.
I almost ignored this lame troll, but what the hell, it has been a slow day.
The system described is nothing more than a reasonably sophisticated
control system, the very same kind that has been used in private industry
for years. In fact, private industry has some very similar types of
software that are a good deal more sophisticated than this particular bit
of software appears to be (and undoubtedly for less money, since it isn't
"free" money). I'm not just talking out of my ass either; I designed a
similarly sophisticated type of control system that had every one of their
stated capabilities that was deployed into mission critical production
almost half a decade ago, and I certainly wasn't the first. These systems
aren't AI, but they *are* clever adaptive software systems, which have
saved private companies truckloads of money over more primitive
methods. It is nice to see that NASA has finally caught up with 1990s
technology in the 21st century.
Now I am sure someone looking for a government grant is more than happy to
sell what is nothing more than a cool but completely non-profound hack as
the greatest thing since swiss cheese, but claiming it is so doesn't mean
it is. The only "first" they can claim is that it is on a space craft,
largely because private industry has effectively been shut out of space by
the government (or they probably wouldn't have that "first" either).
The only thing this demonstrates is that the "biggest, fattest,
tax-funded-est, government in the history of the world" is, yet again, a
day late and a dollar short. Wake me up when they actually do something
*interesting* with my tax dollars.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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