Re: Just starting out.. newbie help :)

Remember, it's not flaming.  It's polite discussion.  :)

I heard it claimed recently that AI is anything we haven't figured out how
to do yet.  Because once we figure it out, we look at it and say "that's
not intelligence."


>> Perl is only slow when you use algorithms that were intended for PROLOG,
>> LISP, C/C++ or Java.
> 
> Sure, these will be inherently faster to implement
> in some languages, but it is false to conclude that
> the algorithms were "intended" for these languages.

Perhaps a better statement is that some of the languages were intended
for particular classes of algorithms, and as such, are more efficient at
handling them than other languages.  Most of us had a pretty good sense of
what he meant.

It's an interesting debate about whether one should study AI and Perl
separately, then try to synthesize them, or instead try to learn them
together.  I think it is valid for a newbie (who has enough sense to
recognize himself as such) to experiment in areas he's interested.

He won't be "taken seriously" for awhile by people who have made careers
of AI research, but I didn't get the impression that was his intent,
anyway.  I hope that goal isn't a barrier to entry to this mailing list,
and I hope we didn't scare him off.


j