Python--eclectic or ubiquitous

Glyph Lefkowitz glyph at twistedmatrix.com
Mon Jul 2 20:59:31 EDT 2001


On 2 Jul 2001, Martijn Faassen wrote:

> It's true. There has been a big PSU (Python Secret Underground)
> conspiracy to prevent database support and web server modules to
> be created in Python. It is a nefarious plot that plays right in the
> hands of the PSU.

Of course, the PSU does not exist.  It would be foolish to discuss them as
if they did.  Hah!  I laugh at the foolish implication that the PSU is a
real entity, which is in the real world that we live in today.

> The PSU is very interested in the use of Python in the field of AI;  
> advanced usenet robots such as the Timbot are one example, and the
> very convincing androids like the effbot another (you'd think he was a
> real Swede if you met him! really! at the last python conference they
> even had a prototype of the timbot android, though it didn't work very
> well yet). These androids and AIs will of course eventually used to
> either save the world or take over the world. You never know with the
> PSU.

Although it's not entirely clear to me whether the PSU would be involved
with world domination or world salvation (SHOULD THEY EXIST WHICH THEY
*CLEARLY* DO NOT), I am sure that the Twisted Matrix project would be
working either very strongly with or directly against them, perhaps both.

> Obviously, an advanced robot needs image manipulation programs (to
> process visual data). Interactive games are an excellent simulation testing
> ground for AI applications. It's obvious you need supercomputing to
> make the robot process data enough. Finally, XML is good magic
> pixie dust with a lot of enterprise power that will certainly make
> any failing AI work. If you have a problem, throw XML at it, problem
> solved (the AIs do this internally; they use quantum-substrate fuzzy
> coherent XSLT engines to do n-dimensional annealing).

Of course, another sworn (and not at all real) enemy (or ally) of the
(completely hypothetical) PSU, the perl organization of secrecy, or POS,
was recently behind the cancellation, but also the subsequent creation or
integration, of some massively multiplayer games using python.  Of course,
since good database and networking support in python and native
integration are as fictional as these organizations, nobody's ever
*actually* going to make something useful with python.  Notwithstanding
the plentiful examples to the contrary.

> This is why the PSU has been steering the community away from 
> relational database integration and web server applications. They 
> *need* interactive simulations on supercomputers, they *need* image
> manipulation software, and most importantly of all, they *need* XML.

I'm curious as to why the PSU is not spearheading an effort to get an EJB
clone into Python; Mojo Nation (and now Bram Cohen's BitTorrent) provides
P2P... with the final corner of the so-called "golden triangle" of XML,
EJB, and P2P, anything would be within their power.

No, wait!  I didn't mean to imply the PSU is real.  Egads, they're already
here!  I mean, they're not!  They're not here!  They're not real.  Oh no,
not more brainwashing!

but-I-don't-want-to-go-on-the-cart-ly y'rs,

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