Python from Wise Guy's Viewpoint

[Andrew Dalke]

Me:
> > How would you test it?  (Note that the above software wasn't
> > tested under realistic conditions; I assume in part because of cost.)

Pascal Bourguignon:
> In a simulator.  In any case, the  point is to have a software that is
> able to handle even unexpected failures.

Like I said, the existing code was not tested in a simulator.  Why
do you think some AI code *would* be tested for this same case?
(Actually, I believe that an AI would need to be trained in a
simulator, just like humans, but that it would require so much
testing as to preclude its use, for now, in rocket control systems.)

Nor have you given any sort of guideline on how to implement
this sort of AI in the first place.  Without it, you've just restated
the dream of many people over the last few centuries.  It's a
dream I would like to see happen, which is why I agreed with you.

> > couldn't handle something X threw at it. ;)

> XEmacs is not AI

Yup, which is why the smiley is there.  You said that C was
not the language to use (cf your perror/exit comment) and implied
that Ada wasn't either, so I assumed you had a more resiliant
programming language in mind.  My response was to point
out that Emacs Lisp also crashes (rarely) given unexpected
errors and so imply that Lisp is not the answer.

Truely I believe that programming languages as we know
them are not the (direct) solution, hence my pointers to
evolvable hardware and similar techniques.

Even then, we still have a long way to go before they
can be used to control a rocket.  They require a lot of
training (just like people) and software simulators just
won't cut it.  The first "AI"s will replace those things
we find simple and commonplace [*] (because our brain
evolved to handle it), and not hard and rare.

                    Andrew
                    dalke at dalkescientific.com
[*]
In thinking of some examples, I remembered a passage in
on of Cordwainer Smith's stories.  In them, dogs, cats,
eagles, cows, and many other animals were artifically
endowed with intelligence and a human-like shape.
Turtles were bred for tasks which required long patience.
For example, one turtle was assigned the task of standing
by a door in case there was trouble, which he did for
100 years, without complaint.