Brian Harvey wrote:
> 1. My original point was that the word "progress" automatically puts
> people in the frame of mind that says things should keep changing -- it's
> a very loaded word that distorts people's understanding. Rather than find
> a definition, we should agree to use a more neutral word, such as "change,"
> so as not to introduce unexamined presuppositions into the discussion.
If I might invoke the names of my betters,
/In the days when Sussman
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Jay_Sussman> was a novice,
Minsky <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Minsky> once came to him
as he sat hacking at the PDP-6 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-6>./
"What are you doing?", /asked Minsky./
"I am training a randomly wired neural net
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neural_network> to play Tic-tac-toe
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe>", /Sussman replied./
"Why is the net wired randomly?", /asked Minsky./
"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play",
/Sussman said./
/Minsky then shut his eyes./
"Why do you close your eyes?" /Sussman asked his teacher./
"So that the room will be empty."
/At that moment, Sussman was enlightened./
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