Dumbing It Down... (GAI.NET)


How many of us are smart enough to just get the Liskov Substitution Principle, Theories of Special and General Relativity, Quantum Particle Physics, Genetic Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Latin???

Not me.

optionsScalper has brought together a group of .Net people here in Milwaukee, with the goal of having each of us just get Genetic Algorithms, within a period of about 90 minutes (over lunch).  I, and everybody I talked to that were there that day, were amazed at how he pulled it off. I have spent hours over the last few months talking with oS on the phone about this, and many other techniques and technologies...  

I know firsthand that Wisconsin has it's share of University Professors, Biotech scientists, Lawyers (ahem), Computer and Information Scientists, Neurologists, Cariologists, Miscellaneologists, on and on... We're truly privileged to have a Mathematician of oS' caliber, that has the rare ability to dumb it all down to the level of those around him.  I've known many professors (dare I say most?) who don't have this ability, even though their profession calls for it. 

My hat goes off to He Who Must Continue To Remain Unnamed For Some Reason (I think we're still waiting for someone to decrypt his name), for his demo on Genetic Algorithms, and his upcoming release of GAI.Net.  I know much  more about GA than I did before the demo (um, which was close to nothing), and I still wonder what I might use it for, but oS' passion shines through when he posts and discusses this stuff, and it's just a matter of time before I just get it.

[optionsScalper] - [GAI.NET Post] - [Decrypt optionsScalper's Name]

While we're on the subject... I've been reading “The Fabric of the Cosmos : Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality”, by Brian Greene.  His ability to dumb down topics like Quantum mechanics and String Theory is unbelievable.  I highly recommend this book, and “The Elegant Universe”, also by Brian Greene.

Print | posted on Tuesday, July 19, 2005 10:52 PM

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# re: Dumbing It Down... (GAI.NET)

left by Brian Tinkler at 7/20/2005 2:55 AM Gravatar
It sounds like i missed a whopper of a lunch. That's too bad. I hope it isn't because I'm a sales dude that has barred me from these lunches! (um, yeah, thanks for the invitation Gerry!)

Glad you've found Brian Greene's works exciting - he has illuminated my mind beyond it's ability to fully absorb it, but yet surprisingly somehow comprehend the material discussed.

# re: Dumbing It Down... (GAI.NET)

left by Scott Isaacs at 7/20/2005 8:57 AM Gravatar
No, Brian. Nothing to do with being a sales guy.

I didn't hear about it until late that morning, and that was just by chance when Gerry said, "So are you going to be at the lunch?" and I said "What lunch?"

Apparently, I'm not on his invite distribution list either, and I'm a developer...

Maybe I'll just start organizing my *own* lunches. ;)

# re: Dumbing It Down... (GAI.NET)

left by Gerry at 7/20/2005 9:06 AM Gravatar
I tried to contact you Brian, it was a last-minute mad scramble to scrounge up people when [censored] decided he wanted to go through with his demo (he was reluctant because he was so sick).

# re: Dumbing It Down... (GAI.NET)

left by optionsScalper at 7/20/2005 5:40 PM Gravatar
Gerry,

You give me too much credit. I'm at best an amateur mathematician. It was both a fun lunch and a fun demo of GAI.NET. I'm anxious to complete Beta2 and release it. I have to repair a few math functions (the distributions are biased), separate the GAEngine from the UI (only one coupling that needs to be detached with an observer pattern) and do a Traveling Salesperson Problem sample.

Brian - Sorry about that. Gerry and I had talked the previous week about doing this lunch, but because I had been sick (for like a zillion days; I'm still not 100%), we didn't make any firm plans until Wednesday.

Here's the real reason:

I asked Gerry to invite a bunch of people and explicitly told him to withhold or delay invites to anyone that works in sales (because Genetic Algorithms work well on Traveling Salesperson Problems and we don't want salespeople to get too excited about this), anyone who wears a tie to work (wait, Gerry wears a tie to work) and anyone named Scott (no real reason, but it sounds good here and he complained). We've got to be more selective about audience with these double-secret probation lunches where we talk about egomaniacal math and science software. Obviously, sales and marketing guys need very little lead time to construct marketing plans for evil plots to take over the world and this was, after all, a preliminary world domination meeting/lunch. Besides, Damon wasn't there, and we couldn't move forward with any plans to overrun every continent without his input.

---O [uncensored]

p.s. That whole stego thing was overblown and hyped. My name is in plaintext in the articles that I'll be posting next week. So the stego that is on my blog should be a *little* easier to discover (at least my name in English should be simple; my name in Russian and other languages is another story altogether . . .) So far, I've received no responses in the positive. Anyone with a shred of intelligence would ignore this type (helicoptertext and others) of stego "challenge" anyways . . .

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