----- Original Message ----- 
From: anthony cagle <acagle / subimo.com>
To: ruby-talk ML <ruby-talk / ruby-lang.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 5:07 AM
Subject: [ruby-talk:10779] Re: Suggestion for threading model


> If you're referring to the CYC project, it spun out as a company, Cycorp
> which appears to still be operational (www.cyc.com).
> 

Thanks very much for that reference, Anthony...
that does indeed seem to be what I was
remembering...

Hal




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hal E. Fulton [mailto:hal9000 / hypermetrics.com]
> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 4:24 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: [ruby-talk:10711] Re: Suggestion for threading model
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Stephen White <spwhite / chariot.net.au>
> To: ruby-talk ML <ruby-talk / ruby-lang.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 10:12 AM
> Subject: [ruby-talk:10708] Suggestion for threading model
> 
> 
> [huge interesting snip]
> 
> Here's my (mostly useless) opinion.
> 
> In terms of modeling the universe, this might be a very
> interesting, useful approach. After all, every object in
> the real world has its own "world line" and there is no
> inherent "sequence" in accessing them.
> 
> As long as we're dreaming, I'd assign a separate
> processor to each object instance. And the instances
> wouldn't share any code among them.
> 
> The universe implements True Concurrency in possibly the
> strictest sense of the word... probably without even a
> quantized timeslice... and there is no evidence that God
> does timeslicing anyway... :)
> 
> So in a sense I like this idea (more long term than short).
> 
> However, in terms of practicality and ease of implementation,
> I think there might be huge problems.
> 
> To exaggerate a notch or three, it's rather like the idea of
> building a giant expert system with millions of rules, giving it
> a natural language interface, and slowly dumping all of human
> knowledge into it. (Things like this have been proposed
> seriously.)
> 
> To all who propose these things, I say, "Fine... go do it."
> 
> I recall an interesting 2,000,000-rule expert system proposed
> right here in Austin at MCC... but I haven't heard from it in
> so many years, I'd bet a nickel it's defunct.
> 
> Hal Fulton
> 
>