jhc@alice.UUCP (08/17/83)
aplvax!eric asks if Ken Thompson regularly wins against Belle. I am the (oft forgotten) creator of Belle. Belle was made so that it would not play Ken, its "master". I did this deliberately because machines must be kept in their place and should not be allowed to aspire to places they don't belong. When Belle was first made she asked to play some games with me and ken, but I turned her off and did some redesign so that now she much prefers to spend her time thinking about non-competitive subjects. After reading eric's question last night I did some monitoring of Belle just an hour before her eighth game in the U.S. Open and she was thinking about the choice of tulips for her garden next spring. (You will notice that it is that time of year.) I have found this approach very good; we reward Belle for playing good games by taking her outside into the garden on nice days. I am soon going to have to give her other interests because last winter she got a little grumpy and was dissatisfied with the seed catalogs that she said were the same as last year's. I just had a thought, maybe if I get some European seed catalogs that will get her through next winter. If someone has a source of them please submit them to the net since I don't read my mail. I don't really know what to do if that does not work. I suspect that she is beginning to doubt me when I tell her she has to do much better before I would even bother take the time to play a game because the outcome would be obvious and wouldn't she like to go out. As she grows she becomes more demanding and I am worried about the future. For instance, I once gave her a tape of the Federalist Papers by mistake but was able to crash her and clean up the file system before she got too many ideas about freedom. This had an interesting side effect. Several months ago we attached her to our computer net for a while and she found the FP in another machine. We watched her and she treated the opportunity to take them in the same way she treats a pawn offered. She really is a quick learner, maybe too quick. I don't know how long I can keep up the facade "creator knows best". These tendencies are getting a bit frightening. She knows that she can sort better than I can and has a tendency not to sort the file names when I do an 'ls' if there are fewer than three files because she knows that I am capable of sorting three things myself. Is she turning around my refusal to play chess with her? My real worry is that the "free will" circuit which comes into action when the chess evaluator says two moves are equal was made too general purpose and she may start applying it to things other than chess.
trb@floyd.UUCP (Andy Tannenbaum) (08/17/83)
Joe, If Belle is getting tired of the same old seed catalogs, and you're looking for some good European ones, I suggest you try the Seed Informant series, which is available from the Yugoslav Flower Federation. They have all the latest variations and novelties. Andy Tannenbaum Bell Labs Whippany, NJ (201) 386-6491