fostel@ncsu.UUCP (08/09/83)
A few things I've read recently stuck out. First, the Japanese are NOT
primitives in the AI world. I think a lot of americans think so because
so few Jap articals get translated and published. They are (in my opinion)
probably ahead of the US in a number of areas, including some very pragmatic
ones, such as pattern recognition and robotics. Natural language is a hard
area to compare because of the nature of idiograph based languages. They
may not be on top in expert systems and knowledge representation, but they
are hardly signing up for AI 101. Patience is a Japanese virtue to a degree
many americans can not understand.
Also, the reference to WW II and Pearl Harbor: there are many historians
who seem convinced that the men in Washington new full well (some of them)
that the Japs were comming. Coded transmissions allowed them to pull out
a lot of valuable ships leaving the Battle wagons as bait. Even in those
days a few people realized their obsolecense. Indeed, Japanese I have talked
to generally feel they were maneuvered into attacking, by the Policies of
the US in the Far East. The US public was falsly led to believe that the
RED PERIL was sweeping the Pacific and would be in California any day.
In fact it was really (according to some) simple maneuvering to build a
consensus in the US that we should become involved in the WAR.
Now the point of this digression (no flames, there is no way to ever be sure
about these things, and the History they taught you in High School might
well be the real story): is history repeating? The technology boom of the
60's was in response to fear of being outdone by the Russians. Given the
"manic" propensities of US public opinion, the best way to get lots of new
growth in AI and related fields, may well be to let the Japs sink a few
battle ships and get the American public to feel threatenned so Congress
will pile on the money. A nice result?! But we got to wait a couple more
years for the 5th generation project to do something decisive....
----GaryFostel----