throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop) (01/21/89)
> demers@beowulf.ucsd.edu (David E Demers) >> Before anybody thinks I'm saying that AI is a SMOP, >> ^^^^ > Um, are we all supposed to know what this means? Well, yes, you all are. Or anyhow, I *thought* most people would be familiar with it (or one of it's cousins). It represents the phrase "Small Matter of Programming", a member of the phrase schema "Small Matter of X", where X is typically "Engineering", or "Construction", or "Technology", or something else representing a relatively well understood disipline or craft, with little or no creative insight required. As in "Building a synchronous, anchored skyhook on Earth is a small matter of engineering.", or (especially if uttered in the 1960's) "Fusion power is a small matter of technology.". Again, the implication is that all the required understanding is already present, and that all that is left is the "legwork". -- Did you ever expect a corporation to have a conscience, when it has no soul to be damned, and no body to be kicked? --- Lord Edward Thurlow -- Wayne Throop <the-known-world>!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw