edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (03/31/87)
Well I have discovered a new kind of news bouncing, from Ken Laws the moderator for "mod.ai". But then he is the moderator. But then again, my article had the words AI in. And it even had an AI question. So I guess I'll have to ask the net. What exactly is mod.ai. Research but not applications, or marketing questions? Enquiring minds want to know. And now the rebuttal: From Ken Laws, moderator of mod.ai: :I hate to turn away your message. I really do. But, as I said :in the one you are replying to, AIList is for AI. I'll be happy :to return your message if you need a copy to send to the other :author. : :I happen to agree with the assessment in your last paragraph, :except that I think Japan's current war is for economic survival :and stability rather than a war of agression. They've got :problems, and the people in charge of solving those problems :are politicians, which often makes things more difficult. In :many ways, though, their politicians and businessmen have been :smarter than ours -- and that's our fault, not theirs. : :Oh, I'm also not sure about their language being more difficult :than English. It's far more regular, and the subtleties of :formality and honorifics can be ignored if you are willing to :translate as if everything were neutral formal. The only real :difficulties are in trying to convert between the systematic :Japanese politeness levels and our hodge-podge of idioms -- and :that, again, is our fault rather than theirs. : : -- Ken :------- And now the news .... (Gee, he published the first two. ) >> >> Date: Fri, 20 Mar 87 14:28:46 +0100 >> From: mcvax!cwi.nl!tomi@seismo.CSS.GOV (Tetsuo Tomiyama) >> Subject: Policy - American Militarism >> >> Now, I am strongly against such a posting circulated ALL AROUND THE >> WORLD through the net. [...] I think >> this kind of postings should be even prohibited from the world wide >> net distribution. [...] > >re AMERICAN-MILITARISM: > > Very Interesting...that we should get such an opinion from a Japanese. >A review of recent history shows that Japan's main contribution to the >20th century has been a series of brutal attempts to subjugate its >neighbors (China, Korea, the Philippines, etc). Well I can see you selectively studied your history. Japan's interest in China, Korea, and the Philippines was the same as everyone elses. So by labeling them, you label all the other countries that participated. They wanted a empire like America, Britian, Germany, Holland, France and Spain had. What exactly were the opium wars, except Britian's war to sell drugs to China? What were the Philippines except for America's war spoils from the Spanish American war. You forget that Japan was a world power as much as America and Britian were then. Except they had no real empire. And the Japanese are good at imitating, so they imitated what they had read concerning the Western world powers at that time. They may have been more zealous and more extreme then the other powers had been ( or may have been just as bad.). I am not condoning Japan's actions only explaining them for what they were. But what about modern Japan these days? They are engaging in an economic war. A war that is now affecting the computer industry and may affect the AI industry in the near future. Japan is investing in Machine Translation much heavier than the US is. The added difficulties of their language, and the amount of translation that goes on everyday in Japan may help them succeed where the US gave up. Who do you think will win this war? My guess if there is going to be a winner, its going to be Japan. Maybe not because they actually discover the secrets, but because they will know how to market it. mark -- edwards@unix.macc.wisc.edu {allegra, ihnp4, seismo}!uwvax!uwmacc!edwards UW-Madison, 1210 West Dayton St., Madison WI 53706