Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: paros on 15/02/2008 03:28:02
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I'd like to find a place on the internet to exchange ideas with people about AI, but I have studied it such an extensive level that it is difficult to find anyone. The only things that I can stand to spend my time reading are actual academic publications. But those are a one-way street where one posts and another reads. There is no EXCHANGE of ideas.
Does anyone have some good links to AI discussion forums? I have speant hours googling to no avail. I am not interested in the SingInst. And the comp.ai.* newsgroups have all been overrun by trolls and grad students "calling for all papers" for seminars on campuses that are hundreds of miles away from me.
Thanks for your help.
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Hang in there we have others who may divulge some info if they have it! Good luck.. cool subject. We have a couple threads dealing with this I believe. I will look see if I can find them and post them up for you!
Welcome to the forum!
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Sorry, but I don't know of any. If I come across any I'll post the links here.
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If you have read papers on the subject, then why not see if you can email the authors of the papers to ask the same question you have asked here.
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If you have read papers on the subject, then why not see if you can email the authors of the papers to ask the same question you have asked here.
Well I guess my response to this would be that these academic professionals are already kneck-deep immersed in a community of people doing research. It's not clear that they would even 'want' a forum outside their cloistered walls.
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It's not clear that they would even 'want' a forum outside their cloistered walls.
Is there any reason that they might not be prepared to have a conversation on a very complicated subject with someone who seems not to know much about it?
Perhaps I could think of one. They might need some indication of 'authority' about the topic before spending too much time on someone's views on it. You may need to establish some 'cred' first.
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It's not clear that they would even 'want' a forum outside their cloistered walls.
Is there any reason that they might not be prepared to have a conversation on a very complicated subject with someone who seems not to know much about it?
Perhaps I could think of one. They might need some indication of 'authority' about the topic before spending too much time on someone's views on it. You may need to establish some 'cred' first.
But is that not catch 22 - and somewhat ivory tower.
I agree some might well feel that way, but they are human beings, endowed with human diversity, and some are just as likely to be happy that someone outside their ivory tower is actually interested in what they do, and wants the opportunity to listen in and learn (and who knows, one day they may even develop some 'cred' - but then, that might put their own exclusivity at risk).
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'They' publish. It's the way they converse. If you want to join the club you have to do the same. Publishing something of substance shows that you may be worth listening to. 'They' can't be expected to give equal weight to every idea that is thrown into the pool. That would be totally inefficient, amongst other things.
Meanwhile, one can read the publications and become well informed. After all, you can't reject what you haven't fully researched. I have personally spent many hours of actual reading on subjects about which I have given opinions; It's not only off the top of my head.
I am sure that, on these forums, if a total newbie quotes a passage or even a whole paper and says "I don't understand this bit" there will be someone interested to try for a constructive answer.
An 'exchange' of views is all very well but only if the views from both sides (as are yours, A-S) are thoughtful and worth answering.
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Actually I never made any concession to having ideas "accepted" or "rejected".
An exchange would mean something like
"I was having idea X, are you aware of anyone who has published on X?"
"Yes I am, try such and such person."
The possibility that information may be reciprocated later is rare, but entirely possible. If you look at my posts on the SF forum you will see me doing this exact thing.
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That's ok
An exchange would mean something like
"I was having idea X, are you aware of anyone who has published on X?"
"Yes I am, try such and such person."
that's a fair enough comment.
But why not use the standard ways of searching for learned publications?
There have always been lists of abstracts of journals and, with the Internet, it is even easier to find stuff.
Information searching is a worthwhile skill to develop.
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That's ok
An exchange would mean something like
"I was having idea X, are you aware of anyone who has published on X?"
"Yes I am, try such and such person."
that's a fair enough comment.
But why not use the standard ways of searching for learned publications?
There have always been lists of abstracts of journals and, with the Internet, it is even easier to find stuff.
Information searching is a worthwhile skill to develop.
See.. now you are simply changing the subject. I have found publications and read them. In fact, I have read several academic pubs from the internet that are over 200 pages long. And the implication that you think I somehow don't have a information searching skill is an unnecessary insult.
Academic pubs are a one-way street. One writes and another reads. There is no EXCHANGE of ideas. I'd like an EXCHANGE of ideas. I hope you see the difference. I'm pretty sure I made that clear. So what is the response of this forum? That no such place exists anymore on the internet? Is that the "final answer" that is being given by this forum?
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In fact, I have read several academic pubs from the internet that are over 200 pages long.
Length is no guarantee of accuracy or quality - just read some of the posts on these forums!
I think that the sort of 'exchange' you are after involves a much shorter time scale than the conventional academic system of exchange - and that is just what the learned papers are. They are subject to peer review and tend, therefore to be much more rigorous.
There is no point in getting cross about the situation about the interest level in AI. I'm afraid. Contributing to these forums is not compulsory; people vote with their keyboards. There are a lot of topics which elicit a breathtaking level of 'exchange'- much of it very suspect but that's people for you.
I repeat, if you really want to find out about it and to get the best value from your time, you may have to go to your local library and order something which an academic database throws up. If you are really serious enough about it you can email an author with a question / 'view'. If you are 'polite' enough you may get a useful response. But you won't manage to change minds unless you go through the system and establish some credentials.