From: "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <znmeb@...>
Date: 2006-09-01T13:14:39+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] How to spy on the Japanese Rubists

Paul Robinson wrote:
> 
> Shouldn't be - all a brain is, is a computer - and I know that gcc can
> parse syntax within a context far more accurately than I can. What you
> actually need is a compiler of natural languages - a very, very big
> syntax parsing mechanism - and then we have all the right tools we need.
> If somebody is able to write a tool that can translate ruby into C
> accurately, I don't see why somebody can't write a tool that can
> translate Japanese into English using a similar set of methods.
> 
> Anyway, enough of that, we're way off topic. Interesting discussion. :-)

Back in the good old days, people were predicting that "artificial
intelligence", meaning machines playing grandmaster chess, making
intelligent translations of English to Russian and back again, and being
indistinguishable from a human in an interview via teletype, was "just
around the corner."

well, there's Deep Blue ... there's BabalFish ... and there are
"chatbots" that can at least fool a lovestruck teenager. :)

But ... it took a *lot* longer than people back in the late 1950s
thought it would, didn't it? :)