Re: Boid writeup idea

Andrew,

Systems are rather like languages.  I'm not sure there is any one
reserved word/command that makes ruby "better" than another language -
but somehow the sum of all the parts turns into something very
powerful.

I'm not ashamed, rather I'm PROUD that I have had to use Prolog or
something to get useful work done.

And yes, heads on, "get it done wise" this is an INSANE approach to
any one  problem,  but it also has some general utility.   I'm
struggling to keep the lines so there is a framework to get pulled out
of it BUT that is not as simple as it might seem.

What justifies the efforts, to my thinking, and this was a
"requirement" from the git-go is this:

1   People experience things anywhere, anytime, anyplace

2.  Some people experience exceptional things of exception worth to
other people  (We are all a big Swarm you know....)

((3   Text is based on language, we don't all share it.  We are
overwhelmed by blobs of it. They get lost, confused, misunderstood, re-
retranslated and eventualy just plain boring.  Our CPU based friends
have a bigger contribution to make than dynamic tags to point to more
of the same.))

4. In steps a "BOID" - its a crisp, clear, set of basic assertions
that can be authored into a basic "form" by a "Expert Session" and you
have the "Shell" for something useful.  Its a mini-plug-let.   Its a
class.   Its a text file.   Its doesn't DO anything - it gets done to,
but it makes a small contribution momentarily to something bigger -
give me 1000 of these things and you can replace a average WalMart
clerk, and an average "department"
depth of knowledge wise.  (Like I heard myself tell Andrew - it might
be in charge of "vacuum cleaners" and the individual Boid might be one
of 100 dedicated to the world changing task of calculating the average
monthly cost of filters for your house size / family, and number of
long hair cats - ) Well Andrew didn't let me finish but he
understood.

5. Back to #1!   yes these things could get blasted at info on an
exchange and so on BUT I think a salient point is getting
transliterated out of things here: THE WEB DOES THE TIME/PLACE thing
for us, the "most exciting" thing I see about these things is that
they can put the Doctor's experience in Israel into a usable FORM (out
pops the boid) - and that Boid can get fired!  at your Medical Records
before your surgery in Boston.  Routinely - no midnight calls, no blue
lights, just a Right Boid at the right time (but one of millions)
making some sort of contribution to the world system.

Its a probability thing, like a "Hero pet cat" - there are millions of
them sleeping/eating/and pooping all across our country - eventually
one of them is going to wake us up before a fire - well, something
like that - if we bred smoke sensitive cats that were pre-programmed
to jammer when there is smoke - they could be called fuzzy friendly
feline Foids or something..... but they'd have a USE and if I have a
point in this paragraph that is probably it.  And this isn't entirely
off the wall because I'm learning from actual experience with really
"pumped up patient records / 10 or so health conditions) that about
1/2 my boids DON'T FIRE - and that's at "two passes" - I'm seeing
3-4-5 passes for many problems domains.


BTW - I woke up thinking about the best name for this, and I think,
unless there are working Boids somewhere that are offended by it, I
like the "Boid" name best precisely because they contribute somehow to
the confusion that must proceed the "ah ha" moment when it all clicks
into place.  If really bright guys like Andrew  hear a phrase he
thinks he knows, no flag goes up, and he thinks "oh another Rinda
based sextuples" how boring is that?  These little guys are not
pretentious - they are working class, pabst drinking, tv watching
little worker boids that go to work and get something done.  (like
their SwarmShepherd - me)

I took out TheSwarmShepherd.com/.net to present these things to the
world but the service company running linux expert that was going to
do this never got going on it so I just keep pounding away at software
wondering when/how to plug this into the bigger system that I think it
belongs in.

and one last BTW - I have picked a domain with really good data for my
commercial path - DRUGS - but the OTC / Herbal medicine based ones -
the 380 or so officially sanctioned guys, some of which were used by
Roman legion doctors, passed to the Arab lands, came back, jumped the
ocean and are appearing on the counter at your neighborhood
Walgreen's.  All of which I find fascinating.  I have a 300 page book
by Canadian writers, based on German "monograms" the guts of which
I've maybe 40% translated into Boidalese.   Give me a list of your
health issues, and so far I catch all the matching conditions, and
list all the contra-indications and give me 50 more boids and I'll
list all the adverse effects.  They will easily estimate your daily
costs and such if/when actual instances of these drugs are plugged
into the system - all info readily available on the net.


And that's my addition to Andrew's comments - I think he sees uses in
domains near and dear to him and he has given himself a few hours to
think about it, I've been staying awake nights for months working with
it, he might be 100X brighter than I am but I don't think he's had the
chance to think out what all makes up the value of the results.  the
Doctor in Israel thing is highly concocted, but that's a life to get
saved and there's is a point in there that nothing like that appears
to me to be happening yet.  So if all the university stuff is so
advanced, then WHY NOT?   The technology is just sitting there - it's
in your plain Ruby without a single gem to pump it up until this gets
connected to the Web.

Sorry if I rambled.



TheSwarmShepherd,

thunk