Alistair Davidson
@moh_kohn@mastodon.scot  ·  activity timestamp 7 hours ago
What interests me about these scenarios is not that they make fantastic, unrealistic promises, or that the instructions given by the user are couched in simple English, or that they embody such a grand vision. Rather, it is interesting that it is the programmer who is to control all of the computational magic. As Tesler says, programmers will endow computer-agents with their basic capabilities, even meeting such exciting challenges as pro gramming the computer to know what users will think before they think it! By comparison, notice the relationship of the end user to the computer; the end user is engaged in the most humdrum activities: making queries regarding a phone conversation, asking the computer to set up an appointment, requesting articles from the library. Now contrast this vision of the computer-agent with what Alan Kay envisions for educational software: children writing simulations of complex natural phenomena such as bi ological and physical systems to better understand how they function. Kay's colleagues have created a simulation construction kit for children so that they can build their own simulations. The construction kit lets children write simple scripts that model animal behavior. Using the kit they can change parameters to see how changing conditions affect the animal. This use of computers is an instance of what Tesler called the "personal implement": the children are doing nothing more or less than programming.
What interests me about these scenarios is not that they make fantastic, unrealistic promises, or that the instructions given by the user are couched in simple English, or that they embody such a grand vision. Rather, it is interesting that it is the programmer who is to control all of the computational magic. As Tesler says, programmers will endow computer-agents with their basic capabilities, even meeting such exciting challenges as pro gramming the computer to know what users will think before they think it! By comparison, notice the relationship of the end user to the computer; the end user is engaged in the most humdrum activities: making queries regarding a phone conversation, asking the computer to set up an appointment, requesting articles from the library. Now contrast this vision of the computer-agent with what Alan Kay envisions for educational software: children writing simulations of complex natural phenomena such as bi ological and physical systems to better understand how they function. Kay's colleagues have created a simulation construction kit for children so that they can build their own simulations. The construction kit lets children write simple scripts that model animal behavior. Using the kit they can change parameters to see how changing conditions affect the animal. This use of computers is an instance of what Tesler called the "personal implement": the children are doing nothing more or less than programming.
What interests me about these scenarios is not that they make fantastic, unrealistic promises, or that the instructions given by the user are couched in simple English, or that they embody such a grand vision. Rather, it is interesting that it is the programmer who is to control all of the computational magic. As Tesler says, programmers will endow computer-agents with their basic capabilities, even meeting such exciting challenges as pro gramming the computer to know what users will think before they think it! By comparison, notice the relationship of the end user to the computer; the end user is engaged in the most humdrum activities: making queries regarding a phone conversation, asking the computer to set up an appointment, requesting articles from the library. Now contrast this vision of the computer-agent with what Alan Kay envisions for educational software: children writing simulations of complex natural phenomena such as bi ological and physical systems to better understand how they function. Kay's colleagues have created a simulation construction kit for children so that they can build their own simulations. The construction kit lets children write simple scripts that model animal behavior. Using the kit they can change parameters to see how changing conditions affect the animal. This use of computers is an instance of what Tesler called the "personal implement": the children are doing nothing more or less than programming.
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