I blame liberal-arts academics, who are jealous of the strides science and technology have made over the past hundred years while their disciplines -- philosophy, literature, political science, history -- have either been irrelevancies or the handmaidens of mass murder.
Really? I think the liberal arts majors have got a point. Maybe I'm misreading this, but it is sounding to me like more and more people think technology has supplanted the need for "irrelevencies" like what you've mentioned, and it's this sort of attitude that they're reacting to.
Just for the sake of argument... I draw. I take pencils and make pretty things on sheets of paper. I've been working on it for seven or eight years and I'm pretty damn good at it, if you don't mind my saying so.
A couple of weeks ago I overheard a conversation where one of the people was programming for some kind of video game, and was saying to another guy that he didn't need anyone to give him graphics for this game, 'cause he'd use genetic algorithms to cause the various monsters and whatnot to "evolve." He said the game would "design itself."
Now, I don't know much about genetic algorithms, and I don't know if there are any that are sophisticated enough to come up with spiffy looking killable game critters. I don't think they are.
So this guy was willing to put in the time and effort to make one work with his particular game just so that he wouldn't have to hire a guy to draw the things.
That seems kind of hostile to me, but who knows? He might just have been full of it, and trying to impress people.
Anyway, you get my drift.
-charlie
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I blame liberal-arts academics, who are jealous of the strides science and technology have made over the past hundred years while their disciplines -- philosophy, literature, political science, history -- have either been irrelevancies or the handmaidens of mass murder. Really? I think the liberal arts majors have got a point. Maybe I'm misreading this, but it is sounding to me like more and more people think technology has supplanted the need for "irrelevencies" like what you've mentioned, and it's this sort of attitude that they're reacting to. Just for the sake of argument... I draw. I take pencils and make pretty things on sheets of paper. I've been working on it for seven or eight years and I'm pretty damn good at it, if you don't mind my saying so. A couple of weeks ago I overheard a conversation where one of the people was programming for some kind of video game, and was saying to another guy that he didn't need anyone to give him graphics for this game, 'cause he'd use genetic algorithms to cause the various monsters and whatnot to "evolve." He said the game would "design itself." Now, I don't know much about genetic algorithms, and I don't know if there are any that are sophisticated enough to come up with spiffy looking killable game critters. I don't think they are. So this guy was willing to put in the time and effort to make one work with his particular game just so that he wouldn't have to hire a guy to draw the things. That seems kind of hostile to me, but who knows? He might just have been full of it, and trying to impress people. Anyway, you get my drift. -charlie