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Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

acuman.us

261–270 of 311 posts

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for your kindness and for sharing that information.

You are a genius, when I was 14, the only thing I cared about was Diablo II...

They can never take that away from us.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#262
Done by a 14 year old. Just made me think less of myself in the technology sphere.

I see a lot of possibilities. In essence, this could actually be a game changer - regardless of any field of implementation.

I hope you would provide more insight on how you built this - the technology, method of writing, inspiration (if any), and just knowing how to build something as amazing as this.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#263
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope on both counts. It's a common idiom to say that someone is 'very pregnant'.

That simply means they have a very large baby bump. It does not mean that they are "more pregnant" than a lady with a smaller bump. Pregnancy is a binary state.

Pretty much nothing is binary. Pregnancy is only approximately binary. Whether you're right or wrong about it certainly isn't. And nobody uses language in a binary manner.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#265
post #264

Asked "will it rain today?" and it answered "I don't know if you will t rain today, that's your life and decisions." Seems to have parsed "will i..." rather than "will it..." So will I t rain or not, hmm I suppose I'll have to decide.

That's actually a glitch that I am fixing... desperately! Some of the backend APIs are down due to excessive requests, so I am trying to get them back up.

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you want to argue English usage with Shakespeare, that's your business. "My matter hath no voice, to your own most pregnant and vouchsafed ear." -- Viola, "Twelfth Night"

This argument that "Shakespeare wrote this therefore it's right" doesn't work. Read How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin for several instances of where Shakespeare made English mistakes and how to actually write correct English without appeal to authority. That argument works, though, if we were speaking a language with a regulating body, such as French or Portuguese. Those regulating bodies define their…

English isn't a compiled language. We can offer expressions that violate its "rules" and are still effective and powerful. It cannot be any other way. We know from Godel that no logical system can be consistent _and_ complete, so the use any human language must either admit violations of principle or accept limitations on what can be said in that language. It is the quality and success of the expression, not its compliance with grammatical rules, by which we judge expressions. The tests are "do you know what is meant" and "could it be said better", not "is it grammatical".

There are, therefore, no hard and fast authorities on English usage. English has principles and precedents, but not rules, and good writing is that which uses or violates those principles to communicate effectively. Shakespeare isn't an authority on usage, he's a compendium of examples of how usage can be harnessed for expression.

Now following those principles, and leveraging the readers' understanding and usage of them, allows far more expressive sentences. Gibbon writes enormous sentences that are clear as water and more efficient than any possible revision. Lincoln, by mastery of grammar, was able to express himself both powerfully and precisely. But the rules are in the service of expression, and good writers depart them when they don't permit the expression of what they want to say.

Complaints about the "mistakes" of great authors are generally mistakes about what the other meant to say, or insistence on some compliance that would damage brevity or power or nuance without adding any clarity. On ten minutes googling Devlin, I couldn't find a single "mistake" whose correction would clearly improve the sentence. Several of his examples miss the point, or weaken the sentence.

But if you want an authority, go to C.S. Lewis:

"About amn't I, aren't I and am I not, of course there are no right or wrong answers about language in the sense in which there are right and wrong answers in Arithmetic. . . . Don't take any notice of teachers and textbooks in such matters. Nor of logic. It is good to say "more than one passenger was hurt," although more than one equals at least two and therefore logically the verb ought to be plural were not singular was!"

http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/04/c-s-lewis-on-writing.ht...

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#268
post #264

Asked "will it rain today?" and it answered "I don't know if you will t rain today, that's your life and decisions." Seems to have parsed "will i..." rather than "will it..." So will I t rain or not, hmm I suppose I'll have to decide.

That's actually a glitch that I am fixing... desperately! Some of the backend APIs are down due to excessive requests, so I am trying to get them back up.

Nice. And great work by the way!

Re: Show HN: I'm a 14 year-old dev who has programmed an artificial intelligence bot

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

So Humpty Dumpty is a relativist? "It just means what I choose it to mean" is the basis of Relativism. Could Humpty Dumpty say "I like ice cream" and mean "atoms are actually divisible"? If not then does that mean your argument is a boatload of crap?

When someone quotes a great author, they are often not standing on a single sentence, but on the larger meaning of some story signified by that sentence. Star Trek's Tamarians whole language was references to stories -- "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" is, for them, a highly compressed statement. So literature enormously expands our vocabulary, allowing us to use quotes as "pointers" to ideas much larger than anything we could state briefly.

Humpty is a great story: http://sabian.org/looking_glass6.php, it's a wonderful exploration of meaning and usage.

But I'll unpack some of here.

Here's the lead up to the quote I gave:

"[Humpty said:] As I was saying, that seems to be done right — though I haven't time to look it over thoroughly just now — and that shows that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents —'

'Certainly,' said Alice.

'And only one for birthday presents, you know. There's glory for you!'

'I don't know what you mean by "glory",' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't — till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"' 'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument",' Alice objected."

I think it is clear that Humpty's meaning was quite obvious, and Alice's complaint a bit dense. But while Humpty insists that he must tell Alice what he means, we can see that he needn't.

Of course, this word commanding business is as dangerous as you note, and Lewis Carroll is on the case:

"Alice was too much puzzled to say anything; so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. 'They've a temper, some of them — particularly verbs: they're the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot of them! Impenetrability! That's what I say!'

'Would you tell me please,' said Alice, 'what that means?'

'Now you talk like a reasonable child,' said Humpty Dumpty, looking very much pleased. 'I meant by "impenetrability" that we've had enough of that subject, and it would be just as well if you'd mention what you mean to do next, as I suppose you don't mean to stop here all the rest of your life.'

'That's a great deal to make one word mean,' Alice said in a thoughtful tone.

'When I make a word do a lot of work like that,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'I always pay it extra.'"

On the one hand, words can have many meanings, and any particular meaning must in part be taken from context. On the other hand, if we just try to _impose_ a meaning on a word, we defeat all communication, and make ourselves ridiculous to boot.

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