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Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013

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On Saturday, September 7, 2013 Mentifex wrote a new excerpt:

On Saturday afternoon Jeff telephoned his cab-driver 
friend Dmitri and asked him to look for Leroy Matthews 
among the drunks and derelicts in the Tenderloin District. 
Dmitri protested, "I don't know what he looks like. 
How am I supposed to identify him?"

"Just look for the most down-and-out, most totally 
degraded guy you can find. That will be Leroy."

When he got a chance, Dmitri parked his cab and 
walked into a little square ringed with benches 
upon which the drunks and stumble-bums were enjoying 
the late-summer afternoon. One imbiber shuffled 
towards Dmitri, extended his wine bottle and 
slurred, "Hi, buddy! Wanna sip?"

Dmitri got on the phone and described the engaging 
drunk to Jeff, who objected, "You mean to say he can 
still stand up and he makes sense when he talks? 
No, that does not sound like Leroy on a bender. 
Keep moving."

Next Dmitri encountered a shabby drunk unconscious 
on a bench and snoring to beat the band. Dmitri got 
back in touch with Jeff and lamented, "The number 
of drunks in this place is staggering. I have a new 
candidate for you. He's passed out on a bench and 
he looks like a long-haired hippie. Should I wake him up?"

"First describe him to me. Does he have a backpack?"

"No, he has a brown paper bag with a bottle of booze 
in it. He's wearing a red flannel shirt with a pack 
of cigarettes in the pocket."

"Forget that guy, Dmitri, Leroy doesn't smoke. 
Are there any other possibilities?"

"I've pretty much canvassed all of them. No, wait, 
there's something over there behind the bushes." 
Dmitri stepped closer to get a good look. "Oh no, 
it can't be this guy. This guy is absolutely, 
totally wasted. I'm getting out of here."

"Just a moment, Dmitri. What has the wasted guy 
been drinking? Tokay, or Thunderbird?"

"Uh, lemme see here. Courvoisier."

"Courvoisier? That's Leroy! Now, Dmitri, approach 
the gentleman with extreme caution. The drunker he is, 
the more dangerous he is."

Dmitri hunkered down at a safe distance and started 
alling out Leroy's name. The world's greatest Python 
programmer wiggled like a snake and opened a lazy eye. 
"Whaddaya want?" mumbled Leroy Matthews.

"Jeffery Boondock has a job for you."

"What kind of job?"

"He needs you to create the firmware for a 64-bit Forth chip."

"Geddout of here. Forth chips are eight-bit, not 64-bit.

"It's a Forth supercomputer. It has to be 64-bit."

"Tell Jeff to find shum other shucker. I'm not going 
to write 64-bit floating point for anybody. Go away!"

"There is no floating point. It's a very special-purpose 
chip. It handles only the most primitive Forth instructions. 
No complex math is involved."

"What's the special purpose? What's the application?"

"AI."

"Huh?" said Leroy, with a very worried look on his face.

"AI. Artificial intelligence. Are you up for that?

Leroy Matthews scrambled to his feet. He picked up 
his backpack, but the contents spilled on the ground. 
There was a book on Python, written by him. There was 
a book on Lisp, written by him. There was a book 
called Thinking Forth, written by Leo Brodie. 
"Lesh go shumwhere we can talk. Where's Jeffy-Boy?" 

Please get in the cab, Mr. Matthews. We are going to 
meet Jeffery at a Starbucks and put some coffee in you."

-- 
http://www.amazon.com/Arthur-T.-Murray/e/B004OKWAM8 -- late 2013.

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Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-05 10:10 -0700
  Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-07 11:45 -0700
    Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-08 07:35 -0700
      Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-09 09:39 -0700
        Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 "David N. Williams" <williams@umich.edu> - 2013-09-09 16:20 -0400
          Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-09-10 00:26 -0700
            Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-18 08:09 -0700
              Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-09-18 08:21 -0700
                Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-18 10:19 -0700
                Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 Mark Wills <markrobertwills@yahoo.co.uk> - 2013-09-19 01:07 -0700
                Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-19 07:31 -0700
  Re: Excerpt from Strong AI sci-fi e-book ETA late 2013 mentifex@myuw.net - 2013-09-22 04:39 -0700

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