[thelist] Re: philosophical or possibly somewhat OT

[Carol Stein]

Hi, All --

I understand most of you are far too busy to step back and take a "long
view," but it seems to me that it is time for us to think about where we're
going with this Web and "Web development" stuff. Why RIA? What should
happen online, and what offline (even apart from security concerns)?

No matter how wrapped up we are in changing the look or presentation or
architecture of information, we are still talking about presenting
information, right? HTML =/= (not equal to) programming, it's a MARK-UP
language. So, okay, we reached the stage of using database engines and code
to selectively present specific information from a very large mass of data,
and we use JS or Java for fancy tricks, but how much further do we want to
go down that road?

We all know coding by committee stinks -- or to put it positively, the best
code is always (in my long experience) written by an individual, albeit
often enhanced or expanded by other coders later. Most thinking work (and
we largely consider computers to be tools to aid our thinking, right?) is
best performed by individuals. So what is it that we DO want to enable
humans to do collectively? (That is the point of having an application
networked, isn't it?) We already have groupware for scheduling meetings,
editing technical documents in progress, etc.

I recently wrote a paper (just posted as a "winning entry" on an artificial
intelligence site <http://ai-depot.com>) as part of the process of trying
to imagine how I would want AI agents to communicate with me, in the
fast-approaching age of ubiquitous and wearable computing -- and you know
what? We, collectively, have been unable even to imagine it. Jean-Luc
Picard has a LAPTOP in his ready room. "Mother" gives information to Ripley
basically on request, or when there is a clear and obvious threat.

In my paper, I proposed that the ubiquitous and wearable computer will
actually be a dual machine -- the online (or library computer) and offline
(personal computer) will be segregated, because their functions are so
separable. So, let's start thinking about this issue, seriously: What
applications will really belong online? Why? 

I'd love feedback on the paper, btw. Or proposals for an *appropriate* AI
interface for a (wearable) PC.

Cheers --
Carol