Check up on the status of Prof. Kalway's new researches into digital intelligence or return to Sunnydale MU Main screen
As the first month of its operation nears an end, The MUS DIAB Project once
again becomes the focus of an MUSpectatorOnline feature. SpectatorOnline was
fortunate enough to receive Professor Kalway's and Ms. Rosenberg's cooperation
in a recent online interview. The following is a selected transcript of that
interview. The full interview is available on the MUSpectatorOnline homepage.
Feb 22, 1999
SO: Well, congratulations are in order, Professor, after four weeks of intense
operation. Could you give us some idea of the scope of your investigations
so far, and if possible, what your future plans are?
PK: Thanks muchly! The first four weeks have gone pretty smoothly, except
for some minor hardware problems. Nothing serious, just one bank of tape ROMs
is acting up. I think this is the last time we believe Colorado's hype.
WR: I should cut in here, Professor. He tends to ramble off-topic
sometimes.
So far, we've been setting up some basic a.i. and d.i. networks. Nothing too
grand yet. We got hold of 3 mint condition Hobbit processors, which have come
in handy, but the main focus has so far been on running the parallel Qix emulators
simultaneously with the Tempest net. Some of the Z80s kept burning out, though.
PK: Those were a mess. Luckily, P.E.W. up at MUBel has a huge cache of them,
so we were saved there. The Qix net was pretty benign, but after 10 days, the
Tempest d.i. was clearly going insolent, so we had to shut it down. Not sure yet,
but I think that's why the Z80s kept burning out.
SO: What are you plans for the rest of the term?
WR: First, I want to test that insolent hypothesis!:) We don't want any hasty
conclusions around here.
PK: Oh certainly! And for what's left of the rest of the term, I think we'll get
the Fatal Query stuff going. We want to see if my hypothesis about the behaviour
of 286s with F.Q. 0.8 holds up.
WR: I also want to test some self-generated ai's. See if I can get some diabolics
going, and track them across a few planes. That would really help prove Par,
Professor K's hypothesis on the 286s. We also want to get some of the students
involved in the department.
PK: Most definitely. Enrollment has been declining since about 1988 in MUT's dept,
and we really want to create some excitement by getting some crazy stuff
going down here. Maybe, for Cosmonauts' Day in April we might have a d.i. vs
human tournament on the Omega Race LAN, or get some ethicists and metaphysicians
in to debate the Tempest machine. We had a great symposium one year, where this
incredibly malevolent SuperPET net went buck-wild on some wanker from UWO.
WR: And the social benefits are almost endless! I mean, look at the benefits
of getting people involved in digital and artificial intelligence. Before,
we had all these d.i.s running around unsupervised. Now we know a little
about how they arise, and where they go, and how to control some of them. Also,
we get more top notch programmers. Look at Party, I mean Professor Kalway.
Even when he was in undergrad, he could pack more A.I. into 4k than most programmers
can stuff into 4meg today! I was so impressed then.
SO: Um, thanks Ms. R. And Doktor K, do you have any thoughts to close out?
PK: Ya, sure. We're really grateful to my buds at MISKATONCORP for underwriting
this great facility. And also, check out the next issue of Semiotronic. There
should be some stuff about the Z80s in there. Oh, and if the government sends
you any letters, don't bother opening them. They'll only say they were suckers.