Prelude

  Date: Fri, 08 Nov 1996 01:32:54 -0500
  From: master8 
  To: joke@Germany.EU.net
  Subject: Re: HORSE RACING AND AI..IMPOSSIBLE?

  Joerg Heitkoetter wrote:
  >
  > In article <3281E6C8.10C2@concentric.net>, master8  writes:
  > |> I am looking for some one who might have experience in this field
  > |> dealing with horse racing and AI. I have the horse racing program,
  > |> ROI's at 20-35%...just want to make it better...
  > |>
  > |> Any input?
  > Ask Charles Babbage.
  who is charles babbage? where do i find him?

  To: master8@concentric.net
  Subject: Re: HORSE RACING AND AI..IMPOSSIBLE?
  In-reply-to: Your message of "Fri, 08 Nov 1996 01:32:54 EST."
               <3282D416.4DAA@concentric.net>
  Mime-Version: 1.0
  Content-Type: text/plain
  --------
  
  Hi there, the short answer to your question is:
  
  Charles Babbage (1792-1871) the "father of the computer" started
  building something in 1821 he called "differential engine"--then
  abandoned his plans when in 1834 he came across a steam powered loom,
  hat was programmable with punch cards, invented by Jean-Marie Jaquard
  (1752-1834); he went on to build an "analytical engine" but never
  finished it. However, the concepts of the analytcal engine is mostly
  the same the concept used in todays PC. (In 1991 it was rebuilt at
  the London Science museum; it really works--you can visit it.)
  
  At Babbages time, he had some funds raised for his differential engine
  (actually 17,470 pound sterling; at that time a locomotive cost only
  about 1,000 pounds sterling) and the English research society didn't
  wanted to grant more money for a second project, since Babbage still
  didn't finish the first engine;
  
  So Babbage needed money, and that's where the horses come into play:
  Only one person trusted Babbage at that time: Lady Ada Lovelace,
  daughter of the famous Lord Byron, she was she first programmer
  (that's why the programming language ADA is named after her), and had
  a fortune that she handed over to Babbage. Babbage needed to enlarge
  this fortune and promptly invented a failsafe algorithm for horse
  races. Needless to say that he lost Ada's fortune, who died early
  afterward.
  
  So, what does this have to do with ai? Easy--computers can only
  efficiently compute things that you can already compute/handle in the
  real world; if you cannot give a real world algorithm (as for horse
  racing) and implement a model of the algorithm on a computer;
  you cannot expect ai to work for you. And once you have a real world
  algorithm to beat the odds of horse races, you don't want it on
  computers, since it would be easy to copy to everyone, which would render
  the whole system of horse races useless.
  
  So yes, it *is* impossible.
  
  Have fun,	-joke
  
  Boah ey, bei EUnet gib's jetz' den Mickeyschrott Exploder 3.01 für lau.
  (Wow, EUnet now offers the fine Microsoft Explorer 3.01 for free download.)