Article:		Basic Training
Subject:		xml is insufficient
Date:		2002-04-01 08:41:10
From:		Fakee Fakerson
I can only assume that this sentence was written specifically for shock value... "First, the whole body of human knowledge, experience, and understanding can be expressed in terms of plain text; if something cannot be so expressed, it might as well not exist." This statement is so horribly wrong. In fact little of what humanity knows, experiences, and understands can be expressed in plain text (especially at this point). First off, you know how to balance right? Now explain exactly how you do that in plain text. This is why Artificial Intelligence and Robotics are such challenging fields. We know what we want to happen (we can do it ourselves) but we have no way of expressing that in words. It seems that some of the most basic things we experience are the hardest to explain. Secondly, we are capable of being irrational, emotional, angry. Plain text is insufficient, xml is insufficient, it encourages linear thinking, hierarchy, and rational thought. In general it converts our thinking into a computers and not the other way around. To sum up, xml is only useful to store a very small subset of our human knowledge, experience, and understanding. It is like a small patch loosely placed over a whole in a balloon. pop.

Previous Message

Next Message

• xml does the job
  2002-04-08 09:38:49 j ogden
  • xml does the job
    2002-04-08 11:35:05 Fakee Fakerson