Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!news.dfn.de!scsing.switch.ch!swidir.switch.ch!univ-lyon1.fr!jussieu.fr!math.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!netline-fddi.jpl.nasa.gov!wiretap.spies.com!times.aux.apple.com!mumbo.apple.com!gallant.apple.com!NewsWatcher!user
From: sandvik@newton.apple.com (Kent Sandvik)
Subject: Re: CYC and I-F
Sender: news@gallant.apple.com
Message-ID: <sandvik-020894161547@17.205.4.47>
Date: Wed, 3 Aug 1994 00:15:47 GMT
References: <whittenCtKn79.A2F@netcom.com> <CtvBos.v8@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Organization: 5 Billion CD Titles, Inc.
Followup-To: rec.arts.int-fiction
Lines: 30

In article <CtvBos.v8@acsu.buffalo.edu>, goetz@cs.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz)
wrote:

> Doug Lenat has proposed using Cyc for interactive fiction or virtual
> reality, but the odds that you'll get to incorporate it into TADS are low.
> Cyc is free, but you have gto sign a nondisclosure agreement to get it.
> They don't mean to put it into the public domain.  They won't even give it
> to someone whose security is not good enough for them.

As I know one of the long term plans with Cyc is to have one or many
of these online, available through a TCP connection, so you could issue
questions and get resolutions. I'm not sure of the payment system, though.

Personally I think this makes sense, because then you don't need to waste
a lot of CPU cycles, neither disk or RAM space, for a fairly complete
knowledge system. This all also implies that households and similar
environments where games using Cyc are distributed will have access
to one or many decent high-speed networks. I truly hope that this aspect
of possibilities -- querying existing bigger servers on a network -- would
be fully explored. There's a lot of intriguing cross-relations based 
on such designs. Sort of open-ended services, knowledge available 
as easily as electricity. And the basic games could be run on a Nintendo
with 1MB RAM!

Wintermute is nearer than we think.

Cheers, Kent
-- 
KenT SandviK: sandvik@apple.com
                                    -- Private activities on the net. ---
