[r6rs-discuss] JAR statement

[Jon Wilson]

Brian Harvey wrote:
> 1.  My original point was that the word "progress" automatically puts
> people in the frame of mind that says things should keep changing -- it's
> a very loaded word that distorts people's understanding.  Rather than find
> a definition, we should agree to use a more neutral word, such as "change,"
> so as not to introduce unexamined presuppositions into the discussion.

If I might invoke the names of my betters:

"    In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as 
he sat hacking at the PDP-6.

     "What are you doing?", asked Minsky.
     "I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-tac-toe", 
Sussman replied.
     "Why is the net wired randomly?", asked Minsky.
     "I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play", 
Sussman said.

     Minsky then shut his eyes.
     "Why do you close your eyes?" Sussman asked his teacher.
     "So that the room will be empty."
     At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.