[E-Lang] Re: Pet Extensions and such (was: what is good about E?)

[Marc Stiegler]

> I was just thinking about how cars and homes with locks will be much more
> usable once they are smart enough to recognize people so you won't need
keys
> (other than your hand, voice, or appearance). That got me thinking how
maybe
> what grandmothers need is an intelligent agent that grants capabilities on
> their behalf. While AI has a long way to go, such an agent need only do at
> least as well as a typical grandmother. I'm trying hard not to be
insulting
> to the stereotype grandmother but I don't think it is so hard to define a
> set of rules that will work better than she will. Or are there decisions
> that require lots of "common sense"?

Since I'm never quite sure what people mean when they say "AI", I observe
that simple capability bundling (gameBundle, officeApp bundle, etc) are the
first and perhaps the most interesting step along this path: such bundles
embody the insight of a smart capabilities person and present it in a very
easy to use fashion.

On the other hand, there are other things that grandmothers can certainly
learn, but it wouldn't be bad to have software support for (in the Ken Kahn
Installer, the much-revered installer that will one day replace the clunky
old Marc Stiegler Installer, I can see the headline in PC Magazine now :-).
A first example rule for an AI or a grandmother to learn is, be very leary
of software that wants both to read your files and connect to the Internet.
Mail tools do this, and for ease of use really have to; web browsers
designed like today's web browsers do this, but don't have to (you could use
Ping/Miriam style factories to make a web browser that reads local files and
has no web connection authority, and another web browser that has connection
authority but which you never grant a file reading authority to; for
grandmothers this is more security than they need at a price of clumsiness
they really don't want, but for others it could make sense).

Anyway, I can't yet surmise whether a simple AI would work better than a
grandmother who had taken a beginner's class in computer operation that
includes a short section on capability granting. The other important
grandmother rule is, "if an application asks for a bunch of different
capabilities, just say no" because very few applications really need a lot
of caps.

--marcs