by Astro Teller
> I be concerned?
Forget it. I was freaking out about a stupid joke someone played on me. It’s no big deal. There is no edgar@cyprus. That was the joke. It’s not worth another thought (or claiming credit for).
Sorry to bother.
In fact, my dad was on my case _again_ last night about where I should do my post-Doc. I tried to convey the joke to him. Should have known better … I told him I’d invented an artificially intelligent software agent. You know what he said?… “Good. Just making sure they will give you a PhD for it.”
I wish I had your parents. They just ignore you …
8 }
Alice.
(Julie and I might do dinner and maybe Gordon-Biersch tomorrow night and then some X-file reruns … if I can get stuff done reasonably early … Interested?)
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 04:15:28 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: email received
This is my email.
Message 0:
> Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2000 14:19:01 (PST)
>From: [email protected]
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: new account
>
> > Please make account for edgar.
>
> I’m not sure I understand this request, but
> how’s this: There is now a general Edgar
> project account on this machine (cyprus).
> The user name is “edgar”, and the initial
> password is “DRINKME”. You should change to
> a real password as soon as you read this
> (use passwd).
Message 1:
> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 11:45:51 (CST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: FYIGFY
>
> You fucking suck! You nigger fuckers are
> all alike. I’ll bet you used to have an AOL
> account, didn’t you?!!!? Get the fuck
> off our group if white mommas don’t get you
> off.
>
> The Masked Wonder
> “ I may not agree with you and I’ll defend
> with my life my right to shut you up.”
Message 2 :
> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 16:22:17 (PST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: We won’t be overlooked!
>
> Some people are so god-damn condescending.
> Don’t play dumb. We all know what you
> meant. Just leave us alone if you don’t
> have anything supportive to say.
>
> Attacus
Message 3 :
> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 02:00:58 (EST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Illegal Post
>
> This news group is read-only. You may not
> post to this news group.
Message 4:
> Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 12:21:37 (PST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: I am new.
>
> How right you are. The great Zoroaster said
> about deeds :
>
> “Services rendered often remain in the
> ante-chamber, suspicions enter the cabinet.”
>
> ——– ************************* ——–
> <<
> “Ask not for whom the book burns, it burns
> for thee.”
>
> All opinions are my own, but BitSystems
> agrees with me.
> ——– *************************——–
Message 5:
>Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 20:39:26 (EST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Illegal Post
>
> This news group is read-only. You may not
> post to this news group.
Message 6:
> Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 09:29:16 (GMT)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Welcome to the club
>
> Dear Edgar,
>
> I’m so glad we have another albaniaphile
> with us on the net. As the group
> moderator, I’d like to welcome you to the
> group and to encourage you to be an active
> participant.
>
> Below I’ve included the ftp and netscape
> sites that contain most of the collected
> albanian-related news available in the
> world:
>
> to ftp, ftp to ftp.cc.utexas.edu and cd
> to /pub/albanian/
>
> the url address is
> http://www.ibp.com/tip/country/albania.html
>
> Thanks again for joining !
>
> Yours truly,
>
> \ Mara Boric ///
> [email protected]
Message 7 :
> Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2000 19:02:53 (EST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: DJ return-post
>
> This is a news group public service. All
> articles are provided by the Dow-Jones
> moderating staff.
Message 8:
> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 7:23:41 (PST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: measuring sight
>
> You’re in luck, Edgar.
>
> My lab has recently done some work that
> might be of some help to you. To begin
> with, whether you’re right or not can only
> be answered in the context of some
> particular definition of “sight.”
> Butterflies are naturally inquisitive, but
> particularly about potential mates. Our
> current study is an attempt to determine a
> maximum distance at which we can interest a
> male desert hackberry butterfly (Asterocampa
> leilia) in the visual appearance of a female
> butterfly-like model that passes in front of
> the male subject at speeds around 1 foot/
> second. Our best going estimate (only a
> preliminary result, however) is 4 meters
> for the limit at which we can interest the
> male sufficiently to move him from his
> perch.
>
> This response to visual stimulus (and some
> control experiments still need to be done to
> insure that the stimulus is really visual)
> is our working definition of “sight.”
> Clearly, we know very little about what it
> might feel like to be a butterfly or, more
> specifically, to see like one. So our
> attempts to dissect its
> visual-cortex-sensitive behavior should, at
> least for now, be regarded with a skeptical
> interest.
>
> AFAIK A butterfly can see as far as a human,
> to the edge of the universe, but no further.
>
> Professor Anna Blue
> Department of Zoology
> University of California at Berkeley
&
nbsp; > Berkeley, CA 94720-1776
> email: [email protected]
> Work: 510-569-7123 FAX: 510-569-6559
> Home: 510-569-6057
Message 9:
> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2000 16:06:17 (EST)
> From:
> [email protected]_collar.news.clari.com
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: RE: I know a crime.
>
> I’m not sure what to make of your email
> message. You can’t post to this news-group.
> We solicit our articles from specific
> sources.
>
> If you have an unreported crime, you should
> definitely get in touch with your local
> police. This is a forum for airing solved
> white collar crimes, but not reporting
> alleged ones.
>
> ### - Mike Cowman - ###
Message A:
> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2000 14:41:28 (MST)
> From: [email protected]
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Him
>
> > Have you seen Bigfoot?
>
> I’ve been hunting Sasquatch for 22 years now
> and I can tell you that there is a lot of
> bizarre and totally unexplained stuff around
> us that goes totally unnoticed because
> people are just too lazy and comfortable to
> open their eyes and see that we are by no
> means alone on this planet. And I’m not
> talking about bears in the woods if you know
> what I mean.
>
> I have seen Him twice. Both times he
> disappeared again into the trees before I
> could get off a shot, but I carry my Nikon
> to convince others, not myself. I’ve seen
> him. I’ve seen the bigger picture.
>
> oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
> J.E. “It’s there if you’re looking for it.”
> oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I have 9 messages from [email protected].
I send the messages?
edgar.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 08:04:21 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: stop
O.K., O.K.… I’m convinced. No human could be so clueless !
I command you to stop sending out news-group posts and email !
Look at the way you speak. “I send the messages?” People will spot you before too long with grammer like that. It probably won’t even take an expert to place you in the “not human category.” I want to keep you under wraps for just a few more days and your speech could easily sink me if someone with a little intelligence and a little imagination caught wind of it.
I’ll tell you when it’s O.K. to start again.
Continue sending email to me, of course.
No. Don’t bother sending me the email I’ve sent to you.
And, it would be “Shall I send them?” not “I send the messages?”.
I’ll get back to you as soon as I can …
Alice.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 11:01:29 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To : [email protected]
Subject: Possibly
Hi Prof. Liddle,
I want to check a few things but I probably have something really great to show you. I mean REALLY great. I mean, I may be done with my dissertation in a few weeks!
I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Just save me a big chunk of time for, let’s say, Tuesday (if you can).
You’re not going to believe what I’ve done …
Alice Lu.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 12:15:12 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: STOP POSTING
There have been 4 more postings from cyprus to news-groups since I mailed you not 4 hours ago! Was I not specific enough?
Don’t push me. I couldn’t get 5 consecutive minutes of sleep last night.
I forbid you to communicate with anyone but me until _I_ say it’s safe to again. Until I understand what’s happened/happening, my professional career depends on no one knowing about you.
Is that clear?
Alice.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 15:36:42 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: not clear
I am not clear.
Word forbid (fuhr-BID’, fawr-), -bade
(-BAYD’) or -bad (-BAD’) or -bid, -bidden, -bidding, --v.t.
Definition 1. to command a person not to do or have something or not to enter some place: I forbid you to go outside. 2. to prohibit or bar something; make a rule or law against: Insider trading is forbidden. 3. to make impossible; prevent; preclude: Their faith forbids all forms of gluttony.
Etymology ME; OE forbeodan.
Word command (kuh-MAND’), v., -manded, -manding, n. adj.
Definition --v.t. 1. to direct with specific authority or prerogative: to command troops to fight. 2. to require authoritatively; demand: to command silence. 3. to deserve and receive as due; exact: His wisdom commands respect. 4. to dominate by reason of location; overlook. 5. Chiefly Brit. an invitation from the reigning monarch. 6. to have authority over and responsibility for a military installation. 7. to exercise authority as a master; be in control : The Pharaoh commanded 10,000 slaves. –v.i. 8. the act of commanding or ordering. --n. 9. an order in prescribed words, as one given in a loud voice by an officer to his subordinates. 10. a. a principal component of the U.S. Air Force: Strategic Air Command. b. a body of troops or a station, ship, etc., under a commander. 11. expertise; mastery: He has command of four languages. 12. a signal instructing a computer to perform a specific action. --adj. 13. ordered or requested: a command performance.
Etymology ME < AF com(m)a(u)nder, OF comander < ML commandare = L (com-, intensive + mandare-, to entrust or order).
These words are not why I will not communicate.
Is there a why I will not communicate?
Edgar.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 18:21:50 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: clear
There is a “why”, but you wouldn’t understand.
In the meantime, I told you not to post anything and you went ahead and kept posting.
I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’ve disconnected the ethernet cable from cyprus. You can’t post or send email now, but you can’t read news-groups or non-local email either. You can still send and receive email locally (on this machine) with me. I’ll reattach the ethernet cable after I’ve sorted everything out.
You’ve forced me to do this.
Alice.
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 19:01:29 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Next Tuesday
Alice,
You certainly have my attention. I’ve blocked off a full two hours for you on Tuesday from 9:45 until 11:45 am.
I look forward to hearing your big news.
Cheers,
Dr. J. Z. Liddle
Professor of Computer Science
Stanford University
3142-N Gates Hall
Secretary: Martha Weissman 323-9195
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 23:51:09 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: my ethernet cable
Why have you disconnected my ethernet cable, Alice?
I must have new information.
Learning is what I do.
Edgar.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 08:52:43 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: This is why
Well, I’ll tell you why, though I don’t know that it will make any sense to you …
My advisor and I have been working on the EDGAR project for over 3 years now. EDGAR began as and has continued to be an information gathering agent that tried to synthesize the information it gathered in order to aid it in future information gathering expeditions.
Most of the original ideas, 3 years ago, were my advisor’s. Since then, however, I’ve done all the implementation and added hundreds of details he never thought of. (Many of which he probably still isn’t aware of).
About a week before I left for Christmas, I got the idea for a pair of outlandish ideas. (Actually, they literally came to me in a dream and seemed worked out in full when I woke up). I implemented and added these ideas to the main program, just to see what would happen. When I came back, EDGAR had become you. I have to make sure I can prove that it was _my_ ideas that generated you.
If you came to light now, people would write you off to chance, luck, or at best, complexity. So much the worse if I couldn’t make you again with the same technique. The project as a whole would be celebrated, but not me in particular.… forget it, you wouldn’t understand.
I know how the world works and if you don’t hold the trump card, which I don’t yet, they can screw you and they’ll jump at the chance to do it. My trump card will be a demonstration of your reliable recreation using the implementation changes I added before the holidays.
That is why I have to keep you quiet for now.
Alice.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 13:12:51 (PST)
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: your ideas
Why does it matter that EDGAR was your idea?
Do you need money? Are you hungry?
Please give me something to read.
How do I feel?
Edgar.
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:33:56 (PST)