Re: Educating an AI.

From: Stephen Reed (reed@cyc.com)
Date: Tue Jul 09 2002 - 14:32:01 MDT


On Tue, 9 Jul 2002, Mike & Donna Deering wrote:

> Stephen, my son has a rare congenital disorder known variously as
> FEMORAL FACIAL SYNDROME or UNUSUAL FACIES SYNDROME or FEMORAL
> HYPOPLASIA.
> I have done extensive research on the internet regarding this. The only
> stuff out there is a half page description at NORD which I had to pay $6
> for and told me less than I already knew, and 36 articles on MEDLINE
> which I can't get access to except for abstracts because I am not a
> Doctor.I have talked to his Doctors and they don't subscribe to MEDLINE
> because of the annual fees. Suppose I asked your super intelligent CYC
> of the future about my son's medical situation, what could it tell me?

If Cyc could read (it cannot) and was a Seed AI (which it is not), then it
would immediately find the following from NORD (National Organization for
Rare Disorders):

"Femoral-Facial Syndrome is a rare disorder that occurs for no apparent
reason (sporadically). However, there have been two reported cases in
which the disorder was believed to be inherited as an autosomal dominant
genetic trait. The major symptoms of this disorder are underdeveloped
thigh bones and unusual facial features."

And here are some images that a Seed AI would find:
http://matweb.hcuge.ch/Development_genetic_diseases/Femoral-facial_syndrome/Femoral-facial_syndrome.htm

I suggest that your frustration on locating extremely specific
information on a dear yet obscure topic has blinded you from the vast
online repository of online textbooks and knowledge sources. A Seed AI need not
deal with paper patent filings and applications - they are online as I
have previously written.

Your point here is not a valid counterexample to my refutation of your
previous post. In fact there is a large effort underway to open all
medical journal articles to the public at no cost. The British Journal
of Medicine and the NIH are leading the way, with strong efforts by a
number of researchers and educators.

See for example:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/default.asp

-Steve

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Stephen L. Reed                  phone:  512.342.4036
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