Or write a strong AI with regular expressions that solves the problem for you.

mindcrime · on Feb 3, 2022

I feel like there's a variation of jwz's famous quote waiting to be coined:

"Sometimes, when a programmer confronts a problem, ze thinks 'I know, I'll use strong AI', now ze __________."

* has 2 problems?

* has 3 problems?

* has infinite problems?

* has a death wish?

bryanrasmussen · on Feb 3, 2022

but the quote was already wrapped in the parent posters idea, since they were writing Strong AI with regular expressions!

If you have two problems when using regular expressions and you have X problems with Strong AI how will the combination of your problems be calculated?

mindcrime · on Feb 3, 2022

If you have two problems when using regular expressions and you have X problems with Strong AI how will the combination of your problems be calculated?

Well... using a Strong AI, of course!

mechanical_bear · on Feb 3, 2022

Is this supposed to be an approximation of a foreign accent or something?

mindcrime · on Feb 3, 2022

I assume you mean the "ze" part? If so, no, that's one of a series of new pronouns that were coined specifically to be gender neutral.

https://www.mypronouns.org/ze-hir

mechanical_bear · on Feb 3, 2022

Ah yes, that was the part throwing me.

Seems unnecessary when the original quote was already gender neutral with the use of they, an actual pronoun already in common use?

mindcrime · on Feb 3, 2022

I wasn't looking at the original quote when I wrote what I wrote above, FWIW. And I wanted to avoid the instinctive inclination to write "he", so I went with "ze" because using "they" for singular case always feels forced and awkward to me. But yes, that would have been fine as well. It was a choice I made at a moment in time, not something that I spent a lot of time analyzing and debating. :-)