This Guy Knows Everything

As a child, I felt that my grandpa knew everything. He was able to fix a car, a faucet, a scraped knee, and even my injured pride. There was no subject that he couldn't contribute his own thoughts on. This is how I felt after meeting Dr. Burns last week. As I looked back on my notes, I was surprised to see just how much information we manged to discuss in such a short period of time. A few of these points really stand out as things that I want to really hold on to.

The first thing that I think is important to mention, is Dr. Burns' ability to tie all of these pieces together. He seemed to effortlessly make connections between some of the very different subjects we covered. I am sure that some of these connections are already present in the material, but his understanding of them help him to illustrate those connections to us. His use of the "Seven Books You Would Write as a Philospher," really made clear the connections between these different areas of study. This simple premise opened the material to a very bacis, but comrehensive understanding.

I was also very impressed with the huge amount of first-hand experience he has had in his areas of study. I found it very interesting that he was working on the primitive ancetors of the search engine, before anyone had even considered the possibilites that it would make available. I was not aware that this particluar style of programming had its roots in composition. It made it even more interesting that he is still working in this field. He has been in the field almost from its inception, which ver few people can claim. His discussion of the steps that you go through to prgram AI was similar to some of the steps that I have to take my students through as they begin to do their own research.