From: rice@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU (James Rice)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.genetic
Subject: Re: Kozan Book Order INfo
Date: 21 Jan 93 16:13:45
Organization: Knowledge Systems Lab, Stanford University
Distribution: usa
	<RICE.93Jan18180101@hpp-ss10-1.stanford.edu>
	<1993Jan21.213429.27459@VFL.Paramax.COM>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hpp-ss10-1.stanford.edu
In-reply-to: dave@vfl.paramax.com's message of Thu, 21 Jan 1993 21:34:29 GMT

In article <1993Jan21.213429.27459@VFL.Paramax.COM> dave@vfl.paramax.com (David Lee Matuszek) writes:
   In regard to
	Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means   
	of Natural Selection, by John R. Koza.


   In article <RICE.93Jan18180101@hpp-ss10-1.stanford.edu>,
     rice@sumex-aim.Stanford.EDU (James Rice) writes:

   |> I'm biased, but I'd suggest reading the book and watching the movie.
   |> 
   |> Rice.


   In what way are you biased?

I helped out a fair bit inthe research that went into the book.
I am a co-author (movie-maker?) of the movie.

   I'm thinking seriously about spending $55 for the book (though I wish
   someone would tell us a little more about it), but $35 for a "movie"
   seems awfully steep.  What's the point of the movie?  What makes it
   worth this much?

     --dave

As I've said, I'm biased in that I've been involved in
these projects I don't get any sort of royalty out of
either so I have no financial motive to advertise them,
but we would all be foolish if we thought that every time
an author cites his own work he is doing so for solely
altruistic reasons.  (I'm evangelical about GP too)

Having said this, I genuinely believe that the book is a
major work.  Some even call it a landmark work.  To quote
John Holland on the cover: "The research reported in this
book is a tour de force.  For the first time since the
idea was bandied about in the 1940s and the early 1950s,
we have a non-trivial, non-tailored set of examples of
automatic programming."

Stewart Wilson said "John Koza has discovered a general
and robust method of evolving computer programs that is
effective over a breathtaking range of problems in applied
mathematics, control engineerin, and artificial
intelligence."

At $55 for a >800 page book, I call that pretty good value
for money in this field.

I haven't seen a review for the movie, so I'm unable to
quote any hyperbole for you.  However, I can describe the
movie a little.

It's an hour long and shows animated visualisations of a
number (23, I think) of problems discussed in the book.
These problems include things like the wall-following
robot, whose behviour is easier to appreciate when
animated.

The movie was professionally shot, all of the graphics
were captured with a scan-line converter and are all at
good resulution (no cameras pointed at the screen).  The
movie took over a week of continuous professional
editting.  I (bias again) believe it to be the best
researchoid movie of its kind I've seen by about two
orders of magnitude.  Obviously, the average NOVA
documentary has higher production values (though not much
higher), but such a documentary has about 30 seconds of
content.  The movie is all content.  The length was chosen
specifically so that it can easily be shown at brown-bag
lunch events.  I have heard tell of lecturers getting a
copy also to fill in a college lecture slot.

$35 for a way to save you from having to prepare a lecture
sounds like a bargain too.

Koza's no Paul Newmann, but then he's not on screen much.

Frankly, I'd be more comfortable if someone else gave a
less biased review, but you understandably wanted to know
my bias.



Rice - still trying not to sound like a broken record.
P.S.  Please remember that's genetic-programming-request@cs.stanford.edu
                                                ^^^^^^^^
to get on the genetic-programming@cs.stanford.edu mailing list.





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