Re: lynx-dev Concerning the use of abort in the source of lynx

[Vlad Harchev]

On Sun, 4 Jun 2000, Michael Sokolov wrote:

> Vlad Harchev <address@hidden> wrote:
> 
> > At least not all software should be free (otherwise it will be
> > safe to fly on airplanes only when they are equipped with  20th+ release of
> > software, if it ever existed).
> 
> OK, we disagree on politics and I won't pursue that thread any further, but
> free software reliability is a different story altogether. I believe that on
> the contrary, what you are describing concerning airplanes is precisely the
> case with proprietary software. That may be the reason why these airplanes
> really do crash as often as they do. Free software is infinitely better and
> more reliable than anything proprietary. You know, Pathfinder, the robot that
> walked on Mars, ran Linux.
>
> To give you an idea of just how much I trust community-developed and 
> community-
> supported free software and distrust the officially sanctioned stuff, let me
> share a little story with you. The reasons why I run the Harhan Engineering
> Laboratory are more than just Communism. There is also a very radical project
> involved, from the biomedical field, my involvement in which has to do with
> someone very special to me (that's a girl, in case it isn't obvious :-). My
> biggest and most powerful VAX, the 9000, which is one of the most powerful
> computers in the world ever built and of which only a handful were made, but
> which also sucks 36.6 kW of 3-phase power, has been acquired for no purpose
> other than cracking DNA codes and state machines associated with development
> cell biology. The idea is to convert the amassed data about cell functions and
> development from the traditional language of biologists into bits, codes,
> logic, and state machines, i.e., approach biology from the information science
> viewpoint. When I studied biology it became obvious to me as a computer
> scientist that this is the only proper way to approach it, but biologists 
> don't
> see it. Then what I'm seeking to do is to map out the complete state 
> transition
> table of the FSM that runs as the zygote develops into the embrio and into the
> baby. This table would map all the tissues that make up the human body into 
> the
> corresponding states of the FSM in which they are developed. Then, with all
> cell biology processes presented in convenient bits and logic equations,
> standard computer science methods can be used to construct the bit sequence
> that needs to be fed into the state machine of a cell in a human body to cause
> that tissue to be regenerated. A program can then be written, running on an
> embedded microprocessor core in a bionic chip (a chip designed for implant and
> equipped with a facility for affecting and controlling chemical processes in
> cells, one professor at Berkeley developed one recently) that controls and
> directs cell division and development processes to regenerate lost, damaged,
> removed, or mutilated organs.

 Yes, nice approach - seems cybernetics/math won't hurt any science. Even if
development of zygote can be described as FSM, seems that FSM should have a
huge number of inputs, a lot of which are random data as temperature or other
parameters of environment (I'm not biologist at all, but seems this should
influence the process somehow). I hope that these factors don't influence a
lot.
 But as for communism - here you have rather private goal to achieve. If you
haven't - you would got a lot of sponsors etc and you wouldn't have so spartan
life, and probably you would be doing something completely different.  

> The reason I'm doing this is because someone very special to me has fallen a
> victim to the murderous American doctors who badly mutilated her in a barbaric
> surgery (some organs and tissues lost, scars, stitches, and damage
> devastating). Given what she means to me, I will not settle for anything but a
> total and complete bioregeneration and restoration of the damaged parts, to
> regenerate everything lost, remove all scars, and eliminate all traces of her
> ever being cut. And the only way I can ensure that is by writing a program, a
> piece of free software under my total control and free from any authorities, 
> to
> drive the process, to build it using free tools, and to see it run with my own
> eyes. I trust free software and community-supported non-officially sanctioned
> practices enough to collect all biological data from university research labs,
> without involving doctors who insist on approvals and all that, treat all data
> tables, analysis, constructed regeneration sequences, and program files for 
> the
> bionic chip as free software, write the main regeneration program as free
> software as well, build it with gcc, program it all into a chip developed with
> free IC design tools, and use it to bring back my dearest beloved girlfriend,
> employing university students and maybe Russian doctors, but absolutely no
> American doctors, to assist in the direct medical part. If free software is 
> fit
> to walk on Mars, it is fit to bring back my girl. And it was the official
> sanctioned American healthcare system that messed her up, just as it is the
> officially sanctioned for-profit closed-access industry that makes airplanes
> and servers that crash, brainwashes the public into using Weendoze and other
> abominations (and undergoing mutilation surgery to lose weight), and draws
> resources away from universities, the space program, and other places where
> talented individuals can best help the world community.

  I sincerely wish you all the lucks to achive your goal somehow.
  Thanks for sharing this story.

> --
> Michael Sokolov               Harhan Engineering Laboratory
> Public Service Agent  International Free Computing Task Force
>                       International Engineering and Science Task Force
>                       615 N GOOD LATIMER EXPY STE #4
>                       DALLAS TX 75204-5852 USA
> 
> Phone: +1-214-824-7693 (Harhan Eng Lab office)
> E-mail: address@hidden (ARPA TCP/SMTP) (UUCP coming soon)
> 
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 Best regards,
  -Vlad


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