<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title></title><style type="text/css">p.MsoNormal,p.MsoNoSpacing{margin:0}</style></head><body><div style="font-family:Arial;">In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"What are you doing?"</i> asked Minsky.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"I am training a randomly wired neural net to play</i><i><br></i></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i> Tic-Tac-Toe,"</i> Sussman replied.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"Why is the net wired randomly?"</i> asked Minsky.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play,"</i><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"> Sussman said.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">Minsky then shut his eyes.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"Why do you close your eyes?" </i>Sussman asked his teacher.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><i>"So that the room will be empty."</i><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.<br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial;">davew<br></div></body></html>