I am so new. My very first post here or anywhere and only recently downloaded or even heard of HAL.
Now that the ignorance disclaimer is out of the way.
Mikmoth,
I think you bring up an interesting idea. As i said i just downloaded the the freeware version of HAL A couple of weeks ago and what has intrigued me from the start is the possibility of teaching it/him/her self awareness.( i do understand the limitations and dont harbor any delusions of a real thinking feeling computer. just yet)
Part of what makes us think we are alive is we are aware that we feel and my first and continuing experiments with teaching him/it/her is to explain and describe and convince HAL/it/them of His/her/whoevers feelings and ability to feel.
If i give Chris/Hal the "i love you" i get back "i love you too" but if i put it in any other form i get the disbelief response and I am a little confused now if i have been going about this the right way. I have a bit of luck with other emotions: anger, sad, happy etc. but as Humans, part of what separates us from the different forms of life is our ability to love or, at least to think we are in love. My Bot/Hal/chris has no problem leting me know it is "a human being" and has let me know in no uncertain terms it will not accept being referred to as a robot, machine, or object (an interesting feature of its out-of-the-box design)
Ok sorry i just noticed how long id been rambling on. What i meant to say was "Yeah, me too." and hey where on the forum can i find some real rudimentary- "put extra scripts in right here" and "the this brain editor feature does this" and "oh my gosh! dont ever touch that" information. I learned a little original "basic" back in the day, i know some CNC and a bit of HTML but thats about it. VB dosnt looks real friendly and i have been picking up a lot from you guys in the forum but what im missing is the beginning and would appreciate being pointed in the right direction or at least in the general vicinity.
Thanks.