Randy Kaplan About Me V 1.0

Let’s be honest with one another. I’m an introvert; therefore, among other things, I am ambivalent about strutting my stuff, including writing about myself or speaking about myself. This “About Me” is my first attempt to write an about me on Vocal ergo “Version 1.0.” You are my sounding board, and I greatly value your input.

I think the following will explain why I feel justified in being able to write about certain topics.

I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Randy, aka renguy.

Who I Am; What I’ve Done

• I have 50+ years of working in the field of IT. I started when I was 13 years old. i am 67 now.
• I have taught IT to kids and adults for over 30 years.
• I hold a degree in Mathematics and two degrees in Computer Science, including a Ph.D. in Computer Science.
• I’ve written many papers and books about computing.
• I’ve worked in the field of Artificial Intelligence for many years.
• In industry, I’ve held the following positions (from most recent to least recent): Author, Writer, Professor of Computer Science, CIO, CTO, Director of Infrastructure, Manager of Data Architecture, Data Architect, Manager of Development, Programming Group Supervisor, Web Developer, Systems Analyst, Testing Analyst, and Developer, worked as a consultant to District Attorney’s Offices for various Computer Crime cases, M&A Consultant

Firsts: First to develop an award-winning language translator, First to develop a Laboratory Automation System, First to install a laboratory Ethernet-based network, First to create an automated testing OS testing system, First to automate database creation through code generation, First to develop a PC-based expert system shell, First to develop a veterinary cardiac expert system, First to develop a system for adaptive testing used by the NCSBN and NCARB, First to develop a scoring program for graphically- based diagrams, First to create a patented system for scoring natural language, First to develop a system that understands (in the way that humans understand) written language, First to create a land use mapping system using map digitization, Specialized computer programming language development.

In case you are wondering, all of this is true, although you may not be able to verify it. Some of it you can confirm if you are skeptical. A millennial once laughed at me and told me this was impossible during an interview. I decided working at that place wouldn’t be a good idea. Narcissists (who happened to be a coworker) often are deniers of my history, unable to believe anything other than what they accomplished in their lifetimes.

Industries: education, government, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, retailing, IT and software, criminal investigation, small business, and consulting.

Businesses: Software Consulting business and Computer support for Small Businesses and Individuals (A Company I Started that was closed several years ago.)

More About Me

In case you are wondering,

• I have a son and a daughter. I am very proud of my them. They are not kids anymore - thirty-somethings now.
• I have been retired for the last seven years.

Still More About Me

This Section was originally written as a separate article to add some background to my claims of knowing about Artificial Intelligence.

The KNAT Project — 1980 to 1990

KNAT — Knowledge Acquisition from Text

My dissertation project was about a project named KNAT, Knowledge Acquisition from Text. I worked for more than 11 years on this project to bring it to fruition. Fruition or completion meant two things. First, I wrote an operational program. Second, I wrote a dissertation describing the project in gory detail. In 1990 I was granted my Ph.D. for this work.

The project was a Natural Language Understanding (NLU) project. This project aimed to write a computer program that understood passages of text written in books. Ultimately I hoped that the program would be able to answer questions about the text it processed much like a human would do if they were to read something in a textbook and answer questions about it. The project, up until understanding the text, was completed. The knowledge structure created by KNAT implied the question-answering. In 11 years, I could process the text contained in three different books. The knowledge structure made was invariant, which means that the system derived the same meaning structure from each of the texts as one would expect to happen. The following is extremely important to remember. In 11 years, I could do this with three samples of text describing the same phenomenon. The dissertation told how the program accomplished this task. The dissertation contained all of the code for this purpose.

In a nutshell, I accomplished this after creating many years worth of AI programs. Skeptical people have little idea of the complexity of AI. Those who understand tend to recognize the story because it is similar to many other AI projects of the time. The present generation of AI and its researchers seem to believe that AI is an overnight endeavor. This belief is one of the reasons I take umbrage at the current claims of success.

Many people who are claiming success don’t know anything about AI history and the time it has taken researchers in AI to make progress in REAL projects. We are in a phase of AI snake oil, and the field is rife with snake oil salesman.

That is about it. I wanted to share this with the Vocal community so you can know more about me. Thanks for reading this.