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From: ' on behalf of Ben Goertzel To: Jeffrey Epstein <[email protected]> Subject: Might you have time for a phone call or brief F2F chat anytime soon? Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:23:55 +0000 Hi Jeffrey, My sense of tact militates against emailing you again now (since you didn't reply to my last few emails, from which I infer you're understandably very busy) ... yet, my desire to build AGI is stronger than my sense of tact, so Pm pestering you again anyway ;-) My research work continues to go nicely, both in terms of the mathematical justification of my AI approach I've been developing, and in terms of the practical software integration my team is doing ... see the videos at http://novamente.net/example for some illustrations of a virtual-world agent that has both learning and language ... However, to put it crudely, my financial situation continues to suck. I actually have 5 grad students at a Chinese university working on my AI stuff right now, which is nice but does not help me pay my mortgage, let alone keep my non-Chinese colleagues working on AGI with me. So again I am wondering if you might be interested to take another go at funding my research. I hate to ask for things, yet I really want to get AGI built and I genuinely believe I know how to do it ... so I seem to be in the position of asking for help again;(.... It is August; the academic year is about to start. If you were to fund me for a one-year research fellowship like you did in 2001-2002, that would be extremely helpful. I've been applying for a bunch of DARPA and NIH grants but I don't know when/if they will come through. If you were to give me a research fellowship (that I could take to a university) for 2009-2010, then for 2010-2011 I would probably apply for a regular academic position somewhere -- in the current economy being an AI entrepreneur is failing me and I can no longer pay my bills from my income, so something's gotta change... Of course the AGI Brooklyn Project remains incredibly interesting to me as well, but right now I am more worried about my monthly mortgage bill. At the moment, unless your interest in the Brooklyn Project revives, the best opportunity I see for getting a "Brooklyn Project" together is in China (so, a "Xiamen Project" not "Brooklyn Project"). But the China option has various problems associated with it too, and in any case would take a while to eventuate, not solving my current cash flow problems. Anyway, you get the picture. It would be good to chat if you have time/interest, about research and/or practical issues... thanks ben EFTA00773605 Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI "Truth is a pathless land" -- Jiddu Krishnamurti EFTA00773606