X-Message-Number: 9249
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 1998 14:29:02 -0500
From: Rafi Haftka <>
Subject: Thanks for a wonderful book

I wanted to share with everybody a message I sent earlier today to Jim
Halperin.

Dear Mr. Halperin,

I have just finished reading your wonderful book, `The first immortal'. I
have been reading it over lunch for the past couple of weeks, lunch being
the only time I have for reading novels. It worked well because I got to
stretch the pleasure over a longer period of time, and I think that your
book lends itself extremely well to installment reading. In particular, I
had time to mull over the new ideas that you introduced me to.

Here and there, I was a bit disappointed by chauvinism, for example, in
terms of selection of names for future prominent figures or companies
(almost no orientals), or the idea that AIs could not figure out solutions
to real serious problems without the creativity of humans.

However, the book is gripping, uplifting, and most important, very thought
provoking. While your vision of the future could possibly be way off, you
enriched my understanding of some of the opportunities and the dangers that
the future may hold for us.

Sincerely,

Rafi Haftka


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        Raphael(Rafi) T. Haftka                      <  >
      University of Florida                  Phone: (352)-392-9595
 Department of Aerospace Engineering,         Fax: (352)-392-7303
  Mechanics and Engineering Science         http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~haftka/
     Gainesville, FL 32611-6250               (beware, a lot of graphics!)
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Check the web page of the International Society of Structural and
Multidisciplinary Optimization (ISSMO) at  http://www.aero.ufl.edu/~issmo/
for details about the MicroAV competition!

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