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From: mentifex@scn.org (SCN User)
Subject: Submission to the Jargon File
Message-ID: <DrnC3n.D41@scn.org>
Sender: news@scn.org
Organization: Seattle Community Network
Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 09:38:10 GMT
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MENTIFEX

/men'-ti-feks/ n, pl mentifices /men-tif'-i-sez/ [mind maker, fr.
Latin "ment-, mens" mind + "facere" to make.]

1. n. A high priest of artificial intelligence (AI). "We need ten
roboticists, three knowledge engineers, and a mentifex to implant
minds in our robots."

2. n. pejorative. With "maximus" a sneering reference to the most
offensively ambitious among students in an AI department or among
attendees at an AI conference. "He is the mentifex maximus of our
graduate students." "Did you hear the speech by the mentifex max-
imus?" "He left Stanford as the mentifex maximus and he showed up
at MIT as the mentifex minimus."

3. n. Any of numerous hackers, malcontents and curmudgeons trying
to introduce Vinge's Technological Singularity by implementing AI
designs such as "http://www.newciv.org/Mentifex/".  Yields adjec-
tival form "mentifical" and intransitive verb "to mentificate."

