Subject: From: AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws <AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI>

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 4 Jun 85 23:58:12 edt

Received: from sri-ai.arpa by csnet-relay.arpa id a009697; 4 Jun 85 19:56 EDT
Date: Tue  4 Jun 1985 15:37-PDT
Reply-to: AIList@SRI-AI
US-Mail: SRI Int., 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA  94025
Phone: (415) 859-6467
Subject: AIList Digest   V3 #73
To: AIList@SRI-AI
Received: from rand-relay by vpi; Tue, 4 Jun 85 23:41 EST

AIList Digest           Wednesday, 5 Jun 1985      Volume 3 : Issue 73

Today's Topics:
  Queries - AI and Proctology & Range Data Images for Robotics &
    Explorer/Symbolics Compatibility & LISP on SUN Workstations &
    Lisp User Survey & AI and the CAIS & Man-Machine Interaction,
  Natural Language - McDonnell Douglas Announcement,
  Expert Systems - Expert Systems vs "Conventional" Programming,
  Conference - IJCAI-85 UCLA Campus Housing Available

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 1 Jun 85 22:34:36 PDT
From: Michael Pazzani <[email-masked]>
Subject: AI and proctology

I am about to start my Phd research on an expert system for proctology.
I am interested in finding out what others have done in this area.

Also I'd like to have some opinions on the best language for implementing
expert systems: PROLOG EURISKO or OPS5?

Thanks,
Mike Pazzani

------------------------------

Date: Mon 3 Jun 85 17:02:30-MDT
From: Tom Henderson <[email-masked]>
Subject: Range Data Images for Robotics

The IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Robotics has asked me to look
into the creation of a database of range data images.  We would like to get an
idea of both the availability of range imagery and the demand for such imagery.
If you have range data images (perhaps with registered intensity images) or you
would like to have access to such images, please answer the following questions
and send to henderson@utah-20.

Name:
Address (Net and US Post):
Range Data Available (give format):
Would like access to range data (give any special requirements):

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 4 Jun 85 13:18:21 edt
From: Mark Weiser <mark@tove>
Subject: Explorer/Symbolics compatibility

We have a Symbolics 3600, and are looking at Explorers from TI now.
What is the software compatibility between these two?  Is it the very
same zetalisp, windowing, etc.?  Or is the only software similarity
that of ancient common ancestry?  Thanks for any help or advice.
        -mark

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 30 May 85 14:41:20 BST
From: [email-masked]
Subject: LISP on SUN Workstations

Can anyone gine me information about LISP availability on the SUN
workstation range?
I am interested in what variants are available, COMMON Lisp, Inter Lisp
or whatever.
Comments from actual users on how they have found the implementation would be
very useful.

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 03 Jun 85 20:32:36 CDT
From: marick@GSWD-VMS
Subject: Lisp user survey

I'm making a survey of what users need from Lisp systems.  If you use Lisp
for work other than developing Lisp itself and you would mail me answers to
the following questions, I'd much appreciate it.  I will of course summarize
the results to the net.

1.  (I hesitate to start this battle.)  What do you consider the most
    cost-effective system on which to develop programs?  Special-purpose
    Lisp machines?  General purpose personal workstations with Lisp
    (e.g., Suns, Apollos)?  Timeshared systems?  What about the most
    cost-effective system on which to deliver programs?

2.  How important is the ability to call functions written in another
    language?  If it's important, will those functions be specially written
    for the application or will they tend to be parts of libraries like
    the IMSL math library or a plotting package?  If they're specially
    written, are they making up for some deficiency in your Lisp (e.g., no
    or weak support for handling strings)?

3.  Should the editor be a part of the Lisp environment or should it be
    separate?  What are the important differences between an embedded
    Emacs-like editor and an external Emacs-like editor that allows you
    to run Lisp in a window?

4.  How often could your programs run "standalone", without the support of
    the full Lisp environment?  Would it be useful to have some way to dump
    a set of Lisp functions as an executable file, so that you could, for
    example, write a reasonably-sized UNIX filter in Lisp?

5.  How important is some sort of object-oriented programming package,
    like Flavors or Loops?  Do you have any preferences?

6.  How important is the speed of your compiled code?
    Obviously, everyone wants a Cray on their desk, but how many of your
    programs are truly limited by machine speed or compiler quality and
    would be significantly more useful if they ran faster?  What operations
    are most common in your tight inner loops?

7.  How adequate is the standard set of debugging tools (trace,
    single-stepper, debugger that lets you poke around in the stack)?

8.  What other things make a Lisp system better?
    If there's a question I haven't asked, please tell me.

                        Brian Marick
                        Gould Computer Systems -- Urbana
                        USENET: ...ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!marick
                        ARPA:   Marick@GSWD-VMS

------------------------------

Date: 3 Jun 1985 08:10-PDT
From: JWOLFE@USC-ECLB
Subject: AI and the CAIS

                 [Also forwarded by Larry@JPL-VLSI.]

Dear Colleagues: The Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) is
investigating the Common APSE Interface Set (CAIS) for Ada
Programming Support Environments (APSE).  Although it is a
proposed DoD standard, it is unlike other standards in that it
will evolve as interface needs are identified.  My particular
interest is in what needs are generated by the introduction of AI
languages and techniques (e.g.  LISP, PROLOG, Knowledge Bases,
Inferencing, etc.)  to software engineering environments.  This
issue may effect the CAIS at two levels: First, tools may be
written using AI languages and techniques; second, applications
may use AI languages or techniques which may require unique
tools.  I am coming to the Ada and AI communities to solicit your
help and advise.  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has
experience in:

        * Using AI languages and techniques to develop software
          tools.
        * Developing tools for the life cycle maintenance of
          AI software.
        * Anyone else who can contribute.

     Since the results of this study will influence the evolution
of the CAIS standard, it is important to have the participation
of government, industry, and acedemia.  Please note that since
IDA is a FCRC, issues of proprietary information and
non-disclosure CAN be resolved.  Your participation is needed and
appreciated.
            James Wolfe
            Institute for Defense Analysis
            1801 N. Beauregard Street
            Alexandria, VA 22311
            ARPA: [email-masked]
            Voice: (703) 845-2109

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 4 Jun 85 17:31:28 edt
From: Rob Jacob <jacob@nrl-css>
Subject: Query - AI and man-machine interaction

I'm trying to put together an entry on "man-machine interaction" for an
encyclopedia of artificial intelligence.  My initial reaction is that the
main areas are natural language, speech, and maybe intelligent CAI-type
dialogues.  Another area might be user interface techniques first pioneered
by AI people (as a byproduct of their work), like the Interlisp-D user
interface.

Have I missed your favorite topic?  I'd appreciate any comments, pointers,
suggestions, vicious attacks, etc. on this topic.  Please reply to me
directly, because I'm often too far behind in reading the lists.

Thanks in advance,
Rob Jacob

ARPA:   jacob@nrl-css
UUCP:   ...!decvax!nrl-css!jacob
SNAIL:  Code 7590, Naval Research Lab, Washington, D.C. 20375

------------------------------

Date: 4-Jun-85 12:26 PDT
From: Kirk Kelley  <KIRK.TYM@OFFICE-2>
Subject: McDonnell Douglas announcement

McDonnell Douglas has announced a "breakthough" in Natural Language processing
on the back cover of this week's Business Week.  Of course there are no
specific references.  Does anyone know what they are talking about or if there
is any substance to the hype:

    ... practical thinkers at our McDonnell Douglas Computer Systems Company
   have created the first computer that accepts you as you are -- human.

   They emulated the two halves of the human brain with two-level software:
   One level with a dictionary of facts and a second level to interpret them.
   The resulting Natural Language processor understands everyday conversational
   English.  So it knows what you mean, no matter how you express yourself.  It
   also learns your idiosyncracies, forgives your errors, and tells you how to
   find what you're looking for.

   Now, virtually anyone who can read and write can use a computer.

   ...

That is essentially all the "information" given.  If you know what this refers
to, or what the nature of the "breakthrough" is please let me know.

 -- kirk

------------------------------

Date: Tue 4 Jun 85 13:16:32-PDT
From: Michael Walker <[email-masked]>
Subject: expert systems vs "conventional" programming

Curt,
        You sent a message to the ailist some time ago on expert
systems vs. "conventional" programming. I drafted a reply, but have
been slow in sending it to you. Here it is, perhaps better late than never.

        There is a great deal of value in asking questions about what
expert systems are good for. It is important for an emerging science
to seek clear statements of its capabilities and boundaries. I think
your observations on the value of ES are accurate. There is a third
advantage which I feel is moderately well substantiated: that
non-programmers can build certain types of programs using an expert
system shell that they could not otherwise build. A specific example
is the Blue-Box pharmacology therapy advisor built by two
non-programmer medical students using Emycin. A reference is:

Benoit Mulsant and David Servan-Schreiber (1984) "Knowledge
Engineering: A Daily Activity on a Hospital Ward" Computers and
Biomedical Research 17, pp 71-91.

        I recommended that they use Emycin when they visited during
their medical clercship at Stanford. Neither of them had the knowledge
to build the system in an ordinary programming language, but were
successful in building their advisor in a remarkably short time using
the expert system shell.

        Your question addressed the issue of what expert systems were
good for. We should probably also ask what expert systems research, as
opposed to just expert systems, is good for. I think that expert
systems research is valuable, in part, because it is concerned with
seeking ways to represent and use knowledge that cannot currently be
readily represented or used. In this sense, we can view knowledge
representation research as being concerned with developing new data
structures and algorithms, appropriate for representing and
manipulating symbolic information. There are many other arguments that
could be made about the value of expert systems research, but I think
I'll leave that for further discussion.

Cheers,
                        Mike Walker

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 3 Jun 85 15:39:31 PDT
From: Phyllis O'Neil <[email-masked]>
Subject: IJCAI-85:  UCLA campus housing available

Economical UCLA dormitory rooms and suites are still available for
IJCAI-85 this August.  You can stay in dorm rooms for the 6-night
period beginning Saturday, August 17, or for the 4-night period
beginning Monday, August 19.  Dorm rooms sleep one or two people.

Residential suites are available starting Monday, August 19.  Suites
sleep two to four people; each suite has two bedrooms, bath, and living
room.

Breakfast and dinner are included when you stay in the dorms or suites.
Additionally, you can use UCLA's swimming pools, raquetball courts, and
other atheletic facilities.

Campus housing forms are on pages 27 and 29 of the IJCAI-85 conference
brochure.  For copies of the brochure, contact:

     AAAI
     445 Burgess Dr.
     Menlo Park, CA 94025
     (213) 328-3123

------------------------------

End of AIList Digest
********************

From:	COMSAT          7-JUN-1985 23:54  
To:	FRANCE,RDJ,JOSLIN,ROACH,FOX
Subj:	From: AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws <AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI>

Received: from sri-ai.arpa by csnet-relay.arpa id a004109; 6 Jun 85 14:01 EDT
Date: Thu  6 Jun 1985 09:53-PDT
Reply-to: AIList@SRI-AI
US-Mail: SRI Int., 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA  94025
Phone: (415) 859-6467
Subject: AIList Digest   V3 #74
To: AIList@SRI-AI
Received: from rand-relay by vpi; Fri, 7 Jun 85 23:49 EST

AIList Digest            Thursday, 6 Jun 1985      Volume 3 : Issue 74

Today's Topics:
  Games - Scrabble References,
  Terminology - MMI/HMI,
  Automata - Size of Self-Reproducing Systems,
  Report - Computational Natural Language,
  Bibliography - Recent Literature

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 3 Jun 85 09:31:54 edt
From: "William J. Rapaport" <[email-masked]>
Subject: scrabble reference

   What is the state of the art in computer Scrabble?
   What work has been done?  References?  Software?  Anecdotal remarks?

Here's one reference that I know about:

Shapiro, Stuart C., "A Scrabble Crossword Game Playing Program,"
IJCAI-79, Vol. Two, pp. 797-99.

                                William J. Rapaport
                                Assistant Professor

Dept. of Computer Science, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260
(716) 636-3193
uucp:  ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!rapaport
csnet/arpanet:  rapaport%buffalo@csnet-relay

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 3 Jun 85 09:55:47 edt
From: "Stuart C. Shapiro" <[email-masked]>
Subject: scrabble reference

  There are two papers on SCRABBLE in the book, Computer Game-Playing:
Theory and Practice, edited by M.A. Bramer, Ellis Horwood Ltd (distributed
in the U.S. by Halsted Press, a division of John Wiley & Sons), 1983:

   A competitive Scrabble program, by P.J. Turcan, pp. 209-220
   Scrabble crossword game-playing programs, by S.C. Shapiro, pp. 221-228

------------------------------

Date: 6 June 1985 0912-PDT (Thursday)
From: gross@nprdc (Michelle Gross)
Subject: MMI/HMI

Ron Jacob--

List "man-machine interaction" as "human-machine interaction,"
or HMI.  This is how the field is referred to by people at the
university that I attend.  Some link should be made between
the two names.

--Michelle Gross

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 03 Jun 85 07:39:55 EDT
From: cugini@NBS-VMS
Subject: size of self-reproducing system; intelligence?

>    Q:  What's the minimum "size" for a self-reproducing thing?
> For an "intelligent" thing??
>   A measure of "size" probably needs to include the complexity of the
> environment ... for instance, a virus takes advantage of a highly-ordered
> set of cell mechanisms and can reproduce with only a few thousand (or so?)
> bits of information ... its "size" measure should be bigger than the amount
> of DNA in it might seem to imply.  All living creatures make use of some
> of the physical laws of the universe (mostly chemistry), and should be
> charged some for that in "size" measure ...

>   Self-reproducing cellular automata that I've heard of seem to
> generally require billions and billions of cells or so (as in
> Conway's LIFE); they live in a very simple universe, where there is almost
> no information stored in their environment.  On the other hand, most of
> the self-reproducing automata I've seen are quite huge and inefficient,
> because they're structured to be comprehensible to people....

I recently ran across a new book, "The Recursive Universe" by
William Poundstone that covers a lot of these issues.  It's
written in a somewhat gee-whiz style, but there's a lot of
good information, especially for Life aficianados.  Anyway,
according to the book:

   Von Neumann could have allowed a distinct cellular state for every
   possible component of a machine.  The fewer the states, the simpler
   the physics, however.  After some juggling, he settled on a cellular
   array with 29 different states for its cells...The [next]
   state of a cell...depends only on its state and the states of
   its...neighbors....

      What Von Neumann did is this: he proved that there are starting
   patterns that can reproduce themselves...Von Neumann's pattern,
   or machine reproduced in a very powerful way.  It contained a
   complete description of its own organization.  It used that
   information to build a new copy of itself.  Von Neumann's
   machine reproduction was more akin to the reproduction of living
   organisms than to the growth of crystals, for instance. Von
   Neumann's suspicion that a self-reproducing machine would have to
   be complicated was right.  Even in his simplified checkerboard
   universe, a self-reproducing pattern required about 200,000 squares.

>   Are the questions of self-reproduction and intelligence related?  I'm
> thinking vaguely about notions of Godel's theorem, complexity of human
> brains, self-reference, etc.
>
>   This might have interesting implications as to how hard it will be to make
> AI systems with human-like consciousness ... how many logic elements or gates
> will be required, how many gigaflops (or gigalips) are needed to think at a
> human pace, etc....
>   -zim@mitre

My feeling is that many people are too ready to assume self-reference=
intelligence=consciousness, eg Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach" and/or
"The Mind's I".  Von Neumann's machine seems self-referential enough,
but not too bright, and hardly conscious.  I assume that dogs, cats,
birds, lizards...?? are conscious (feel pain, have visual experience,..)
but some of them aren't too bright either.  I say this knowing that
they perform complex tasks such as nest-building, but I don't believe
that such performance is prima facie evidence for intelligence,
in that intelligence should include some notion of a *general* ability to
deal with abstract problem representation (calculators can do
trig functions, but they're not intelligent).

John Cugini <Cugini@NBS-VMS>
National Bureau of Standards
Bldg 225 Room A-265
Gaithersburg, MD 20899
phone: (301) 921-2431

------------------------------

Date: Tuesday,  4 Jun 1985 10:16:06-PDT
From: [email-masked]  (Meyer Billmers)
Subject: Re: size of self-reproducing system; intelligence?

>  Q:  What's the minimum "size" for a self-reproducing thing?  For an
>"intelligent" thing??
...
>the self-reproducing automata I've seen are quite huge and inefficient,
>because they're structured to be comprehensible to people....

I'm not sure I agree. For straightforward replication, it has been shown
(Fredkin, Winograd, and others) to be easy. For example, in a 2-D cellular
automaton, if the states are 0 and 1 and if the result state is computed by
taking the sum of the neighbors modulo 2, then any initial configuration
will replicate forever.

It could be argued that this doesn't count as "self-reproducing"
because there is no agent which "intentionally" reproduces itself (whatever
that means). But Banks (MIT MAC TR-81, Jan. 1971) showed that a 4 state, 5
neighbor 2-D cellular automaton could be constructed which was
a) a universal computer, e.g. given the correct encoding of a function,
could compute any function, and b) a universal constructor, e.g. could
"build" another configuration in the space which would then be capable of
computing any function. a) and b) taken together imply a self-reproducing
automaton which certainly displays some degree of intentionality.
And it doesn't seem to require even millions of cells; indeed, Banks
outlines its construction as an appendix of about 10 pages (although he
doesn't actually display the entire beast).

Hope that helps.

-Meyer

------------------------------

Date: Wed 5 Jun 85 16:59:26-PDT
From: Emma Pease <[email-masked]>
Subject: Report on Natural Language

         [Excerpted from the CSLI Newsletter by Laws@SRI-AI.]

      Report No. CSLI-85-24, ``Computationally Relevant Properties of
   Natural Languages and Their Grammar'' by Gerald Gazdar and Geoffrey K.
   Pullum, has just been published.  This report may be obtained by
   writing to David Brown, CSLI, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305 or
   Brown@SU-CSLI.

------------------------------

Date: 5 Jun 1985 16:12-EST
From: [email-masked]
Subject: New Bibliography Format

I am using a new format in handling submissions of material.

This format is the BIB citation format.  BIB comes in the BSD UNIX 4.2
release.  This is similar to the refer available with UNIX in general.
The only major difference is the allowance of a definition file which
I use for things like many articles from the same conference.
That is I can define a string like BOOK11 for a specific conference
in a definition file and then type BOOK11 for each paper in the
conference for the information about editor, conference title, etc.
Those users who use refer can insert the definitions in manually with
a text editor.

Definitions:

D BOOK11 First Conference of Robotics Europe--Robot Technology
   and Applications\
%C Brussels, Belgium\
%D June 27-28 1984\
%E K. Rathmill\
%E P. Mac Conaill\
%E S. O'Leary\
%E J. Browne

bib citations:

%T Early Users Give Thumbs Up to TI's Expert System Tool
%D April 15
%P 13
%J ComputerWorld

%A P. Macconaill
%T Esprit and Robotics Europe
%J BOOK11
%P 1

%A H. J. Warnecke
%A G. Schiele
%T Performance Characteristics and Performance Testing of Industrial
   Robots - State of the Art
%J BOOK11
%P 5

%A M. Priel
%A B. Schatz
%T Project for Development of a Photogrammetric Method for the Evaluation
   of the Dynamic Performance of Industrial Robots
%J BOOK11
%P 18

%A J. H. Gilby
%A R. Mayer
%A G. A. Parker
%T Dynamic Performance Measurement of Robot Arms
%J BOOK11
%A 31

%A H. J. Warnecke
%A R. D. Schraft
%A M. C. Wanner
%T Application of the Experimental Modal-Analysis in the Performance Testing
   Procedure of Industrial Robots
%J BOOK11
%P 45

%A N. Percival
%T A review of Safety Standards
%J BOOK11
%P 55

%A J. P. Vautrin
%T Safety of Robot Installations in France
%J BOOK11
%P 61

%A R. Bell
%T Assessment of Programmable Electronic Systems with Particular Reference
   to Robotics
%J BOOK11
%P 68

%A P. Nicolaisen
%T Occupational Safety and Industrial Robots - Present State of Discussions
   Within the Tripartite Group on Robotic Safety
%J BOOK11
%P 74

%A F. Duggan
%A R. H. Jones
%A K. Khodabandehfoo
%T Towards Developing Reliability and Safety Related Standards
   Using Systematic Methodologies
%J BOOK11
%P 90

%A J. J. Hunter
%T International Standards Activities in the Field of Industrial Robots
%J BOOK11
%P 108

%A B. Knoerr
%T Standardization in the Industrial Robot Field
%J BOOK11
%P 116

%A H. Tipton
%T International Standardization Related to Industrial Robots
%J BOOK11
%P 122

%A G. Gini
%A M. Gini
%T Robot Languages in the Eighties
%J BOOK11
%P 126

%A C. Launer
%T Robot Programming Using a High-Level Language and CAD Facilities
%J BOOK11
%P 139

%A C. Blume
%T Implicit Robot Programming Based on a High-Level Explicit System and
   Using the Robot Data Base RODABAS
%J BOOK11
%P 156

%A R. Dillman
%T Robot Architecture for the Integraiton of Robots into Manufacturing Cells
%J BOOK11
%P 172

%A K. Collins
%A A. J. Palmer
%A K. Rathmill
%T The Development of a European Benchmark for the Comparison of
   Assembly Robot Programming Systems
%J BOOK11
%P 187

%A H. Ford
%A L. R. Hunt
%A Renjeng Su
%T A simple algorithm for computing canonical form
%J Computers and Math
%V 10
%N 4-5
%D 1984
%P 315

%A C. V. Negoita
%T Fuzzy Systems in Knowledge Engineering
%J Kuberneles
%V 14
%N 1
%D 1985

%A Michael Strizenec
%T Cognitive Psychology and AI
%P 3
%J Kybernetika
%V 21
%N 1
%D 1985

%A K. B. Zun
%A V. V. Malyshev
%T Generalized Minimax Approach to Solving Optimization Problems with
   Chance Constraints
%J Engineering Cybernetics
%V 22
%N 1
%P 105

%A L. A. Sholomov
%T On Representation of a Binary Relation by a Collection of Criteria
%J Engineering Cybernetics
%V 22
%N 1
%P 93

%A Michael Georgeoff
%T Transformations and Reduction Strategies for Typed Lambda Expressions
%J ACM TOPLAS
%V 6
%N 4
%D OCT 1984
%P 603

%A P. H. Winston
%T The AI Business - A Perspective
%J Manufacturing Engineering
%V 94
%N 3
%D MAR 85
%P 75

------------------------------

End of AIList Digest
********************