From csnet_gateway Wed Jul 23 00:42:06 1986 Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 00:41:59 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #171 Status: R AIList Digest Tuesday, 22 Jul 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 171 Today's Topics: Queries - Geometric Placement & Oceanic or Weather References & Common Lisp and Prolog on VM/CMS & KB System Verification and Validation, Philosophy - Conservation Laws for Thought & Interactive Systems, AI Tools - Catalogue of AI Tools ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 Jul 1986 14:36-EDT From: Carlos.Bhola@spice.cs.cmu.edu Subject: Query - Geometric Placement Query: Does anyone know about any expert system (developed or under development) that relates to the placement of geometric objects in a plane? Examples of the problem would be pagination, VLSI layout, etc. -- Carlos. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Jul 86 14:30:00 EDT From: "CUGINI, JOHN" Reply-to: "CUGINI, JOHN" Subject: request for oceanic or weather references Does anyone know of AI or expert systems work being done whose application domain is oceanography or atmospheric science? I'd appreciate any pointers - please send directly to me. John Cugini Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology National Bureau of Standards (301) 921-2431 [The 1985 IEEE conference on Expert Systems in Government had a session on Environment and Weather. There was also a short article on prospects of AI in weather forecasting in Aviation Week & Space Technology, April 7, 1986, pp. 143-146. RuleMaster has been used in some experimental atmospheric domains; contact Radian Corp. There have also been some efforts at combining the two fields -- expert systems to route ships; contact Dr. James Mays of Micronautics, Inc., 70 Zoe Street, Suite 200, San Francisco, CA 94107, (415) 896-6764. -- KIL] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jul 86 18:30:10 edt From: dsn@vorpal.cs.umd.edu (Dana Nau) Subject: Common Lisp and Prolog on VM/CMS We are looking for implementations of Common Lisp and Prolog that run under VM/CMS, to be used for undergraduate/graduate instruction. I'd appreciate any information people might have about the following: (1) Does anyone know of a decent Common Lisp that runs under VM/CMS? (IBM Lisp isn't suitable for our purposes, since it's rather different from Common Lisp). (2) Has anyone had experience using IBM Prolog? How natural would it be to use for one accustomed to C-Prolog (or any other Prolog that uses the syntax described in Clocksin and Mellish)? (3) Does anyone know of a Prolog that runs under VM/CMS that's closer to C-Prolog? Or, for that matter, does anyone know whether C-Prolog can be made to run under VM/CMS? ------------------------------ Date: 22 Jul 86 12:50 EST From: AIMAGIC%SCOM08.decnet@ge-crd.arpa Subject: KB System Verification and Validation I am an employee with GE Space Systems and am in the process of doing work on an IR&D in the area of AI development methodologies or the lack there of. As part of this effort, I am trying to determine what already exists, what is available for purchase, and what can be had for the asking. I have be doing extensive research in this area but have found little information specifically directed at Knowledge-Based System Verification and Validation. As a result, I have had to come up with my own concepts of what can be done. For example, I have determined that a Knowledge-Based Software Development Environment (KBSDE) consisting of a number of complementary tools is essential. The tools themselves should support all phases of the development life cycle. For KBS systems the question becomes, What is its Life Cycle, how closly does KBS system development parallel that of "normal" procedural/algoritmetic software? How do we account for rapid prototyping while at the same time exercising the control necessary to create a reliable software system? I have made some progress in answering these questions and would be willing to share my discoveries with the general community, if I could in turn find out what is already out there and thus need not be rediscovered. If it is at all possible, could this request be posted and responses sent to me? If this could be done, I would gladly summarise my results for general reading after sufficient responces were received. Thanks: Phil Rossomando GE Space Systems Devision King of Prussia, PA. AIMAGIC%SCOM08.decnet@ge-crd.arpa ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Jul 86 13:05:55 PDT From: ANDREWS%EAR@ames-io.ARPA Subject: Conservation Laws for Thought??? (AIList Digest V4 #170) In his July 16 missive on Life, Intelligence, and Creativity definitions, Larry makes a statement (highlighted below in upper case) which is quite provocative to a mechanical engineer like myself. > "Creativity" is a particular kind of intelligence. It can be recognized by its > products: ideas, actions, or objects that did not exist before. ... > Obviously, these new things don't appear from nowhere. THERE ARE CONSERVATION > LAWS IN THOUGHT AS WELL AS IN PHYSICS (THOUGH VERY DIFFERENT ONES). Have I missed something somewhere? If there are "thought conservation laws", could someone please provide me with some references? And if nothing has been documented, could someone please fill me in? I understand the concept of conservation of mass and energy (what goes in - what comes out = increase in amount stored), and the "bookkeeping" associated with entropy production, transfer, and storage, but I have never heard of an application of those ideas to human thought. I'm undecided about whether to be excited or depressed. Help! Alison Andrews NASA Ames Research Center andrews%ear@ames-io.arpa ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 21 Jul 1986 11:42:07-PDT From: cherubini%cookie.DEC@decwrl.DEC.COM (RALPH CHERUBINI CX01-2/N22) Subject: Interactive Systems Response to 14 Jul "Architectures for interactive systems?" For a very provocative couple of hours relating to modes of interaction, user models, contexts...I suggest people get a copy of the videotape of the movie "Being There". I have found it very suggestive, based as it is on a central character who has a very limited repertoire of responses. I think there is a great deal to be learned from the models of interactions which are both explicit and implicit in the film. I'd be interested to hear reactions. Ralph Cherubini Digital Equipment Corporation [For those who haven't seen it, Being There stars Peter Sellers as a retarded man who is forced into the world by the death of the wealthy man who had sheltered him. He enters the world full-grown, with no traceable past, dressed in expensive clothes, and interested in little except gardening and watching television. His great talent is that he listens very intently, with no hidden agenda of things he'd like to say or places he'd rather be -- hence the title. People mistake his laconic replies, particularly his references to gardening, as deep philosophical thought -- as with the Eliza/Doctor program. He finds shelter with a millionaire, a political "king-maker", who introduces Sellers to all the right people and fosters this image of precious eccentricity and deep insight. The few who realize Seller's true nature are either unable or unwilling to break the illusion. -- KIL] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Jul 86 16:57:30 -0100 From: Alan Bundy Subject: Catalogue of AI Tools THE CATALOGUE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS Alan Bundy The Catalogue of Artificial Intelligence Tools is a kind of mail order catalogue of AI techniques and portable software. Its purpose is to promote interaction between members of the AI community. It does this by announcing the existence of AI tools, and acting as a pointer into the literature. Thus the AI community will have access to a common, extensional definition of the field, which will: promote a common terminology, discourage the reinvention of wheels, and act as a clearing house for ideas and software. The catalogue is a reference work providing a quick guide to the AI tools available for different jobs. It is not intended to be a textbook like the Artificial Intelligence Handbook. It, intentionally, only provides a brief description of each tool, with no extended discussion of the historical origin of the tool or how it has been used in particular AI programs. The focus is on techniques abstracted from their historical origins. The original version of the catalogue, was hastily built in 1983 as part of the UK SERC-DoI, IKBS, Architecture Study. It has now been adopted by the UK Alvey Programme and is both kept as an on-line document undergoing constant revision and refinement and published as a paperback by Springer Verlag. Springer Verlag have agreed to reprint the Catalogue at frequent intervals in order to keep it up to date. The on-line and paperback versions of the catalogue meet different needs and differ in the entries they contain. In particular, the on-line version was designed to promote UK interaction and contains all the entries which we received that meet the criteria defined below. Details of how to access the on-line version are available from John Smith of the Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 OQX. The paperback version was designed to serve as a reference book for the international community, and does not contain entries which are only of interest in a UK context. By `AI techniques' we mean algorithms, data (knowledge) formalisms, architectures, and methodological techniques, which can be described in a precise, clean way. The catalogue entries are intended to be non-technical and brief, but with a literature reference. The reference might not be the `classic' one. It will often be to a textbook or survey article. The border between AI and non-AI techniques is fuzzy. Since the catalogue is to promote interaction some techniques are included because they are vital parts of many AI programs, even though they did not originate in AI. By `portable AI software' we mean programming languages, shells, packages, toolkits etc, which are available for use by AI researchers outside the group of the implementor, including both commercial and non-commercial products. To obtain a copy of software, do NOT write to us or the contributor of the entry; look at the `Availability' field or write to the implementor. We hope that (s)he will supply sufficient documentation for the system to be used by an outsider, but do not expect non-commercial products to be as professionally polished as commercial ones. We have not included in the catalogue separate entries for each slight variation of a technique, programming language, etc. Neither have we always included details of how to obtain the software, nor descriptions of AI programs tied to a particular application, nor of descriptions of work in progress. The catalogue is not intended to be a dictionary of AI terminology nor to include definitions of AI problems. Entries are short (abstract length) descriptions of a technique or piece of software. They include a title, list of aliases, contributor's name, paragraph of description, information on availability and references. The contributor's name is that of the original contributor of the entry. Only occasionally is the contributor of the entry also the implementor of the software or the inventor of the technique. The `Availability' field or the reference are a better guide to the identity of the implementor or inventor. Some entries have been subsequently modified by the referees and/or editorial team, and these modifications have not always been checked with the original contributor, so (s)he should not always be held morally responsible, and should never be held legally responsible. If you would like to submit an entry for the catalogue then please fill in the attached form and send it to: Alan Bundy, Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh, Tel: 44-31-225-7774 ext 242 80 South Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1HN, JANet: Bundy@UK.Ac.Edinburgh Scotland. ARPAnet: Bundy@Rutgers.Arpa CATALOGUE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS: FORMAT FOR ENTRIES Title: Alias: Abstract: Contributor: References: Availability: Environment: From: ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Thu Jul 24 18:53:08 1986 Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 18:53:03 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #172 Status: R AIList Digest Thursday, 24 Jul 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 172 Today's Topics: Seminars - COPYCAT: Modeling Creative Analogical Thought (Ames) & DB and KB Interface for Structural Engineering (CMU) & Automatic Debugging for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (UTexas) & Our Cognitive Abilities Limit the Power of AI (SRI), Workshop - Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems, Conference - 2nd AI Applications in Engineering ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jul 86 11:18:22 pdt From: eugene@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Eugene Miya) Subject: Seminar - COPYCAT: Modeling Creative Analogical Thought (Ames) National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT Joint RCR Branch / Ames AI Forum Seminar SPEAKER: Douglas Hofstadter Cognitive Science University of Michigan TOPIC: THE COPYCAT PROJECT: MODELING CREATIVE ANALOGICAL THOUGHT The fluidity inherent in concepts in the human mind allows different situations to be mapped onto each other and a type of translation set up between them. Every analogy (i.e., mapping of this sort) involves some degree of stress, and the more stress there is, the weaker the analogy is. For an analogy to be created, there must be mechanisms that gauge the stress of any tentative mapping. We consider the central mechanism to be an unconscious mental metric (i.e., a type of distance relation between concepts), which allows the mind to quickly sense close resemblances and to accept them as valid "equations" making up part of the translation between situations, and which conversely makes the mind balk at far-fetched "equations" and give up on translations that cause too much stress. In the Copycat project, the network embodying this metric is called the "slipnet" -- the idea being that the proximity of two nodes in the slipnet indicates the propensity of the corresponding concepts to "slip" into each other. Copycat's slipnet is the core of our effort at modeling "creative slippage", which we feel is how deep and insightful analogies come about. We have carefully tailored the domain in which the Copycat program operates, so that it contains all the essential qualities -- but no extra qualities -- of a domain in which highly creative (as well as highly mundane) analogies can be made. Ultimately, however, our project is not so much about analogies per se, but about human concepts and how they are structured so as to form something like a slipnet. In that sense, analogies are merely an instrument for us. Any analogy created by a human reveals some aspects of a human slipnet, which we then attempt to transfer to our model. Conversely, the analogies created by the Copycat program reveal the accuracy of our artificial slipnet, and thus of our model of concepts. In summary, the Copycat project is an attempt to study the basis for the fluidity of the human mind by exploring the world of creative analogies within a carefully limited domain. DATE: Wednesday, TIME: 1:00 - 2:00 pm BLDG. 201 Main Auditorium July 30, 1986 POINT(S) OF CONTACT: Eugene Miya PHONE NUMBER: (415) 694-6453 NET ADDRESS: eugene@ames-nas.arpa or Alison Andrews (415) 694-6741 andrews%ear@ames-io.arpa VISITORS ARE WELCOME: Register and obtain vehicle pass at Ames Visitor Reception Building (N-253) or the Security Station near Gate 18. Do not use the Navy Main Gate. Non-citizens (except Permanent Residents) must have prior approval from the Director's Office one week in advance. Submit requests to the point of contact indicated above. Non-citizens must register at the Visitor Reception Building. Permanent Residents are required to show Alien Registration Card at the time of registration. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Jul 86 10:19:22 EDT From: Craig.Howard@cive.ri.cmu.edu Subject: Seminar - DB and KB Interface for Structural Engineering (CMU) FINAL PUBLIC ORAL EXAMINATION for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Candidate: H. Craig Howard Title of Dissertation: Interfacing Databases and Knowledge-Based Systems for Structural Engineering Applications Department: Civil Engineering Time: 1:00 pm Tuesday, July 22, 1986 Place: Adamson Wing - Baker Hall Database management systems and expert systems will be important components of integrated computer-aided design systems. A powerful, adaptable interface between these components is necessary to build an integrated structural engineering computing environment. The thesis examines the basic issues involved in interfacing expert systems with database management systems and describes the architecture of a prototype system, KADBASE. KADBASE is a flexible, knowledge-based interface in which multiple expert systems and multiple databases can communicate as independent, self-descriptive components within an integrated, distributed engineering computing system. The thesis presents examples from three knowledge-based systems to demonstrate the use of KADBASE in typical engineering design applications. ------------------------------ Date: Mon 21 Jul 86 17:27:12-CDT From: Bill Murray Subject: Seminar - Automatic Debugging for Intelligent Tutoring Systems (UTexas) I will be giving the following talk on Thursday from 12 to 1 in Taylor 3.128. All graduate students and faculty are invited. Bring your lunch if you like. Automatic Program Debugging for Intelligent Tutoring Systems by William Murray Program debugging is an important part of the domain expertise required for intelligent tutoring systems that teach programming languages. This talk explores the process by which student programs can be automatically debugged in order to increase the instructional capabilities of these systems. The research presented provides a methodology and implementation for the diagnosis and correction of nontrivial recursive programs. In this approach, recursive programs are debugged by repairing induction proofs in the Boyer-Moore Logic. The potential of a program debugger to automatically debug widely varying novice programs in a nontrivial domain is proportional to its capabilities to reason about computational semantics. By increasing these reasoning capabilities a more powerful and robust system can result. This research supports these claims by discussing the design, implementation, and evaluation of Talus, an automatic debugger for LISP programs and by examining related work in automated program debugging. Talus relies on its abilities to reason about computational semantics to perform algorithm recognition, infer code teleology and to automatically detect and correct nonsyntactic errors in student programs written in a restricted, but nontrivial, subset of LISP. Solutions can vary significantly in algorithm, functional decomposition, role of variables, data flow, control flow, values returned by functions, LISP primitives used, and identifiers used. Solutions can consist of multiple functions, each containing multiple bugs. Empirical evaluation demonstrates that Talus achieves high performance in debugging widely varying student solutions to challenging tasks. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 23 Jul 86 12:12:25-PDT From: Amy Lansky Subject: Seminar - Our Cognitive Abilities Limit the Power of AI (SRI) OUR COGNITIVE ABILITIES LIMIT THE POWER OF AI Jack Alpert (ALPERT@SCORE) Stanford Knowledge Integration Lab and School of Education, Stanford University 11:00 AM, MONDAY, July 28 SRI International, Building E, Room EK228 "Expert Systems: How far can they go?" was a panel topic at AAAI 1985. Brian Smith described the limits of AI in terms of the programmer's ability to know if his encoded model reflected the world that his expert system was to manage. "We have no techniques.. to study the ... relationship between model and world. We are unable... to assess the appropriateness of models, or to predict when models fail." Most of us with icy road experience are convinced we know how to recover from skids. In the talk I will prove that our skid recovery algorithms work only on a small set of possible skids. Skids that lie outside of this small set result in accidents. Our "inappropriate" skid recovery models cause accidents. 20 years of driving experience does not revile the skid model's limitations. When we have been building expert systems for 20 years, why should we be any better prepared to perceive model inappropriateness? The limited set of cognitive abilities that most people develop cannot identify domains where models fail. I describe a temporal cognitive ability most of us lack. Given the definition of such an ability, I will briefly describe a line of research that explains why people never develop the ability. Should this research be successful, we will create new learning environments that enhance first cognitive abilities, then modeling, and finally the power of AI systems. VISITORS: Please arrive 5 minutes early so that you can be escorted up from the E-building receptionist's desk. Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 12:21:25 edt From: Beth Adelson Subject: Workshop - Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems Forwarded from Ron Yager: A workshop will be held at the AAAI meeting entitled "Dealing with Uncertainty in Knowledge-Based Systems". An open discussion. Date: Thursday August 14. Time: 9 am - noon. Place: Richter Hall, Room 2 The workshop will be a lively open discussion on issues related to the management of uncertainty. A number of prominent workers in the field will attend and act as focal points. All are invited to participate. For further information contact: Ronald R. Yager (212) 249-2047 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 09:30:46 -0500 From: sriram@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Conference - 2nd AI Applications in Engineering CALL FOR PAPERS SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON APPLICATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN ENGINEERING AUGUST 4TH-7TH, 1987 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS INTRODUCTION Following the success of the first international conference in Southampton, UK, the second international conference is to be held in Boston during the first week of August. The first international conference stimulated many presentations on both the tools and techniques required for the successful use of AI in engineering and many new applications. The organizing committee members anticipate that the second conference will be even more succesful and encourage papers to be submitted. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this conference is to provide an international forum for the presentation of work on the applications of artificial intelligence to engineering problems. It also aims to encourage and enhance the development of this most important area of research. CONFERENCE THEMES The following topics are suggested and other related areas will be considered: - Computer-aided design - Planning and scheduling - Constraint management - Intelligent tutors - Knowledge-based systems - Knowledge representation - Learning - Natural language applications - Cognitive modelling of engineering problems - Database interfaces - Graphical interfaces - Knowledge-based simulation - Model-based problem solving SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS Authors are invited to submit a 1000 word extended abstract. This abstract should have sufficient details, such as the type of knowledge representation, problem solving strategies, and the implementation language used, to permit evaluation by a committee consisting of renowned experts in the field. The abstract should be accompanied by the following details: author's name, address, affiliation, and the person to whom all correspondence should be sent. All abstracts should be submitted to Dr. R. Adey, Computational Mechanics Inc., Suite 6200, 400 West Cummings Park, Woburn, MA 01801 (Tel. no. 617-933-7374), before November 1986. The notification of acceptance will be sent before February 1st, 1987. Final acceptance of papers will be based on the review of the complete paper. Organizing Committee General Chair Dr. R. Adey, CML Ltd. Program Chair Dr. J. Connor, M. I. T. Technical Chair Dr. D. Sriram, M. I. T. Technical Program Co-ordinators Dr. M. Tenenbaum, Fairchild Research Labs, USA Dr. R. Milne, Intelligent Applications Ltd., UK Dr. J. Gero, University of Sydney, Australia Advisory Board Leading researchers in the field ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Fri Jul 25 00:44:26 1986 Date: Fri, 25 Jul 86 00:44:19 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #173 Status: R AIList Digest Thursday, 24 Jul 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 173 Today's Topics: Philosophy - Perception & Understanding, Humor - Expert Systems Parable ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 21 Jul 86 14:01:37 EDT From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: followup on "understanding yellow" The original version of the "understanding yellow" problem may be found in: Jackson, Frank, "Epiphenomenal Qualia," _Philosophical Quarterly_ 32(1982)127-136. with replies in: Churchland, Paul M., ``Reduction, Qualia, and the Direct Introspection of Brain States," _Journal of Philosophy_ 82(1985)8-28. Jackson, Frank, "What Mary Didn't Know," _Journal of Philosophy_ 83(1986)291-95. (One of the reasons I stopped reading net.philosophy was that its correspondents seemed not to know about what was going on in philosophy journals!) William J. Rapaport Assistant Professor Dept. of Computer Science, SUNY Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260 (716) 636-3193, 3180 uucp: ..!{allegra,decvax,watmath,rocksanne}!sunybcs!rapaport csnet: rapaport@buffalo.csnet bitnet: rapaport@sunybcs.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Fri 18 Jul 86 14:57:17-PDT From: Stephen Barnard Subject: internal representations vs. direct perception Eyal Mozes thinks that direct perception is right on, and that internal representations either don't exist or aren't important. I think direct perception is a vague and suspiciously mystical doctrine that has no logical or physical justification. Barnard: >>Consider what happens when we look at a realistic >>painting. We can, at one level, see it as a painting, or we can see >>it as a scene with no objective existence whatsoever. How could this >>perception possibly be interpreted as anything but an internal >>representation? Mozes: >Sorry, I can't follow your argument. Of course, a realistic painting is >a representation; but it is not an INTERNAL representation. Gibson's >books do contain long discussions of paintings; but he specifically >distinguishes between looking at a painting (in which case you are >perceiving a representation of the object) and directly perceiving the >object itself. Barnard's reply: Look, the painting is a representation, but we don't perceive it AS a representation --- we perceive it as a scene. The scene has NO OBJECTIVE EXISTENCE; therefore, we cannot perceive it DIRECTLY. It exists only in our imaginations, presumably as internal representations. (How else?) If the painter was skillful, the representations in our imagination match his intention. To counter this argument, you must tell me how one can "directly" perceive something that doesn't exist. Good luck. On the other hand, it is quite possible to merely represent something that doesn't exist. Barnard: >>Gibson emphasized the richness of the visual stimulus, >>arguing that much more information was available from it than was >>generally realized. But to go from this observation to the conclusion >>that the stimulus is in all cases sufficient for perception is clearly >>not justified. Mozes: >Gibson did not deny that there are SOME cases (for example, many >situations created in laboratories) in which the stimulus is >impoverished. His point was that these cases are the exception, rather >than the rule. Even if we agree that in those exceptional cases there >is some inference from background knowledge, this doesn't justify >concluding that in the normal cases, where the stimuli do uniquely >specify the external object, inference also goes on. To the contrary, ambiguous visual stimuli are not rare exceptions --- the visual stimulus is ambiguous in virtually EVERY CASE. Gibson was fond of stereo and optic flow as modes of perception that can disambiguate static, monocular stimuli (which are clearly ambiguous). But he simply did not realize that such modalities are themselves ambiguous. For example, I am not aware of Gibson discussing the aperture problem, which describes ambiguity in optic flow. Similarly, depth from stereo is unique once the image-to-image correspondence is achieved, but, as we know from years of research on computational stereo, solving the correspondence problem is not easy, primarly due to the problem of resolving ambiguous matches. Similar problems occur for every mode of visual perception. Gibson's hypothesis that the information for perception exists completely in the stimulus is false, and the entire theory of direct perception falls apart as a consequence. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jul 86 09:25:43 -0200 From: Eyal mozes Subject: Re: Searle and understanding >I think the example shows that there are two related meanings >of "understanding". Certainly, in a formal, scientific sense, >ETS knows (understands-1) as much about yellow as anyone - all >the associated wavelengths, retinal reactions, brain-states, >etc. He can use this concept in formal systems, manipulate it, >etc. But *something* is missing - ETS doesn't know >(understand-2) "what it's like to see yellow", to borrow/bend >Nagel's phrase. > > It's this "what it's like to be a subject experiencing X" that > eludes capture (I suppose) by AI systems. And I think the > point of the Chinese room example is the same - the system as > a whole *does* understand-1 Chinese, but doesn't understand-2 > Chinese. No, I think you're missing Searle's point. What you call "understanding-2" is applicable only to a very small class of concepts - to concepts of sensory qualities, which can't be conveyed verbally. For the concept of a color, you don't even have to stipulate ETS; any color-blind person with a fair knowledge of physical optics (and I happen to be such a person) has "understanding-1", but not "understanding-2", of the concept; I know the conditions which cause other people to see that color, I can reason about it, but I don't know what it feels like to see it. But for concepts which don't directly involve sensory qualities (for example, for understanding a language) there can be only "understanding-1". Now, Searle's point is that this "understanding-1" (such as a native Chinese's understanding of the Chinese language, or my understanding of colors) involves intentionality; it does not consist of manipulating uninterpreted symbols by formal rules. That is why he denies that a computer program can have it. Those who think Searle sees something "magical" in human understanding also miss his point. Quite on the contrary, he regards understanding as a completely natural phenomenon, which, like all natural phenomena, depends on specific material causes. To quote from his paper "Minds, Brains and Programs": "Whatever else intentionality is, it is a biological phenomenon, and it is as likely to be as causally dependent on the specific biochemistry of its origins as lactation, photosynthesis, or any other biological phenomena. No one would suppose that we could produce milk and sugar by running a computer simulation of the formal sequences in lactation and photosynthesis, but where the mind is concerned many people are willing to believe in such a miracle because of a deep and abiding dualism: the mind they suppose is a matter of formal processes and is independent of quite specific material causes in the way that milk and sugar are not". Eyal Mozes BITNET: eyal@wisdom CSNET and ARPA: eyal%wisdom.bitnet@wiscvm.ARPA UUCP: ..!ucbvax!eyal%wisdom.bitnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Jul 86 17:34:03 PDT From: kube%cogsci@BERKELEY.EDU (Paul Kube) Subject: comment on Hayes, V4 #169 Pat Hayes in AIList V4 #169: >re: Searle's chinese room >There has been by now an ENORMOUS amount of discussion of this argument, far >more than it deserves. Pat is right, for two reasons: the argument says nothing one way or the other about the possibility of constructing systems which exhibit any kind of behavior you like; and the point of the Chinese Room argument proper--that computation is insufficient for intentionality-- had already been made to most everyone's satisfaction by Block, Fodor, Rey, and others, by the time Searle went to press. (The question of the sufficiency of computation plus causation, or of the sufficiency of neurobiology, are further issues which have probably not been discussed more than they deserve.) >... ultimately >whether or not he is right will have to be decided empirically, I >believe. Searle thinks this too, but it's not obvious what the empirical decision would be based on. Since behavior and internal structure (by hypothesis), and material (to avoid begging the question), are no guide, it would seem that the only way to tell if a silicon system has intentional states is by being one. The crucial empirical test looks disturbingly elusive, so far as the brain-based scientific community is concerned. > When the robots get to be more convincing, let's >come back and ask him again ( or send one of them to do it ). Searle, of course, has committed himself to not being convinced by a robot, no matter how convincing. But some elaboration of this scenario is, I think, the right picture of how the question will be answered (and not `empirically'): as increasingly perfected robots proliferate, socio-political mechanisms for the establishment of person-based rights will act in response to the set of considerations present at the time; eventually lines will be drawn that most folks can live with, and the practice of literal attribution of psychological predicates will follow these lines. If this process is (at least for practical purposes) unpredictable, then only time will tell if Searle's paper will come to be regarded as a pathetically primitive racist tract, or as an enlightened contribution to the theory of the new order. Paul Kube kube@berkeley.edu ...ucbvax!kube ------------------------------ Date: Tue 22 Jul 86 13:30:10-PDT From: Glenn Silverstein Subject: A Parable (about AI in large organizations) Once upon a time, in a kingdom nothing like our own, gold was very scarce, forcing jewelers to try and sell little tiny gold rings and bracelets. Then one day a PROSPECTOR came into the capitol sporting a large gold nugget he found in a hill to the west. As the word went out that there was "gold in them thar hills", the king decided to take an active management role. He appointed a "gold task force" which one year later told the king "you must spend lots of money to find gold, lest your enemies get richer than you." So a "Gold Center" was formed, staffed with many spiffy looking Ph.D. types who had recently published papers on gold (remarkably similar to their earlier papers on silver). Experienced prospectors had been interviewed, but they smelled and did not have a good grasp of gold theory. The Center bought a large number of state of the art bulldozers and took them to a large field they had found that was both easy to drive on and freeway accessible. After a week of sore rumps, getting dirty, and not finding anything, they decided they could best help the gold cause by researching better tools. So they set up some demo sand hills in clear view of the king's castle and stuffed them with nicely polished gold bars. Then they split into various research projects, such as "bigger diggers", for handling gold boulders if they found any, and "timber-gold alloys", for making houses from the stuff when gold eventually became plentiful. After a while the town barons complained loud enough and also got some gold research money. The lion's share was allocated to the most politically powerful barons, who assigned it to looking for gold in places where it would be very convenient to find it, such as in rich jewelers' backyards. A few bulldozers, bought from smiling bulldozer salespeople wearing "Gold is the Future" buttons, were time shared across the land. Searchers who, in their allotted three days per month of bulldozer time, could just not find anything in the backyards of "gold committed" jewelers were admonished to search harder next month. The smart money understood that bulldozers were the best digging tool, even though they were expensive and hard to use. Some backward prospector types, however, persisted in panning for gold in secluded streams. Though they did have some success, gold theorists knew that this was due to dumb luck and the incorporation of advanced bulldozer research ideas in later pan designs. After many years of little success, the king decided the whole pursuit was a waste and cut off all funding. The Center people quickly unearthed their papers which had said so all along. The end. P.S. There really was gold in them thar hills. Still is. by Robin Hanson (using silverstein@sushi) [credit to M. Franklin for story ideas] ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Fri Aug 1 00:39:49 1986 Date: Fri, 1 Aug 86 00:39:43 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #174 Status: RO AIList Digest Friday, 1 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 174 Today's Topics: Seminars - Specification of Geographic Data Processing Requirements (UPenn) & Constructing the Aspect Graph (GMR) & RS: Distributed Sensory-based Robot Control (UMass) & Decision-Making and Action in the Real World (SRI) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 15:05 EDT From: Tim Finin Subject: Seminar - Specification of Geographic Data Processing Requirements (UPenn) Forwarded From: Glenda Kent on Thu 24 Jul 1986 at 14:40 FORMAL SPECIFICATION OF GEOGRAPHIC DATA PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS Gruia-Catalin Roman Department of Computer Science Washington University This presentation discusses a formal foundation for the specification of Geographic Data Processing (GDP) requirements. The emphasis is placed on modelling data and knowledge requirements rather than processing needs. A subset of first order logic is proposed as the principal means for constructing formalizations of the GDP requirements in a manner that is independent of the data representation. Requirements executability is achieved by selecting a subset of logic compatible with the inference mechanisms available in Prolog. GDP significant concepts such as time, space and accuracy have been added to the formalization without losing concepts such as time, space and accuracy have been added to the formalization without losing Prolog implementability or separation of concerns. Rules of reasoning about time, space and accuracy (based on positional, temporal and fuzzy logic) may be compactly stated in a subset of second order predicate calculus and may be easily modified to meet the particular needs of a specific application. Multiple views of the data and knowledge may coexist in the same formalization. The feasibility of the approach has been established with the aid of a tentative Prolog implementation of the formalism. The implementation also provides the means for graphical rendering of logical information on a high resolution color display. Acknowledgements: This work was supported in part by Defense Mapping Agency and by Rome Air Development Center under contract F30602-83-K-0065. The full text of this presentation is available in "Formal Specification of Geographic Data Processing Requirements," Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Data Engineering, (Outstanding Paper Award), pp. 434-446, February 1986. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 22:18 EST From: "Steven W. Holland" Subject: Seminar - Constructing the Aspect Graph (GMR) Seminar at General Motors Research Laboratories (GMR): An Algorithm for Constructing the Aspect Graph Dr. Charles R. Dyer of Computer Science Department University of Wisconsin Madison, WI 53706 Thursday, August 14, 1986 The aspect graph of a solid object is a representation of the visibility of the object's surfaces throughout surrounding viewing space. In this talk we present tight bounds on the maximum size of aspect graphs and give worst-case optimal algorithms for their construction, first in the convex case and then in the general case. The algorithm for the general case makes use of a new 3-D object representation called the aspect representation or "asp". We also suggest several alternatives to the aspect graph which require less space and store more information. -Steve Holland, Computer Science Department ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Jul 86 16:11 EST From: Damian Lyons Subject: Seminar - RS: Distributed Sensory-based Robot Control (UMass) Hi: I know I'm a bit late on posting this; however, I would welcome comments from interested persons out there: July 25th, 1986. Dept. of Computer and Information Science. University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Amherst, MA.01003. RS: A Formal Model of Distributed Computation For Sensory-based Robot Control. Damian M. Lyons Robot systems are becoming more and more complex, both in terms of available degrees of freedom and in terms of sensors. It is no longer possible to continue to regard robots as peripheral devices of a computer system, and to program them by adapting general-purpose programming languages. This dissertation analyzes the inherent computing characteristics of the robot programming domain, and formally constructs an appropriate model of computation. The programming of a dextrous robot hand is the example domain for the development of the model. This model, called RS, is a model of distributed computation: the basic mode of computation is the interaction of concurrent computing agents. A schema in RS describes a class of computing agents. Schemas are instantiated to produce computing agents, called SIs, which can communicate with each other via input and output ports. A network of SIs can be grouped atomically together in an Assemblage, and appears externally identical to a single SI. The sensory and motor interface to RS is a set of primitive, predefined schemas. These can be grouped arbitrarily with built-in knowledge in assemblages to form task-specific object models. A special kind of assemblage called a task-unit is used to structure the way robot programs are built. The formal semantics of RS is automata theoretic; the semantics of an SI is a mathematical object, a Port Automaton. Communication, port connections, and assemblage formation are among the RS concepts whose semantics can be expressed formally and precisely. A Temporal Logic specification and verification methodology is constructed using the automata semantics as a model. While the automata semantics allows the analysis of the model of computation, the Temporal Logic methodology allows the top-down synthesis of programs in the model. A computer implementation of the RS model has been constructed, and used in conjunction with a graphic robot simulation, to formulate and test dextrous hand control programs. In general RS facilitates the formulation and verification of versatile robot programs, and is an ideal tool with which to introduce AI constructs to the robot domain. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 30 Jul 86 17:43:10-PDT From: Amy Lansky Subject: Seminar - Decision-Making and Action in the Real World (SRI) DECISION-MAKING AND ACTION IN THE REAL WORLD John Myers (JMYERS@SRI-AI) SRI International, Robotics Laboratory 11:00 AM, MONDAY, Aug. 4 SRI International, Building E, Room EK228 In this philosophical talk I will present my opinions as to how to design an entity capable of operating in the real world, under limited resources. These include limited time, information, and capabilities. I will present models that stress heuristic aspects of behavior, rather than traditional pre-planning techniques. As Terry Winograd has said, "The main problem is to come up with what you are going to do in the next five seconds." After covering the problem and some traditional paradigms, I will discuss three main concepts, along with a follow-up concept. These are: the Theory of Stances, the Freudian Motivation Model, and the Theory of Alternative Choices, along with the Principle of Responsibility. These are contrasted against traditional approaches by their emphasis on workability, as opposed to correctness. A Stance consists of a high-level classification of a situation, along with a high-level precompiled response script. Often there is insufficient information in a prima facia situation to correctly determine what is going on; or, the entity may simply not be able to afford the overhead required to completely plan its behavior from first principles. Taking a stance on the situation allows a habitual response to be made; which at least is some action in the face of the unknown, and at best, solves the problem with minimal effort. The Freudian Motivation Model splits behavior generation into three general processes: generation, policies, and judgment, corresponding to the id, superego, and ego, respectively. Approved behaviors are put on an intention queue or a performance queue, among others. The model can be used to explain nonpurposeful or nonvolitional behaviors such as posthypnotic acts or compulsions. The Theory of Alternative Choices says that given a direct choice between, for example, one of two actions, there are actually a number of alternative decisions that must be considered. These include: do nothing, wait, waffle, observe/consult, relegate, delegate, react, transcend, or respond with a stance. One of these may be much more appropriate in a resource-limited situation than directly planning out a decision between the two original choices. As a follow-up, the Principle of Responsibility says that the entity (the computer) must be responsible for its actions and its recommendations. In a certain sense, it must be willing to be wrong. Even if it is totally convinced of the correctness of its situational assessment, it must consider the possibility that things might go badly, given a certain course of action--and it must use that as further input to the decision process. Examples will be interspersed in the talk. VISITORS: Please arrive 5 minutes early so that you can be escorted up from the E-building receptionist's desk. Thanks! ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Fri Aug 1 06:45:23 1986 Date: Fri, 1 Aug 86 06:45:17 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #175 Status: RO AIList Digest Friday, 1 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 175 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Digest Schedule, Discussion Lists - Natural Language and Knowledge Representation & PSYCHNET Address Correction, Philosophy - Translations & Philosophy Journal Style & Searle and Understanding & McLuhan's Sports Analogy & Conservation of Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu 31 Jul 86 17:13:19-PDT From: Ken Laws Reply-to: AIList-Request@SRI-AI.ARPA Subject: Digest Schedule The digest has been a little delayed this week because I've been ill. I'm getting back on my feet now, but starting August 13 I'll be doing some traveling for a month. UUCP net.ai will still function, but AIList digests will be halted until mid September. The following announcement of Brad Miller's NL-KR list may provide interim relief for the network junkies among us. I appreciate his willingness to take over AIList topics that deserve their own forum. -- Ken Laws ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 16:10 EDT From: Brad Miller Subject: New List formed on Natural Language and Knowledge Representation As most of you know, Ken Laws has been getting swamped with AIList duties, and has asked for help. In this vein, I am starting a separate list to deal exclusively with the Natural Language and Knowledge Representation subfields of AI. Since the scope of this list will be much narrower than the AIList, I welcome postings from disciplines throughout cognitive science that are related to these areas. I feel that AI is more of a conglomeration of several diverse fields than it is a field unto itself, so this sort of diversity is necessary. More specifically, here are some details: You may submit material for the digest to nl-kr@rochester.arpa . Digests are sent to Arpanet readers and USENET readers as appropriate. (There are no current plans for forwarding to the UUCP news system.) Administrative requests (including asking to be included on the list) should be sent to nl-kr-request@rochester.arpa . Archival copies of all digests will be kept; feel free to ask nl-kr-request for recent back issues. NL-KR is open to discussion of any topic related to the natural language (both understanding and generation) and knowledge representation, both as subfields of AI. My own related interests are primarily in Knowledge Representation Natural Language Understanding Discourse Understanding Philosophy of Language Plan Recognition Computational Linguistics Contributions are also welcome on topics such as Cognitive Psychology (as related to NL/KR) Human Perception (same) Linguistics Machine Translation Computer and Information Science (as may be used to implement various NL systems) Logic Programming (same) Contributions may be anything from tutorials to speculation. In particular, the following are sought: Abstracts Reviews Lab Descriptions Research Overviews Work Planned or in Progress Half-Baked Ideas Conference Announcements Conference Reports Bibliographies History of NL/KR Puzzles and Unsolved Problems Anecdotes, Jokes, and Poems Queries and Requests Address Changes (Bindings) This list is in some sense a spin-off of the AIList, and as such, a certain amount of overlap is expected. The primary concentration of this list should be NL and KR, that is, natural language (be it understanding, generation, recognition, parsing, semantics, pragmatics, etc.) and how we should represent knowledge (aquisition, access, completeness, etc. are all valid issues). Topics I deem to be outside the general scope of this list will be forwarded to AIList (or other more appropriate list) or rejected. Bradford Miller University of Rochester Computer Science Department miller@rochester.arpa [Note: Grateful acknowledgement is given to Dr. Kenneth Laws of SRI for permission to use an edited version of his AIList welcoming message.] ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 26 Jul 86 14:35:16 CDT From: Psychnet Reply-to: EPSYNET%UHUPVM1.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Subject: PSYCHNET Correction To contact psychnet the userid is EPSYNET and not EPSYCHNET. Yours truly, Bob Morecock, Editor ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Jul 86 17:19:20 bst From: Gordon Joly Subject: "Metamorphosis" -- (A Common Sense Chinese Room Analogy). The Steven Berkoff production of "Metamorphosis" has recently returned to the London stage. A reviewer has pointed out that the play lacks many of the levels of meaning in Kafka's work, as a result of its transformation into a theatrical work. The reviewer was probably thinking of the English translation of the text from the original German and it has been pointed out that the translation the original language was responsible for a considerable loss of substance. Apparently, the true impact of the work can only be grasped by a native speaker, who has a background of the German culture. Gordon Joly. INET: gcj%maths.qmc.ac.uk%cs.qmc.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk EARN: gcj%UK.AC.QMC.MATHS%UK.AC.QMC.CS@AC.UK UUCP: ...!seismo!ukc!qmc-ori!gcj also: joly%surrey.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk [In Contact, Carl Sagan quotes a line about reading a translation being similar to viewing a tapestry from the back. -- KIL] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 14:27:03 EDT From: "Col. G. L. Sicherman" Subject: Re: philosophy journals In article <8607211801.AA17444@ellie.SUNYAB>, rapaport@buffalo.CSNET ("William J. Rapaport") writes: > The original version of the ... problem may be found in: > Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia," _Philosophical Q._ 32(1982)127-136. > with replies in: > Churchland, "Reduction, Qualia, and the Direct Introspection of > Brain States," _J. of Philosophy_ 82(1985)8-28. > Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know," _J. of Philosophy_ 83(1986)291-95. > (One of the reasons I stopped reading net.philosophy was that its > correspondents seemed not to know about what was going on in philosophy > journals!) Out of curiosity I hunted up the third article on the way back from lunch. It's aggressive and condescending; any sympathy I might have felt for the author's argument was repulsed by his sophomoric writing. I hope it's not typical of the writing in philosophy journals. ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jul 86 10:21 PDT From: Newman.pasa@Xerox.COM Subject: Re: Searle and understanding Eyal Mozes quotes from Searle to explain how Searle thinks about human understanding and its biological nature. I had seen that passage of Searle's before, and I think that this is a major part of my problem with Searle. He accepts the biological nature of thought and mind, yet cannot accept the proposition that a computer can reproduce the necessary features of these items. I cannot see any reason to believe that Searle's position is correct. More importantly, I can see many reasons why his position is incorrect. Searle uses milk and sugar to illustrate his point. I think that this is a terrible comparison because milk and sugar are physical products of biological processes while thought and mind are not. I also think that Searle's attack on grounds of dualism is rather unfair. Even Searle must agree that there are physical things and non-physical things in the world (eg Volkswagens and numbers), and that milk and sugar are members of the first class while thought and mind are members of the second. Moreover, Searle's position apparently demands that there are features of thought and mind that are dependent on features of very low-level biological processes that make thought and mind happen. What evidence is there that there are such features? I don't see that features of the neurotransmitters (for example) can have an effect at any level other than their own, particularly since any one biochemical event is unlikely to have a large effect (my understanding is that large numbers of biochemical events must occur in concert for anything to be apparent at higher levels). Admittedly there is as little evidence for my position as there is for Searle's, but I think that there is more evidence against Searle than there is against me. One last point is my paraphrase of John Haugeland's comment in "Artificial Intelligence - The Very Idea": that brains are merely symbol processors is a hypothesis and nothing more - until more solid proof comes along. >>Dave ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 14:08:41 edt From: cdx39!jc%rclex.UUCP@harvard.HARVARD.EDU Subject: Re: Re: Computer Ethics (from Risks Digest) > To quote one of McLuhan's defocussed analogies: "You must talk to the > medium, not to the programmer. To talk to the programmer is like > complaining to the hot-dog vendor about how badly your team is playing." Whether he was talking about the broadcast or the computer industry, he got the analogy wrong. If the subject is broadcasting, the sports analogy to a "programmer" is the guy that makes the play schedules. True, that person is not responsible for program content, much less quality. But still, the analogous position is not the hot-dog vendor. If the subject is computers, the sports equivalent to a programmer is the guy that designs the plays, i.e., the coach. He is indeed responsible for how badly the team/computer plays. True, there may be others that share the responsibility (like the players and equipment vendor and the cpu and the I/O devices). But still, in computing, a programmer bears at least partial responsibility for the computer's (mis)behaviour. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 24 Jul 86 03:30:03 PDT From: larry@Jpl-VLSI.ARPA Subject: "Proper" Study of Science, Conservation of Info I have to start with materialism. What we mean today when we say the word may have a common core with its use in previous centuries, but the details are vastly different. Today we recognize not only wind and wave, steam and steel as physical realities, but also quanta and field effects (and virtual particles!)--subjects that pre-modern physicists and engineers would consider downright mystical. And that would have been exactly true--in their time. But we can precisely define these things now, quantify them, experiment with and measure them. An even more radical difference is that information--pattern, form--is now a part of physics, "a metric as important as time, space, charge, etc." The ability to quantify and measure pattern and shape has profound implica- tions for the study of formerly mystical topics such as intelligence. It means we can develop conservation laws for information, without which you can't construct an essential ingredient of mathematics, equations. I'm not implying I know what they are in any detail; people with other qualifica- tions than mine must provide that. But the shape of the research seems to be clear; cybernetics and information theory provide the basis. For instance, there are several links between information and energy. Higher frequency radiation has more bits per unit time. Mutation is the result of external energy pushing genes beyond the ability of their binding energies to maintain a stable structure. The impressing of information on media (diskettes, molecules, brains) requires energy which can be measured. Organization of information in structures (indexed or random files, percepts, concepts) has time/energy trade-offs for different kinds of accesses. In a way, the information content of an entity is more important than its material content. A decade from now it's likely that none of our bodies will contain EVEN A SINGLE ATOM now in them. Even bones are fluid in biological organisms; only when we die does matter cease to flow into and out of us. We are NOT matter, or even energy, in the Antique sense. We are patterns, standing waves in four (or more) dimensions. Maintaining these patterns within safe parameters, or learning new safe parameters, requires that our very molecules input data, store it, process it--often in a recursive or self-referential or time-dependent fashion--and act. (RNA is an excellent model for an advanced computer, for instance.) And we can be thought as a number of layers each with its unique informa- tion needs: cells, tissue, organs, organisms, tribes. One feature common to all intelligences, however rudimentary, is the ability to create and manipulate analogs of the environment and of themselves. Simulations are much cheaper and safer than experiments. This also gives a clue as to how will impresses itself on the universe despite its immaterial nature--because it isn't truly immaterial. Patterns are no more independent of their matter/energy base than matter can exist without pattern. (That is, the pattern of binding is what makes the difference between an atom and a burst of radiant energy.) Because intelligence is a pattern of energy it can affect matter and through triggering have effects enormously greater than the triggering stimulus. A whim and a whistle can destroy a city--with an avalanche. The point of all this is that life and intelligence are no longer supernatural--beyond the reach of formalism and experiment. What is still a mystery to me is consciousness, but the understanding doesn't seem beyond practical realization. It seems reasonable that con- sciousness arises as a result of time-binding, recursion, and self- reference. Perhaps multiple layers of vulnerability and adaptability are important, too. (Our current robots and computers don't have any of these and are thus poor candidates for models of intelligent mechanisms, much less conscious ones. Thus I'd agree with one recent critic of some AI research.) I can't agree that consciousness is an improper subject for scientific study. Our inability to observe it directly (in a public as opposed to subjective way) is shared by many other scientific fields. In fact the most crucial subjects in the "hard" sciences must be studied indirectly: radia- tion, atoms, viruses, etc. The difficulty of defining terms shouldn't be a deterrent either. All developing research shares the same problem as the underlying ideas change and solidify. Some people object on emotional grounds. Many of them only succeed in revealing their own limitations, not those of the rest of us. They are too emotionally stunted to have the strength of humility; they must somehow be above nature, superior. And too intellectually crippled to see the magic and mystery in star-shine and bird flight, in ogive curve and infinitesimals and the delicious simplicity of an algorithm. Larry @ jpl-vlsi.arpa ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Wed Aug 6 17:25:28 1986 Date: Wed, 6 Aug 86 17:25:15 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe.arpa Subject: AIList Digest V4 #176 Status: RO AIList Digest Monday, 4 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 176 Today's Topics: Queries - Expert System to Catch Spies & Reimplementing in C & Machine Translation & Financial Expert Systems & Connectionist Approaches To Expert System Learning & Snodgrass and Vanderwart Images & Forgy VAX/VMS OPS5 User Manual & AI System Development Model, AI Tools - VM Common Lisp & VM Prolog, Expert Systems - Geometric Placement, Patent - Hierarchical Knowledge System ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed 23 Jul 86 21:39:50-CDT From: CS.VANSICKLE@R20.UTEXAS.EDU Subject: Expert system to catch spies Today's (July 23, 1986) Wall Street Journal contains an editorial by Paul M. Rosa urging the use of expert systems to identify potential spies (acutally traitors). Mr. Rosa is a lawyer and a former intelligence analyst. Since virtually all American traitors sell out for money, an expert system embodying the expertise of trained investigators could examine credit histories, court files, registers of titled assets such as real estate and vehicles, airline reservations, telephone records, income tax returns, bank transactions, use of passports, and issuance of visas. The system would look for suspicious patterns and alert counter-intelligence officials for further investigation. There are some obvious considerations of privacy and legality, but that is probably best discussed on another bulletin board. Mr. Rosa says the system would be used only on the 4.3 million people who hold security clearances, who have consented to government scrutiny. According to Mr. Rosa, "the obstacles to implementation are not technological," and "the system could be implemented quickly and cheaply." He predicts that the Soviets, working through their extensive international banking network, will use the same techniques to identify potential recruits. He also says that the FBI has three expert systems for monitoring labor rackets, narcotics shipments, and terrorist activities. Any reactions? Is this doable? It strikes me as more of a data collection problem than an expert system problem. Is there anyone who knows more about the FBI expert systems and can talk about it? Larry Van Sickle cs.vansickle@r20.utexas.edu Computer Sciences Dept. U of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 27 Jul 86 20:20:06 cdt From: marick%ccvaxa@gswd-vms.ARPA (Brian Marick) Subject: Reimplementing in C I've been hearing and seeing something for the past couple years, something that seems to be becoming a folk theorem. The theorem goes like this: Many expert systems are being reimplemented in C. If even the expert system companies are abandoning "special-purpose AI languages" like Lisp and Prolog, surely nobody else - other than academics and semi-academics - will use them. I'm curious what the facts are. Which companies are reimplementing in C (or other languages). Why? And what (roughly) does "reimplementing in C" mean? What languages are used for development of new products? What will happen in the future? Which companies are not reimplementing? Why not? (I'm concentrating on these particular companies because they're what the "theorizers" concentrate on. Comments from others welcome.) Brian Marick, Wombat Consort Gould Computer Systems -- Urbana && University of Illinois ...ihnp4!uiucdcs!ccvaxa!marick ARPA: Marick@GSWD-VMS ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 28 Jul 86 10:03:44 edt From: Catherine A. Meadows Subject: machine translation I am interested in learning about machine translation of natural languages. Can anybody out there tell me what is going on in the field these days, how much progess has been made, what systems are being built, who is working on them, etc.? Catherine Meadows (send replies to meadows@nrl-css) ------------------------------ Date: Thu 31 Jul 86 06:29:18-PDT From: Ted Markowitz Subject: Financial Expert Systems I'd like to make a collection of references to work being done in AI and finance, including trading, planning, market analysis, etc. I've found the companies who are developing such systems internally to be very secretive (not suprisingly), but I'd like to throw some light on this area. If anyone is doing work in these kinds of domains and would like to talk about it, please send them on to me and I'll redistribute the answers after digesting them. I see some especially interesting problems in dealing with time and pattern recognition that occur in these situations. --ted ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 86 19:18:10 GMT From: ucbcad!nike!lll-crg!seismo!mcvax!ukc!reading!brueer!ckennedy@ucb vax.berkeley.edu (C.M.Kennedy) Subject: Connectionist Approaches To Expert System Learning CONNECTIONIST APPROACHES TO EXPERT SYSTEM LEARNING I wish to hear about any research on the following topic: The application of connectionist models, in particular feature discovery networks (e.g. kohonen nets) to the problem of knowledge induction in expert systems. Applications of connectionist models to other areas of symbolic processing or knowledge representation are also of interest. I would be pleased to receive (via mail) the following information: 1. A summary of what the research is attempting to achieve, methods used and degree of success, 2. how to obtain more detailed documentation (e.g. technical reports), 3. references on literature used for the research or which may be of future interest. I would also be interested to hear of anyone else with similar interests who can contribute useful ideas or knows of any specific literature on the subject. Catriona Kennedy Brunel University ------------------------------ Date: 2 Aug 86 02:13:54 GMT From: watcgl!fdfishman@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Flynn D. Fishman) Subject: Snodgrass and Vanderwart Images I am not really sure where to post this request but I will give this a shot and hope some one can help me. I am looking for the digitized set of 260 commonly found objects compiled by Snodgrass and Vanderwart for use in psychology. Snodgrass, J. G. & Vanderwart, M. (1980). A standardized set of 260 pictures: Norms for name agreement, image agreement, familiartity, and visual complexity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning and Memory, 6, 174-215.. Any format will do, but I would perfer if they were in a line format, i.e. co-ordinates. I would also appreciate if you could e-mail me a response as I do not get to read as much news as I would like to. Thanks very much. -- FDFISHMAN (Flynn D. Fishman) UUCP : ...!{decvax|ihnp4|clyde|allegra|utzoo}!watmath!watcgl!fdfishman ARPA : fdfishman%watcgl%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa CSNET : fdfishman%watcgl@waterloo.csnet ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 3 Aug 86 15:11 EST From: SECRIST%OAK.SAINET.MFENET@LLL-MFE.ARPA Subject: Forgy VAX/VMS OPS5 User Manual From: (Richard C. Secrist) Date: Sun, 3-AUG-1986 15:12 EST To: AIlist@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA Message-ID: <[OAK.SAINET.MFENET].701C0320.008F2E4C.SECRIST> Header-Disclaimer: I don't like my headers either. Quote: "May your future be limited only by your dreams." -- Christa McAuliffe Organization: Science Applications Int'l. Corp., Oak Ridge, Tenn., USA CompuServe-ID: [71636,52] X-VMS-Mail-To: ARPA%"AIlist@SRI-STRIPE.Arpa" I have a copy of Forgy's 1981 OPS5 system in Lisp for use under the public domain Franz Lisp for VMS and am trying to locate a user's manual for it, and would appreciate any help the members of this list could provide. I believe the document is: Forgy, C.L. OPS5 User's Manual. Carnegie-Mellon Univ., CMU-CS-78-116, 1981. Thanks in advance to all. Richard C. Secrist, SECRIST%OAK.SAInet.MFEnet@LLL-MFE.Arpa Science Applications Int'l. Corp.; 800 Oak Ridge Tpke; Oak Ridge, TN 37830 ------------------------------ Date: 29 Jul 86 20:21:53 GMT From: decvax!savax!king@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (king) Subject: AI System Development Model Sanders Associates, Inc., under contract to Rome Air Development Center, is performing a study on the acquisition, management, and control of Artificial Intelligence (AI) software. While the Department of Defense has established numerous standards for the acquisition and development of conventional software, such standards may not translate effectively to AI software. The development of a model suitable for dealing with issues related to acquisition, control and management of AI based software requires input from experienced AI development team members. Sanders has developed a questionnaire that explores the development process in these areas. Contributions to the questionnaire and study will be acknowledged in the final report. Interested professionals are invited to contact the following for a copy of the questionnaire: Ms. Sandy King Sanders Associates, Inc. (MER24-1283) Nashua, N.H. 03061 (603) 885-9242 uucp: !decvax!savax!king ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Jul 86 11:10:18 pdt From: George Cross Subject: Re: Common Lisp and Prolog on VM/CMS Intermetrics is selling VM/CMS Common Lisp. The educational price was recently $4000. The documentation indicates a quite complete implementation with interfaces to Intermetrics C language available. There is an ad for it on p32 of AI Magazine, V7, Number 1, Spring 1986. Intermetrics 733 Concord Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 (617)-661-1840 Cognitive Systems may be selling CSI-LISP on top of IBM VM LISP. This is a rewrite of T, a Scheme dialect. Details in AI Magazine, V6, Number 3, Fall 1985, page 248. ---- George - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - George R. Cross cross@wsu.CSNET Computer Science Department cross%wsu@csnet-relay.ARPA Washington State University faccross@wsuvm1.BITNET Pullman, WA 99164-1210 Phone: 509-335-6319 or 509-335-6636 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Aug 86 07:56:55 PDT From: newton@vlsi.caltech.edu (Mike Newton) Subject: VM Prolog Regarding the recent inquiry about Common Lisp & Prolog under VM: Though we run VM, one of the Virtual machines is UTS -- Amdahl's port of System 5. Under this we run a locally modified version of CProlog and are quite pleased with the performance. Warning -- UTS is *NOT* cheap (but is very nice) !! Our own Prolog compiler (for VM/CMS) is just nearing completion -- It can compile roughly half of itself. However we do not expect that it will be ready for release for a while. It follows Clocksin & Mellish as well as can be done on an IBM mainframe (EBCDIC-->ASCII conversions and such). When released it will be *fast* -- roughly 95 KLips on a 4341, and currently around .8 MegaLips on a 3090 (using one processor!). I believe the IBM prolog (Waterloo) uses a different syntax than is commonly used. Hope this has helped -- - mike newton@cit-vax.caltech.edu {ucbvax!cithep,amdahl}!cit-vax!newton Caltech 256-80 818-356-6771 (afternoons,nights) Pasadena CA 91125 Beach Bums Anonymous, Pasadena President ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 25 Jul 86 14:27:33 PDT From: trwrb!orion!gries@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Harry A. Gries) Reply-to: orion!gries@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Harry A. Gries) Subject: Re: Query - Geometric Placement In article <522182201.bhola@spice.cs.cmu.edu> Carlos.Bhola@SPICE.CS.CMU.EDU writes: > > Query: Does anyone know about any expert system (developed > or under development) that relates to the placement > of geometric objects in a plane? Examples of the > problem would be pagination, VLSI layout, etc. > > > -- Carlos. Another application would be in creating district boundaries for congressional representatives. The problem would be to section the population of a state (currently California is debating this problem) so that each district has approximately the same population. This must be done without breaking city, county, or precinct boundaries. Also, in order to assure a fairly homogeneous constituency, the aspect ratio of the district must be limited. An optimal solution would have the smallest sum of district perimeters. -- BTK ------------------------------ Date: 1 Aug 86 15:36 PDT From: Shrager.pa@Xerox.COM Subject: Note without comment United States Patent # 4,591,983 Date: May 27, 1986 Title: Hierarchical Knowledge System Filed: July 9, 1984 Abstract: A knowledge system has a hierarchical knowledge base comprising a functional decomposition of a set of elements into subject sets over a plurality of hierarchical levels. [...] the operations include matching, configuring, and expanding the user-defined set of elements [...] In a specific embodyment, the elements are available components of a system or item of manufacture [...]. Perpetrators: James S. Bennett & Jay S. Lark Techknowledge, Inc. Palo Alto, CA ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Sat Aug 9 20:59:35 1986 Date: Sat, 9 Aug 86 20:59:18 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe Subject: AIList Digest V4 #177 Status: R AIList Digest Saturday, 9 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 177 Today's Topics: Seminars - Helicopter Flight Path Control (Ames) & Object Encapsulation and Inheritance (MIT) & ACTORS in Concurrent Logic Programming Languages (MIT), Conference - 4th International Conference on Logic Programming & 2nd Int. Rewriting Techniques and Applications & 1st Eurographics Intelligent CAD Systems ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 8 Aug 1986 1121-PDT (Friday) From: eugene@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Eugene Miya) Subject: Seminar - Helicopter Flight Path Control (Ames) National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center Systems Autonomy Demonstration Program Seminar Dr. Shoshana Abel Expert-EASE Systems Application of Evidential Reasoning to Helicopter Flight Path Control An innovative form of AI technology called evidential reasoning systems will be presented for advanced helicopters. The reasoning system, based on the mathematical theory of evidence by Glen Shafer, centers on automatic reasoning inorder to derive the necessary conclusions about feature extraction and obstacle avoidance. The advantage of using this approach applied to advance helicopters will be discussed. Date: Thursday. 8/21/86 Time: 3:00 pm Location: NASA, Ames Research Center, Bldg. 244 room 103 Inquires: David Jared, (415) 964-6533 jared%plu@ames-io.arpa VISITORS ARE WELCOME: Register and obtain vehicle pass at Ames Visitor Reception Building (N-253) or the Security Station near Gate 18. Do not use the Navy Main Gate. Non-citizens (except Permanent Residents) must have prior approval from the Director's Office one week in advance. Submit requests to the point of contact indicated above. Non-citizens must register at the Visitor Reception Building. Permanent Residents are required to show Alien Registration Card at the time of registration. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Aug 1986 1400-EDT From: ALR@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU Subject: Seminar - Object Encapsulation and Inheritance (MIT) DATE: THURSDAY, AUGUST 7, 1986 REFRESHMENTS AT 1:45 PM TALK AT 2:00 PM PLACE: NE43-512A Encapsulation and Inheritance in Object-Oriented Programming Languages Alan Snyder Hewlett Packard Palo Alto, Ca. Object-oriented programming is a practical and useful programming methodology that encourages modular design and software reuse. Most object-oriented programming languages support data abstraction by preventing an object from being manipulated except via its defined external operations. In most languages, however, the introduction of inheritance severely compromises the benefits of this encapsulation. Furthermore, the use of inheritance itself is globally visible in most languages, so that changes to the inheritance hierarchy cannot be made safely. We examine the relationship between inheritance and encapsulation and develop requirements for full support of encapsulation with inheritance. Host: Prof. Liskov ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Aug 1986 14:38 EDT From: PJ@OZ.AI.MIT.EDU Subject: Seminar - ACTORS in Concurrent Logic Programming Languages (MIT) ****** SEMINAR ****** THURSDAY, AUGUST 7 8TH FLOOR PLAYROOM 11:00 am ******** ACTORS ******* IN CONCURRENT LOGIC PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES ***************************** KENNETH KAHN Knowledge Systems Area Intelligent System Laboratory XEROX PALO ALTO RESEARCH CENTER ABSTRACT: Concurrent logic programming languages support object-oriented programming with a clean semantics and additional programming constructs such as incomplete messages, unification, direct broadcasting, and concurrency synchronization. While these languages provide excellent computational support, we claim they do not provide good notation for expressing the abstractions of object-oriented programming. We describe a preprocessor that remedies this problem. the resulting language, Vulcan, is then used as a vehicle for exploring new variants of object-oriented programming which become possible in this framework. Host: Prof. Carl Hewitt ------------------------------ Date: 1 August 1986, 23:14:13 EDT From: Jean-Louis Lassez Subject: Conference - 4th International Conference on Logic Programming CALL FOR PAPERS Fourth International Conference On Logic Programming University of Melbourne, Australia Late May 1987 The conference will consider all aspects of logic programming, including, but not limited to: Theory and Foundations Architectures and Implementations Programming Languages and Methodology Databases Knowledge Representation, Reasoning and Expert Systems Relations to other computation models, programming languages, and programming methodologies. Of special interest are papers discussing novel applications and applications that address the unique character of logic programming. Papers can be submitted under two categories, short - up to 2000 words, and long - up to 6000 words. Submissions will be considered on basis of appropriateness, clarity, originality, significance, and overall quality. Authors should send six copies of their manuscript, plus an extra copy of the abstract to: Jean-Louis Lassez ICLP Program Chairman IBM T.J. Watson Research Center H1-A12 P.O. Box 218 Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 USA Deadline for submission of papers is December 1, 1986. Authors will be notified of acceptance or rejection by February 28, 1987. Camera ready copies are due April 1st, 1987. General Chairman: John Lloyd Department of Computer Science University of Melbourne Parkville, Victoria 3052 Australia Program Committee Ken Bowen, Syracuse, USA Keith Clark, Imperial College, U.K. Jacques Cohen, Brandeis, USA Veronica Dahl, Simon Fraser University, Canada Maarten van Emden, University of Waterloo, Canada Koichi Furukawa, ICOT, Japan Ivan Futo, SZKI, Hungary Seif Haridi, SICS, Sweden Jean-Louis Lassez, Yorktown Heights, USA Giorgio Levi, University of Pisa, Italy Jacob Levy, Weizmann Institute, Israel John Lloyd, University of Melbourne, Australia Fumio Mizoguchi, Science University of Tokyo, Japan Fernando Pereira, SRI International, USA Antonio Porto, University of Lisbon, Portugal Marek Sergot, Imperial College, U.K. David Warren, Manchester University, U.K. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 Jul 86 21:10:00 -0200 From: mcvax!crin!lescanne@seismo.CSS.GOV (Pierre LESCANNE) Subject: Conference - 2nd Int. Rewriting Techniques and Applications [Forwarded from TheoryNet by Laws@SRI-STRIPE.] CALL FOR PAPERS RTA-87 2nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on REWRITING TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS May 25-27 1987 Bordeaux, France TOPICS In May 1985 the First International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications met at Dijon. The conference was a great success, attracting over 100 researchers working on rewriting techniques. The second conference will take place at Bordeaux, another city famous for its wine, in May 1987. Papers concerning the theory and applications of term rewriting are solicited for the conference. Areas of interest include the following, but authors are encouraged to submit papers on other topics as well. Equational Deduction Functional and Logic Programming Computer Algebra Automated Theorem Proving Unification and Matching Algorithms Rewrite Rule Based Expert Systems Algebraic and Operational Semantics Semantics of Nondeterminism Theory of general rewriting systems Rewriting and Computer Architecture Specification, Transformation, Validation and Generation of Programs SUBMISSION Each submission should include 11 copies of a one page abstract and 4 copies of a full paper of no more than 15 double spaced pages. Submissions are to be sent to one of the Co-Chairmen: For Europe: Pierre Lescanne, RTA-87, Centre de Recherche en Informatique de Nancy, Campus Scientifique, BP 239, 54506 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy Cedex, FRANCE. For other countries: David Plaisted, RTA-87, Department of Computer Science, New West Hall 035-A, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC 27514, USA. Paper selection will be done by circulating abstracts to all members of the program committee, with each full paper assigned to several committee members having appropriate expertise. In addition to selected papers, a few invited lectures will be given by well-known researchers who have made major contributions in the field: INVITED LECTURERS J-P. Jouannaud, University of Paris-Sud, France, D. Musser, GE Research and Development Laboratory, Schenectady, USA, M. O'Donnell, University of Chicago, Illinois, USA. SCHEDULE Paper submission deadline is December 15, 1986. Acceptance/Rejection by January 25, 1987. Camera ready copy by March 9. Proceedings will be distributed at the conference and published by Springer Verlag in the LNCS series. PROGRAM COMMITTEE B. Buchberger, University of Linz, Austria, R. Book, University of Santa Barbara, USA, B. Courcelle, University of Bordeaux, France, N. Dershowitz, University of Illinois, USA, J. Guttag, MIT, USA, D. Kapur, General Electric, USA, P. Lescanne, (Program co-Chairman) CRIN, France, R. Loos, University of Karlsruhe, FRG, D. Plaisted, (Program co-Chairman), University of North Carolina, USA G. Plotkin, University of Edinburgh, UK, M. Stickel, SRI-International, USA. LOCAL COMMITTEE B. Courcelle, R. Cori, M. Claverie For information send mail on UUCP to: mcvax!inria!crin!lescanne or on ARPAnet to: pierre@larch. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 04 Aug 86 23:47:37 -0500 From: sriram@ATHENA.MIT.EDU Subject: Conference - 1st Eurographics Intelligent CAD Systems CALL FOR PAPERS FIRST EUROGRAPHICS WORKSHOP ON INTELLIGENT CAD SYSTEMS APRIL 22-24, 1987 NOORDWIJKERHOUT, THE NETHERLANDS ORGANIZED BY CENTRE FOR MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS SPONSORED BY EUROGRAPHICS AIM Today, one of the main strengths in CAD research has become so-called intellectualization of CAD systems, primarily, as an application of knowledge engineering. This research may contain two aspects: intellectualization of CAD systems by intelligence for helping designers and intellectualization by problem solving ability. The former approach may be achieved by developing intelligent user interface concept, for instance, so that the designer can perform his/her full ability, whereas the latter may be achieved by developing systems, like expert systems, which can solve various engineering problems. However, it is obvious that either of these two approaches can alone fulfill requirements to future CAD systems. It is necessary to develop an integrated environment for intelligent CAD systems using intelligent interactive techniques. Therefore, we pursue integration of these two approaches in order to build intelligent CAD systems, and we discuss issues such asL - configuration of intelligent CAD systems, - tools and techniques for developing those systems, - methodology for developing. We plan a series of three workshops beginning in 1987 - 1987: Theoretical and methodological aspects in developing an intelligent CAD system. - 1988: Architecture of an intelligent CAD system. - 1989: Practical experiences and evaluation of an intelligent CAD system. SCOPE OF THE FIRST WORKSHOP IN 1987 1. Principle and configuration of intelligent CAD systems 2. Theory and methodology of development 3. Available tools for development, such as intelligent user interace management systems and tools for problem solving in design 4. Use and role of intelligent user interface systems in an intelligent CAD environment STYLE OF WORKSHOP Approximately 10 invited papers and 10 refereed papers will be presented. Participants will be limited roughly 50. In this workshop, theoretical and methodological aspects are emphasized. The result of this workshop will be published by Springer-Verlag. SCHEDULE FOR THE WORKSHOP December 1, 1986: Deadline for extended abstracts upto 1000 words January 1987: Notification of acceptance March 1987: Acceptance of participation April 22-24, 1987: Workshop (Full papers are submitted on site) July 1987: Deadline for final manuscripts for publication ORGANIZATION Co-charimen P. J. W. ten hagen (CWI, NL) T. Tomiyama (CWI, NL) Secretary P. J. Veerkamp (CWI, NL) Program Committee F. Arbab (USC, USA) P. Bernus (Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H) A. Bijl (University of Edinburgh, UK) J. Encarnacao (TH Darmstadt, D) S. J. Fenves (CMU, USA) D. Gossard (MIT, USA) F. Kimura (The University of Tokyo, J) T. Kjelberg (Royal Institute of Technology, S) M. Mac an Airchinnigh (University of Dublin, IR) K. MacCallum (University of Strathclyde, UK) F. J. Schramel (Philips, NL) D. Sriram (MIT, USA) T. Takala (Helsinki Technical University, SF) F. Tolman (TNO, NL) H. Yoshikawa (The Unviersity of Tokyo, J) INFORMATION Please submit an extended abstract up to 1,000 words to: Ms. Marja Hegt Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Tel: (Overseas) +31-20-592-4058 Usenet: marja@mcvax.UUCP ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Sat Aug 9 20:59:08 1986 Date: Sat, 9 Aug 86 20:59:03 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe Subject: AIList Digest V4 #178 Status: R AIList Digest Saturday, 9 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 178 Today's Topics: Queries - Hitachi Software Design ES & 3-D Geometry Theorem Prover, Expert Systems - OPS5 Manual & Government Systems, Humor - Geometric Placement and Gerrymandering, Review - Computing with Neural Circuits, Publishing - Petrocelli Books, Programming Languages - Functional Programming Bibliography, Philosophy - Conservation of Information & Rhetoric ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon 4 Aug 86 20:35:31-CDT From: CMP.BARC@R20.UTEXAS.EDU Subject: Query: Hitachi Software Design ES I looking for information on an expert system called MDL/MAD for large- scale software design. I've heard a little bit about it already. It has about 1500 rules concerned with relationships among design data, the design decision-making procedure and the format for expressing design information. It has been claimed to reduce design errors by 40% and specification/ correction time by 80%. It is still under development at Hitachi's Software Development Laboratory and is two years away from commercial release. The questions are: What does it really do and how does it work? I would also be interested in related systems ICAS (Hitachi), DEA/I (NEC) and SDEM/SDSS (Fujitsu). Dallas Webster ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Aug 86 19:15:11 pdt From: dan@ads.ARPA (Dan Shapiro) Subject: looking for a theorem prover in 3D geometry A friend of mine is looking for pointers to work on the topic of theorem proving in 3D geometry. The application is in AI applied to the ellucidation of crystal structures within organic chemistry. He would also be interested in pointers to CAD-like programs that allow construction and visualization of repetative lattice structures. If anyone has information that would help out, please respond to me directly as Dan@ads-unix.Arpa Dan Shapiro ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 86 17:21:13 EDT From: Lee.Brownston@A.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: OPS5 manual Write to the Department of Computer Science, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 to request the OPS5 User's Manual. Another source of OPS5 information is "Programming Expert Systems in OPS5" by Brownston, Farrell, Kant, and Martin (Addison-Wesley, 1985). ------------------------------ Date: Mon 4 Aug 86 22:38:23-PDT From: Laws@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA Subject: Expert Systems - The New Cop on the Beat The FBI has developed Big Floyd, an expert system to assist in criminal investigations. Similar programs are being developed to catch drug smugglers and target potential terrorists. The EPA wants to identify polluters; the Treasury Department is looking for money-laundering banks; the Energy Department would like to find contractors who cut corners; the Customs service is after drug smugglers; the IRS is developing a system to spot tax cheaters; the Secret Service is working on a classified system to point out potential presidential assassins; and the FBI's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crimes is developing expert systems to identify potential serial killers, arsonists, and rapists. Systems to target counterfeiters and bombers are also being built. -- Michael Schrage, The Washington Post National Weekly Edition, Vol. 3, No. 40, August 4, 1986, p. 6. ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 86 09:48:56 edt From: Walter Hamscher Subject: Humor: Re: [Query - Geometric Placement] Date: Fri, 25 Jul 86 14:27:33 PDT From: trwrb!orion!gries@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Harry A. Gries) > Query: Does anyone know about any expert system (developed > or under development) that relates to the placement > of geometric objects in a plane? [* * *] Another application would be in creating district boundaries for congressional representatives. [* * *] What's that rustling sound I hear from across the river, up there on Beacon Hill? It must be Governor Gerry doing pinwheels in his grave, and the entire Masschusetts House of representatives trembling in their boots... (We better keep this quiet, or they're liable to pass a law against AI :-) ------------------------------ Date: 4 Aug 86 23:57:30 GMT From: decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!hes@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Henry Schaffer) Subject: Re: Computing with Neural Circuits: A paper, "Computing with Neural Circuits: A Model" by John J. Hopfield and David W. Tank is in the 8 Aug. 1986 issue of Science (pp. 625-633.) "A new conceptual framework and a minimization principle together provide an understanding of computation in model neural circuits. The circuits consist of nonlinear graded-response model neurons organized into networks with effectively symmetric synaptic connections. The neurons represent an approximation to biological neurons in which a simplified set of important computational properties is retained. Complex circuits solving problems similar to those essential in biology can be analyzed and understood without the need to follow the circuit dynamics in detail. Implementation of the model with electronic devices will provide a class of electronic circuits of novel form and function." (Abstract) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Aug 86 15:21:54 EDT From: BENJY%VTVM1.BITNET@WISCVM.ARPA Subject: Petrocelli Books I recently received an advertisement for an AI book published by Petrocelli Books, Inc. I assume Petrocelli will be publishing more AI books, so I would like to post a warning to potential authors. I wrote two books for this company, and I've never received a royalty check without asking for it although the contract I signed states that statements would be sent twice a year. Last time I asked for a statement, I was told that PBI had cash flow problems and had to wait several months after their grace period for a meager sum. Ben Cline Virginia Tech BENJY@VTVM1.BITNET ------------------------------ Date: 8 Aug 86 15:30:13 GMT From: ucbcad!nike!lll-crg!seismo!cmcl2!lanl!ls@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Lauren L Smith) Subject: Functional Programming Bibliography Andy Cheese's Functional Programming bibliography is ready for distribution again. It covers all sorts of references relating to functional languages, architectures for functional languages, to theory of, to garbage collecting, to functional programming and multiprocessing, to logic programming & functional combinations, to (well, you get the idea!). It has been extensively updated since the last major distribution of it. If you would be interested in receiving a copy (ONE request per site PLEASE!), please contact the appropriate person. North America: Lauren Smith ARPA: ls@lanl UUCP: {cmcl2,ihnp4}!lanl!ls Everywhere Else: Andy Cheese abc%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK The bibliography is 24 files long, since it is too large to send as one big file. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Aug 86 14:31:48 EDT From: "Col. G. L. Sicherman" Subject: Re: Conservation of Info, etc. In article <8608010557.AA11269@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, larry@JPL-VLSI.ARPA writes: > The ability to quantify and measure pattern and shape has profound implica- > tions for the study of formerly mystical topics such as intelligence. It > means we can develop conservation laws for information, without which you > can't construct an essential ingredient of mathematics, equations. While I agree with much of the article, this assumption looks superfluous to me. Computer programs are a kind of mathematics, and they use assign- ments and functions rather than equations. More generally, I should like to see discussed what "information" means in the abstract sense. After all, anything can be said to contain all conceivable information about itself. Is "information" meaningful apart from communication? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 4 Aug 86 15:30:05 EDT From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: follow-up on philosophy articles Newsgroups: mod.ai Subject: Re: philosophy journals References: <8607211801.AA17444@ellie.SUNYAB> <8608010555.AA11229@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Sender: William J. Rapaport (rapaport@buffalo.csnet) Reply-To: rapaport@sunybcs.UUCP (William J. Rapaport) Followup-To: The Colonel's complaint Organization: SUNY/Buffalo Computer Science In article <8608010555.AA11229@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> colonel@buffalo.CSNET ("Col. G. L. Sicherman") writes: >In article <8607211801.AA17444@ellie.SUNYAB>, rapaport@buffalo.CSNET >("William J. Rapaport") writes: > >> The original version of the ... problem may be found in: >> Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia," _Philosophical Q._ 32(1982)127-136. >> with replies in: >> Churchland, "Reduction, Qualia, and the Direct Introspection of >> Brain States," _J. of Philosophy_ 82(1985)8-28. >> Jackson, "What Mary Didn't Know," _J. of Philosophy_ 83(1986)291-95. >> (One of the reasons I stopped reading net.philosophy was that its >> correspondents seemed not to know about what was going on in philosophy >> journals!) > >Out of curiosity I hunted up the third article on the way back from lunch. >It's aggressive and condescending; any sympathy I might have felt for >the author's argument was repulsed by his sophomoric writing. I hope it's >not typical of the writing in philosophy journals. I don't quite understand what "aggressive and condescending" or "sophomoric writing" have to do with philosophical argumentation. One thing that philosophers try not to do is give ad hominem arguments. A philosophical arguement stands or falls on its logical merits, not its rhetoric. ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ******************** From csnet_gateway Thu Aug 14 00:15:14 1986 Date: Thu, 14 Aug 86 00:15:10 edt From: csnet_gateway (LAWS@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA) To: ailist@sri-stripe Subject: AIList Digest V4 #179 Status: RO AIList Digest Wednesday, 13 Aug 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 179 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Vacation, Queries - AI Expert & Expert Systems and Maintenance Planning, Expert Systems - ACE, Games - 'Go' Challenge ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue 12 Aug 86 00:44:30-PDT From: Ken Laws Reply-to: AIList-Request@SRI-AI.ARPA Subject: Administrivia - Vacation I'm off to Singapore and Malaysia for a month. AIList will resume in mid September. -- Ken Laws ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 12 Aug 86 17:08:36 est From: munnari!trlamct.oz!andrew@seismo.CSS.GOV (Andrew Jennings) Subject: AI expert I've just received a small ad for "AI expert" : the first commercial magazine ever. Has anybody seen a copy : comments ? _____________________________ ACSNET: andrew@trlamct.trl VOICE: +1 61 3 5416241 UUCP: ...!{seismo, mcvax, ucb-vision, ukc}!munnari!trlamct.trl!andrew ARPA: andrew%trlamct.trl.oz@seismo.css.gov Dr. Andrew Jennings , Section Head, Applied Mathematics and Computer Techniques Section, Telecom Australia Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 249 Clayton, Victoria 3168, AUSTRALIA. ------------------------------ Date: 7 Aug 86 13:14:48 GMT From: ucbcad!nike!sri-spam!mordor!lll-crg!seismo!mcvax!kvvax4!rolfs@uc bvax.berkeley.edu (Rolf Skatteboe) Subject: expert systems and maintenance planning Hello: I'm just starting on a project which main goal is to evaluate the possibilities of combining the use of knowledge based systems with maintenance planning. So far, I have found very little work done in this field so everything will be of interest. It is however, maintenance planning of rotating machinery which is the main interest group. I like to get hold on everything: articles, program descriptions and things like that. If someone is interested in further information about the project, please let me know. Thank you ---Grethe ------------------------------ Date: 11 Aug 86 16:35:00 GMT From: hplabs!hplabsb!wiemann@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Alan Wiemann) Subject: Re: expert systems and maintenance planning Grethe, Bell Labs developed a system for maintenance of cable which I think was called ACE. Try there for starters. Alan L. Wiemann HP Labs ------------------------------ Date: 8 Aug 86 18:16:34 GMT From: nbires!vianet!devine@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Bob Devine) Subject: 'Go' challenge Here is a news item that was published in August 5th "PC Week": You can be $1 million richer if you're the first person to devise a Go program that can beat a human expert. MultiTech Inc., Taiwan's largest manufacturer of personal computers, is sponsoring the contest in conjuction with the Taiwanese Ing Chang-chi Weich'i Educational Foundation. MultiTech says that its motives are: 1. to create an awareness of the Chinese origins of the game Go and to increase interest in the game; 2. to spur development of computer hardware, software and artificial intelligence; and 3. to increase international awareness of progress in the Taiwanese computer industry. The contest was inspired by a similar one that began about 30 years ago and which promised to award its prize to the author of the first chess program that could be a human master. That contest lasted for six years before the prize was won -- a whopping 2,000 pounds sterling (about $10,000). The computer/Go contest will be staged annually from now until the end of the century, according to MultiTech. ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ********************