Date: Thu 31 Mar 1988 23:00-PST From: AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws Reply-To: AIList@KL.SRI.COM Us-Mail: SRI Int., 333 Ravenswood Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025 Phone: (415) 859-6467 Subject: AIList V6 #61 - UK Addresses, Seminars To: AIList@KL.SRI.COM Status: RO AIList Digest Friday, 1 Apr 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 61 Today's Topics: Bindings - Jocelyn Paine's Email Address & UK Addresses, Seminars - The Knowledge Based Specification Assistant (ISI) & Nonmonotonic Temporal Reasoning and Causation (CMU) & Architecture-Independent Parallel Programming (BBN) & A Comparison of Spatial and Symbolic Reference (CMU) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Mar 88 10:42:29 PST From: lambert@cod.nosc.mil (David R. Lambert) Subject: Jocelyn Paine's email address For those wishing to respond to Jocelyn Paine's "Software Minds" query, the email address listed: popx%vax.oxford.ac.uk%ac.uk@ukacrl.bitnet did not work from my .mil address. An address which did work is: popx@vax.oxford.ac.uk Dave David R. Lambert, PhD Code 772 (S) Naval Ocean Systems Center San Diego, CA 92152 Commercial: (619) 553-1093 Autovon: (AV) 553-1093 Email: lambert@nosc.mil ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 88 09:00:47 BST From: US x6111 (US at UKACRL) Subject: Problems with e-mail to UK Addresses within the UK are handled in big-endian order, so that mail to oxford should be addressed like: POPX%UK.AC.OXFORD.VAX%UKACRL.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU Jonathan Wheeler User Support and Marketing Group Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Didcot, Oxfordshire, England ------------------------------ Date: 28 Mar 88 21:55:21 GMT From: luu@vaxa.isi.edu (Kim Chau Luu) Reply-to: luu@vaxa.isi.edu (Kim Chau Luu) Subject: Seminar - The Knowledge Based Specification Assistant (ISI) Title : The Knowledge Based Specification Assistant Speaker : Lewis Johnson Location : USC/Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way Marina Del Rey, CA 90292-6695 11th Floor Large Conference Room Date : April 6, 1988 Time : 3:00 - 5:00PM Abstract: Software specification is the process of constructing a design for a system to achieve some desired outcome in the world. It involves analyzing the domain of application, identifying requirements which the software must meet, and then developing a specification of a system that can meet these requirements. The Knowledge-Based Specification Assistant Project (KBSA) is building a tool to actively assist in this process. It supports our view of the specification process as one of incremental model construction and transformational derivation. A specifier starts by developing an explicit model of the application domain, and of the requirements to be met by the software. This model is developed incrementally over time, as the specifier's understanding of the problem improves. A specification is then developed by transforming the requirements into an implementable form. The KBSA system assists this process as follows: a) by applying the transformations necessary to develop the specification, b) by analyzing the specification, to help identify where transformations must be applied, and c) by paraphrasing and explaining the specification. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 29 Mar 88 15:39:01 EST From: Anurag.Acharya@CENTRO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Seminar - Nonmonotonic Temporal Reasoning and Causation (CMU) AI SEMINAR TOPIC: Nonmonotonic Temporal Reasoning, and Causation SPEAKER: Professor Yoav Shoham Dept. of Computer Science Stanford University Stanford, CA 94305 shoham@score.stanford.edu WHEN: Tuesday, April 12, 1988 3:30pm WHERE: Wean Hall 5409 ABSTRACT We define two problems that arise from the conflicting goals of rigor and efficiency in temporal reasoning, called the {it qualification problem} and the {it extended prediction problem}, which subsume the infamous {it frame problem}. We then offer solutions to those. The solution relies on making nonmonotonic inferences. We present our very simple, semantical approach to nonmonotonic logics. We then define a particular nonmonotonic logic, called the logic of {it chronological ignorance}, which combines elements of temporal logic and the modal logic of knowledge. We illustrate how the logic can be used to solve the qualification problem. (In the unlikely event of time permitting, we will do the same for the extended prediction problem). Although the logic of chronological ignorance is, in general, badly undecidable, we identify a restricted class of theories, called {it causal theories}, which have very nice properties: They each have a model that is (in a certain sense) unique, and that is (in a certain sense) easily computable. We argue that the above analysis offers an attractive account of the concept of {it causation}, and of its central role in common sense reasoning. The talk presupposes only basic understanding of first-order logic. ------------------------------ Date: Wed 30 Mar 88 14:50:19-EST From: Marc Vilain Subject: Seminar - Architecture-Independent Parallel Programming (BBN) BBN Science Development Program AI Seminar Series Lecture AN ARCHITECTURE-INDEPENDENT MODEL FOR PARALLEL PROGRAMMING Gary W. Sabot Harvard University and Thinking Machines Corporation (GARY@THINK.COM) BBN Labs 10 Moulton Street 2nd floor large conference room 10:30 am, Tuesday April 5 The paralation model consists of a new data structure and a small number of operators. The model has two main goals. As a model, it must be high-level and abstract. It should ask programmers to describe an algorithm, not every detail of the algorithm to hardware mapping. This leads to programming languages that are easy to use for general application programming. On the other hand, the constructs of the model must be easy to compile into efficient code for a variety of architectures (for example, MIMD or SIMD processors; bus-based, butterfly, or grid interconnect; etc.). An inefficient programming language, no matter how expressive and easy-to-use, cannot gain widespread acceptance. The talk describes the paralation model in detail. Programming examples are presented in Paralation Lisp, a language based on the model. A number of compilers for Paralation Lisp have been written. Paralation Lisp code can currently be run in parallel on the 65,536 processor Connection Machine, or serially on any implementation of Common Lisp. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Mar 88 14:25:17 EST From: Anurag.Acharya@CENTRO.SOAR.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Seminar - A Comparison of Spatial and Symbolic Reference (CMU) UNDERSTAND SEMINAR Tuesday, April 5, 1988 12:00 - 1:20 Adamson Wing, Baker Hall Knowing What vs. Where: A Comparison of Spatial and Symbolic Reference Susan Dumais, Bellcore email: std@bellcore.com The traditional name-based approach to storing and retrieving information in computers in now being supplemented on some systems by a spatial alternative - often driven by an office or desktop metaphor. These systems attempt to take advantage of the important role that location plays in retrieving objects in the real world (i.e. we must know where things are in order to retrieve them). Several experiments examined the usefulness of location-based and name-based methods for representing, organizing and retrieving information in computerized databases. Accuracy of location reference in a Location-only condition was initially comparable to that in a Name-only condition, but declined much more rapidly with increases in the number of objects and delay between initial storage and subsequent retrieval. Adding Location to Name information did not substantially improve retrieval accuracy. These results call into question the generality of spatial metaphors for information retrieval applications. ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ********************