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AIList Digest Volume 1 Issue 064
AIList Digest Tuesday, 27 Sep 1983 Volume 1 : Issue 64
Today's Topics:
Database Systems - DBMS Software Available,
Symbolic Algebra - Request for PRESS,
Humor - New Expert Systems,
AI at Edinburgh - Michie & Turing Institute,
Rational Psychology - Definition,
Halting Problem & Learning,
Knowledge Representation - Course Announcement
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Date: 21 Sep 83 16:17:08-PDT (Wed)
From: decvax!wivax!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!csu-cs!denelcor!pocha@Ucb-Vax
Subject: DBMS Software Available
Article-I.D.: denelcor.150
Here are 48 vendors of the most popular DBMS packages which will be presented
at the National Database & 4th Generation Language Symposium.
Boston, Dec. 5-8 1983, Radisson-Ferncroft Hotel, 50 Ferncroft Rd., Davers, Ma
For information write. Software Institute of America, 339 Salem St, Wakefield
Mass 01880 (617)246-4280.
______________________________________________________________________________
Applied Data Research DATACOM, IDEAL |Mathamatica Products RAMIS II
Battelle - - - - - - - BASIS |Manager Software Prod. DATAMANAGER
Britton-Lee IDM | DESIGNMANAGER
Cincom Systems TIS, TOTAL, | SOURCEMANAGER
MANTIS |National CSS, Inc. NOMAD2
Computer Associates CA-UNIVERSE |Oracle Corp. ORACLE
Computer Co. of America MODEL 204 |Perkin-Elmer RELIANCE
PRODUCT LINE |Prime Computer PRIME DBMS
Computer Techniques QUEO-IV | INFORMATION
Contel - - - - - - - - RTFILE |Quassar Systems POWERHOUSE
Cullinet Software IDMS, ADS | POWERPLAN
Database Design, Inc. DATA DESIGNER |Relational Tech. Inc. INGRES
Data General DG/DBMS |Rexcom Corp. REXCOM
PRESENT |Scientific Information SIR/DBMS
Digital Equipment Co. VAX INFO. ARCH |Seed Software SEED
Exact Systems & Prog. DNA-4 |Sensor Based System METAFILE
Henco Inc. INFO |Software AG of N.A. ADABAS
Hewlett Packard IMAGE |Software House SYSTEM 1022
IBM Corp. SQL/DS, DB2 |Sydney Development Co. CONQUER
Infodata Systems INQUIRE |Tandem Computers ENCOMPASS
Information Builders FOCUS |Tech. Info. Products IP/3
Intel Systems Corp. SYSTEM 2000 |Tominy, Inc. DATA BASE-PLUS
______________________________________________________________________________
John Pocha
Denelcor, Inc.
17000 E. Ohio Place
Aurora, Colorado 80017
work (303)337-7900 x379
home (303)794-5190
{csu-cs|nbires|brl-bmd}!denelcor!pocha
------------------------------
Date: 23 Sep 83 19:04:12-PDT (Fri)
From: decvax!tektronix!tekchips!wm @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Request for PRESS
Article-I.D.: tekchips.317
Does anyone know where I can get the PRESS algebra system, by Alan
Bundy, written in Prolog?
Wm Leler
tektronix!tekchips!wm
wm.Tektronix@Rand-relay
------------------------------
Date: 23 Sep 83 1910 EDT (Friday)
From: Jeff.Shrager@CMU-CS-A
Subject: New expert systems announced:
Dentrol: A dental expert system based upon tooth maintenance
principles.
Faust: A black magic advisor with mixed initiative goal generation.
Doug: A system which will convert any given domain into set theory.
Cray: An expert arithmetic advisor. Heuristics exist for any sort of
real number computation involving arithmetic functions (+, -,
and several others) within a finite (but large) range around 0.0.
The heuristics are shown to be correct for typical cases.
Meta: An expert at thinking up new domains in which there should be
expert systems.
Flamer: A expert at seeming to be an expert in any domain in which it
is not an expert.
IT: (The Illogic Theorist) A expert at fitting any theory to any quanity
of protocol data. Theories must be specified in "ITLisp" but IT can
construct the protocols if need be.
------------------------------
Date: 22 Sep 83 23:25:15-PDT (Thu)
From: pur-ee!uiucdcs!marcel @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Re: U of Edinburgh, Scotland Inquiry - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.2935
I can't tell you about the Dept of AI at Edinburgh, but I do know
about the Machine Intelligence Research Unit chaired by Prof. Donald
Michie.
The MIRU will fold in future, because Prof Michie intends to set up a
new research institute in the UK. He's been planning this and fighting
for it for quite a while now. It will be called the "Turing
Institute", and is intended to become one of the prime centers of AI
research in the UK. In fact, it will be one of the very few centers at
which research is the top priority, rather than teaching. Michie has
recently been approached by the University of Strathclyde near
Glasgow, which is interested in functioning as the associated teaching
institution (cp SRI and Stanford). If that works out, the Turing
Institute may be operational by September 1984.
------------------------------
Date: 23 Sep 83 5:04:46-PDT (Fri)
From: decvax!microsoft!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!sts @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Re: Rational Psychology
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.538
(should be posting from utah, but I saw it here first and just
couldn't resist...)
I think we've got a terminology problem here. The word "rational" is
so heavily loaded that it can hardly move! (as net.philosophy readers
well know). The term "rational psychology" does seem to exclude
non-rational behavior (whatever that is) from consideration, which is
not true at all. Rather, the idea is to explore the entire universe
of possibilities for intelligent behavior, rather than restricting
oneself to observing the average college sophomore or the AI programs
small enough to fit on present-day machines.
Let me propose the term "universal psychology" as a substitute,
analogous to the mathematical study of universal algebras. Fewer
connotations, and it better suggests the real thrust of this field -
the study of *possible* intelligent behavior.
stan the r.h. (of lightness)
ssc-vax!sts
(but mail to harpo!utah-cs!shebs)
------------------------------
Date: 26 Sep 1983 0012-PDT
From: Jay <JAY@USC-ECLC>
Subject: re: the halting problem, orders of learning
Certain representaions of calculations lead to easy
detection of looping. Consider the function...
f(x) = x
This could lead to ...
f(f(x)) = x
Or to ...
f(f(f(f( ... )))) = x
But why bother! Or for another example, consider the life blinker..
+
+ + + becomes + becomes + + + becomes (etc.)
+
Why bother calculateing all the generations for this arangement? The
same information lies in ...
for any integer i +
Blinker(2i) = + + + and Blinker(2i+1) = +
+
There really is no halting problem, or infinite looping. The
information for the blinker need not be fully decoded, it can be just
the above "formulas". So humans could choses a representation of
circular or "infinite looping" ideas, so that the circularity is
expresed in a finite number of bits.
As for the orders of learning; Learning(1) is a behavior. That is
modifying behaivor is a behavior. It can be observed in schools,
concentration camps, or even in the laboratory. So learning(2) is
modifying a certain behavior, and thus nothing more (in one view)
than learning(1). Indeed it is just learning(1) applied to itself!
So learning(i) is just
i
(the way an organism modifies) its behavior
But since behavior is just the way an organism modifies the
enviroment,
i+1
Learning(i) = (the way an organism modifies) the enviroment.
and learning(0) is just behavior. So depending on your view, there
are either an infinite number of ways to learn, or there are an
infinite number of organisms (most of whose enviroments are just other
organisms).
j'
------------------------------
Date: Mon 26 Sep 83 11:48:33-MDT
From: Jed Krohnfeldt <KROHNFELDT@UTAH-20.ARPA>
Subject: Re: learning levels, etc.
Some thoughts about Stan Shebs' questions:
I think that your continuum of 1st order learning, 2nd order learning,
etc. can really be collapsed to just two levels - the basic learning
level, and what has been popularly called the "meta level". Learning
about learning about learning, is really no different than learning
about learning, is it? It is simply a capability to introspect (and
possibly intervene) into basic learning processes.
This also proposes an answer to your second question - why don't
humans go catatonic when presented with circular definitions - the
answer may be that we do have heuristics, or meta-level knowledge,
that prevents us from endlessly looping on circular concepts.
Jed Krohnfeldt
utah-cs!jed
krohnfeldt@utah-20
------------------------------
Date: Mon 26 Sep 83 10:44:34-PDT
From: Bob Moore <BMOORE@SRI-AI.ARPA>
Subject: course announcement
COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT
COMPUTER SCIENCE 400
REPRESENTATION, MEANING, AND INFERENCE
Instructor: Robert Moore
Artificial Intelligence Center
SRI International
Time: MW @ 11:00-12:15 (first meeting Wed. 9/28)
Place: Margaret Jacks Hall, Rm. 301
The problem of the formal representation of knowledge in intelligent
systems is subject to two important constraints. First, a general
knowledge-representation formalism must be sufficiently expressive to
represent a wide variety of information about the world. A long-term
goal here is the ability to represent anything that can be expressed
in natural language. Second, the system must be able to draw
inferences from the knowledge represented. In this course we will
examine the knowledge representation problem from the perspective of
these constraints. We will survey techniques for automatically
drawing inferences from formalizations of commonsense knowledge; we
will look at some of the aspects of the meaning of natural-language
expressions that seem difficult to formalize (e.g., tense and aspect,
collective reference, propositional attitudes); and we will consider
some ways of bridging the gap between formalisms for which the
inference problem is fairly well understood (first-order predicate
logic) and the richer formalisms that have been proposed as meaning
representations for natural language (higher-order logics, intentional
and modal logics).
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End of AIList Digest
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