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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 043
AIList Digest Friday, 6 Apr 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 43
Today's Topics:
Nonmonotonic Logic - Reference Request,
AI Applications - Algebra and Geometry on the IBM-PC,
News - Computer Ethics Prize,
Linguistics - Use of "and",
AI Computing - Software Engineering,
Reading List on Logic and Parallel Computation
Seminars - Automating Shifts of Representation &
Internalized World Knowledge &
Linguistic Structuring of Concepts &
Protocol Analysis
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 4 Apr 84 18:20:23 EST (Wed)
From: Don Perlis <perlis%umcp-cs.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>
Subject: nonmonotonic reference request
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON NON-MONOTONIC LOGIC
I am compiling a bibliography of literature on nonmonotonic logic, to be
made available to the AI community, and in particular to the workshop on
non-monotonic reasoning that will take place in October in New Paltz, New
York.
I would greatly appreciate references from the AI community, both to
published and unpublished material (the latter as long as it is in
relatively completed form and copies are available on request). Material
can be sent to me at perlis@umcp-cs and also by post to D. Perlis, Computer
Science Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
Thanks in advance for your cooperation.
------------------------------
Date: 5 Apr 84 15:16:43 PST (Thursday)
From: Cornish.PA@Xerox.ARPA
Subject: Application of LISP programs to Math Ed Software
I am interested in AI programs in the following areas listed below.
Could someone provide me with pointers to the significant work done in
these areas? Could someone advise me whether work done in these areas
could feasibly run on existing Lisp systems for the IBM-PC. "feasibly
run" means that the programs would be responsive enough to form the
basis of a math ed product.
1. Solution of Algebra word problems
2. Analysis of proofs in plane Geometry
Thank you very much,
Jan Cornish
------------------------------
Date: Wed 4 Apr 84 17:22:09-PST
From: DKANERVA@SRI-AI.ARPA
Subject: Computer Ethics
[Forwarded from the CSLI Newsletter by Laws@SRI-AI.]
COMPETITION ANNOUNCEMENT: THE METAPHILOSOPHY PRIZE
METAPHILOSOPHY will award a prize of $500 to the author who
submits the best essay in computer ethics between January 1, 1984, and
December 31, 1984. The prize-winning essay will be published as the
lead article in the April 1985 issue of METAPHILOSOPHY, which will be
devoted entirely to computer ethics. Other high-quality essays in
computer ethics will be accepted for publication in the same issue. A
panel of experts in computer ethics will select the winners. To enter
the competition, send four copies of your essay to:
Terrell Ward Bynum
Editor, Metaphilosophy
Metaphilosophy Foundation
Box 32
Hyde Park, NY 12538
Readers unfamiliar with the field of computer ethics should
consult the January 1984 issue of METAPHILOSOPHY. Those unfamiliar
with specifications for manuscript preparation should consult any
recent issue.
------------------------------
Date: 04 Apr 84 11:14:01 bst
From: J.R.Cowie%rco@ucl-cs.arpa
Subject: Use of "and"
There is another way of looking at the statement -
all customers in Indiana and Ohio
which seems simpler to me than producing the new phrase -
all customers in Indiana AND all customers in Ohio
instead of doing this why not treat Indiana and Ohio as a new single
conceptual entity giving -
all customers in (Indiana and Ohio).
This seems simpler to me. It would mean the database would have to
allow aggregations of this type, but I don't see that as being
particularly problematic.
Have I missed some subtle point here?
Jim Cowie.
------------------------------
Date: 5 April 1984 0949-cst
From: Dave Brown <DBrown @ HI-MULTICS>
Subject: Re: Stolfo's call for discussion
A side point about Louis Steinberg's response: The accepted wisdom
is actually that AI and plain commercial programming has shown that
specification in complete detail is really just mindless hacking, by
a designer rather than a hack.
*However* the salesmen of "software engineering methodologies" are
just getting up to about 1968 (the first sw eng conference), and
are flogging the idea that perfect specifications are possible
and desirable.
Therefore the state of practice lags behing the state of the art
an unconsciousable distance....
AI leads the way, as usual.
--dave (software engineering ::= brilliance | utter stupidity) brown
------------------------------
Date: 05 Apr 84 1711 PST
From: Carolyn Talcott <CLT@SU-AI.ARPA>
Subject: Reading List on Logic and Parallel Computation
[Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
INSTRUCTOR: Professor G. Kreisel
TIME: Monday 4:15-6pm
PLACE: 252 Margaret Jacks Hall
(Stanford Computer Science Department)
TOPIC: Logic and parallel computation.
Below is a reading list that was compiled from discussion
at the organizational meeting. [...]
--------------------------------------------------
Reading List
--------------------------------------------------
[Carolyn Talcott - 362 Margaret Jacks - CLT@SU-AI - has copies
of all the references]
Parallel Computation
---------------------
Fortune,S. and Wyllie,J. [1978]
Parallelism in random access machines
Proc. 10th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computation (STOC)
pp.114-118.
Valiant,L. Skyum,S.[1981]
Fast parallel computation of polynomials using few processors
Proc. 10th Somposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science
LNCS 118, pp. 132-139.
von zur Gathen,J.[1983]
Parallel algorithms for algebraic problems
Proc. 15th ACM Symposium on Theory of Computation (STOC)
pp. 17-23.
Mayr,E.[1984], Fast selection on para-computers (slides )
Karp,R.M. Wigderson,A.[1984?]
A Fast Parallel Algorithm for the Maximal Independent Set Problem
- Extended Abstract (manuscript)
Continuous operations on Infinitary Proof Trees, etc.
-----------------------------------------------------
Rabin,M.O.[1969]
Decidability of 2nd Order Theories and Automata on Infinite Trees,
TransAMS 141, pp.58-68.
Kreisel,G. Mints,G.E. Simpson,S.G.[1975]
The Use of Abstract Language in Elementary Metamathematics;
Some Pedagogic Examples,
in Logic Colloquium72, LNM 453, pp.38-131.
Mints,G.E.[1975] Finite Investigations of Transfinite Derivations,
J.Soviet Math. 10 (1978) pp. 548-596. (Eng.)
Sundholm,B.G.[1978] The Omega Rule: A Survey,
Bachelors Thesis, University of Oxford
------------------------------
Date: 3 Apr 84 13:00:42 EST
From: Michael Sims <MSIMS@RUTGERS.ARPA>
Subject: Automating Shifts of Representation
[Forwarded from the Rutgers bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
Machine learning brown bag seminar
Title: Automating Shifts of Representation
Speaker: P. J. Riddle
Date: Wednesday, April 11, 1984, 12:00-1:30
Location: Hill Center, Room 254
My thesis research deals with automatically shifting from one
knowledge representation of a certain problem to another representation
which is more efficient for the problem class to which that problem
belongs. I believe that "...changes of representation are not isolated
'eureka' phenomena but rather can be decomposed into sequences of
relatively minor representation shifts". I am attempting to discover
primitive representation shifts and techniques for automating them. To
achieve this goal I am attempting to define and automate all the
primitive representation shifts explored in the Missionaries &
Cannibals (M&C) problem. The main types of representation shifts which
I have already identified are: forming macromoves, removing irrelevant
information, and removing redundant information. Initially I have
concentrated on a technique for automatically acquiring macromoves.
Macromoves succeed in shifting the problem space to a higher level of
abstraction. Assuming that the macromoves are appropriate for this
problem class, this will make the problem solver much more efficient
for subsequent problems in this problem class.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 84 10:27:46 pst
From: chertok%ucbkim@Berkeley (Paula Chertok)
Subject: Internalized World Knowledge
[Forwarded from the CSLI bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM
Spring 1984
IDS 237B - Cognitive Science Seminar
Time: Tuesday, April 10, 1984, 11-12:30pm
Location: 240 Bechtel
HOW THE MIND REFLECTS THE WORLD
Roger N. Shepard
Department of Psychology, Stanford University
Through biological evolution, enduring characteristics of
the world would tend to become internalized so that each
individual would not have to learn them de novo, through
trial and possibly fatal error. The most invariant charac-
teristics are quite abstract: (a) Space is locally three-
dimensional, Euclidean, and isotropic except for a gravita-
tionally conferred unique upright direction. (b) For any two
positions of a rigid object, there is a unique axis such
that the object can be most simply carried from the one
position to the other by a rotation around that axis
together with a translation along it. (c) Information avail-
able to us about the external world and about our relation
to it is analyzable into components corresponding to the
invariants of significant objects, spatial layouts, and
events and, also, into components corresponding to the tran-
sitory dispositions, states, and manners of change of these
and of the self relative to these. Having been internal-
ized, such characteristics manifest themselves as general
laws governing the representation of objects and events when
the relevant information is fully available (normal percep-
tion), when it is only partially available (perceptual fil-
ling in or perceptual interpretation of ambiguous stimuli),
and when it is entirely absent (imagery, dreaming, and
thought). Phenomena of identification, classification,
apparent motion, and imagined transformation illustrate the
precision and generality of the internalized constraints.
***** Followed by a lunchbag discussion with speaker *****
*** in the IHL Library (Second Floor, Bldg. T-4) from 12:30-2 ***
------------------------------
Date: Wed 4 Apr 84 18:49:45-PST
From: PENTLAND@SRI-AI.ARPA
Subject: Linguistic Structuring of Concepts
[Forwarded from the CSLI bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
Issues In Language, Perception and Cognition
WHO: Len Talmy, Cognitive Science Program and German Dept., UC Berkeley
WHEN: Monday April 9, 12:00 noon
WHERE: Room 100, Psychology
How Language Structures its Concepts
Languages have two kinds of elements: open-class, comprising the roots
of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and closed-class, comprising all in-
flections, particle words, grammatical categories, and the like. Exami-
nation of a range of languages reveals that closed-class elements refer
exclusively to certain concepts, and seemingly never to concepts outside
those (e.g., inflection on nouns may indicate number, but never color).
My idea is that all closed-class elements taken together consistute a
very special group: they code for a fundamental set of notions that
serve to structure the conceptual material expressed by language. More
particularly, their references constitute a basic notional framework,
or scaffolding, around which is organized the more contentful conceptual
material represented by open-class (i.e., lexical) elements. The ques-
tions to be addressed are: a) Which exactly are the notions specified by
closed-class elements, and which notions are excluded? b) What proper-
ties are shared by the included notions and absent from the excluded
ones? c) What functions are served by this design feature of language,
i.e., the existence in the first place of a division into open- and
closed-class subsystems, and then the particular character that these
have? d) How does this structuring system specific to language compare
with those in other cognitive subsystems, e.g. in visual perception or
memory? With question (d), this linguistic investigation opens out into
the issue of structuring within cognitive contents in general, across
cognitive domains.
------------------------------
Date: 4 Apr 1984 12:35:50-PST
From: mis at SU-Tahoma
Subject: S.P.A. - Seminar in Protocol Analysis
[Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
M. Pavel & D. Sleeman
_____________________________________________________
S.P.A - SEMINAR IN PROTOCOL ANALYSIS
______________________________________________________
Introduction to protocol analysis:
an example from developmental psychology.
Jean Gascon
Stuart Card
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
The first of this series of seminars on protocol analysis
will be structured as a tutorial on protocol analysis and comput-
er simulation. Stuart Card will give a brief overview of the
history, motivation and practice of the methodology. Jean Gascon
will then illustrate, with a simple example, how protocol
analysis is performed. The application area will come from
developmental psychology. First, protocols of children of vari-
ous ages performing one of Piaget's "seriation" task will be
shown. We will then explain how one goes from the actual data to
the construction of the "problem space" (a la Newell and Simon).
The next step consists of regrouping the problem spaces of dif-
ferent subjects into a more general psychological model (dubbed
BG in this particular case). We will see how the BG language fa-
cilitates the writing of simulation models. A computer program
that does automatic protocol analysis of the seriation protocols
will then be introduced. This program provides some additional
insights about the process of protocol analysis itself. In the
conclusion we will discuss the advantages and inconveniences of
protocol analysis relative to the other methodologies available
in cognitive psycholgy.
_____________________________________________________
Place: Jordan Hall, Room 100
Time: 1:00 pm, Wednesday April 11, 1984
_____________________________________________________
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End of AIList Digest
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