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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 107
AIList Digest Monday, 20 Aug 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 107
Today's Topics:
LISP - Interlisp/Zetalisp Compatibility & Charniak & Common Lisp,
Brain Theory - PET Experiments,
Philosophy - Causality and Proof & AI,
Project Reports - UPenn
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Date: 15 Aug 84 10:50:44-PDT (Wed)
From: hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!noscvax!goodhart @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Interlisp/Zetalisp Compatibility
Article-I.D.: noscvax.583
Symbolics (phone- (213) 473-6583) publishes "Interlisp Compatibility Package
User's Guide" which discusses compatibility issues between Interlisp and
Zetalisp.
------------------------------
Date: 14 Aug 84 14:49:29-PDT (Tue)
From: decvax!mcvax!enea!erix!seeb @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Charniak's "AI-Prog."book:Code Reqst
Article-I.D.: erix.550
Sure, when I first got my hands on that book that was my reaction too:
"Translation please!".
But there wasn't any around just then so I had to work my way through it
by myself. And I discovered something:
Exercises in reading different Lisp dialects are actually good for you,
even when they are crammed with programmer-defined macros. After all,
being able to read is half the secret of communication. If you can't
do it --- well, you run into trouble ("Translation please!").
So my advice in this case is: Do it yourself!
/Sten-Erik E Bergner - LM Ericsson
------------------------------
Date: 13 Aug 84 8:21:00-PDT (Mon)
From: pur-ee!uiucdcsb!nowicki @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Common Lisp - (nf)
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.5500009
I am also interested in such info. We have Sun-2's running 4.2 and I am
interested in obtaining Common Lisp for them.
-Tony Nowicki
{decvax|inuxc}!pur-ee!uiucdcs!nowicki
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Date: Fri, 17 Aug 84 15:18:54 pdt
From: weeks%ucbpopuli.CC@Berkeley (Harry Weeks)
Subject: Common Lisp.
I submitted earlier a query about Common Lisp. Here's the rundown
on what I've come upon so far.
... Common Lisp is to be released by DEC for VAX/VMS
``in this quarter''.
... DEC developed Common Lisp at CMU using its money and
apparently many of its own personnel, so they own
the code developed.
... DEC developed a version to run under 4.n bsd VAX/Unix
along with the VAX/VMS version, but the VMS version
had priority, so the VAX/Unix version is lagging behind
a bit. They are supposed to release one soon, however.
... There is no version running on 68000's at present,
through apparently some companies are working on it.
... There may be a Common Lisp mailing list (Common-Lisp@SU-AI),
but I haven't determined this for certain. I asked to be
put on the list but haven't heard anything back.
Harry Weeks
(Weeks@UCBpopuli)
------------------------------
Date: 17 Aug 84 12:22:34 EDT
From: KYLE.WBST@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: Brain Theory and Language
Re: David's request of 13 Aug 84 on Brain Theory-Language & EEG
(Warfian Hypothesis from Sde@Mitre-bedford.ARPA)
A team at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. developed PET Scan
techniques (Positron Emission Tomography) that allowed for real time
monitoring of brain response to various external stimuli (sound, light,
etc.). The key people are now at UCLA , I think.
You can read about this work in Science News, or in Science magazines.
There was also a booth at the Toronto APA meeting in 1982 describing
various applications for PET technology, and I seem to recall a paper
decribing some of the work you mentioned with musicians.
One of the magazine articles , I think, mentioned differences between
musicians who had become conductors of orchestras vs, those who had not
re:left & right brain activity. Musicians also respomd differently to
non musical sound inputs such as alarms , ambulance sirens, etc. and it
seems to have something to do with their training.
As you probably know, the entire issue is clouded by left handed people.
They seem to fall into 3 categories: mirror images of right handed ones
(i.e. speech is in the lefty's right brain hemisphere, etc), same as
right handed people, and non-hemisphere specific (i.e. both halves share
same functions with no dominance). The latter group seems to always have
inner conflict and trouble making decisions.
PET techniques require access to the right expensive gear to make the
short lived radio isotopes that are presented to the subject's brain via
food stuffs that resemble sugars the brain can use. The emitted
radiation is picked up by gear similar to an X-ray CAT scanner and
presented to the researcher on a CRT. What one sees is a profile of
brain metabolism in response to various stimuli. It is superior to the
EEG in the sense that you can see dynamic resource allocation as a
function of problem solving. It would provide interesting study for
those interested in emulating nature's parallel processor. As I recall,
work has also been done using the technique to monitor activity during
math problem solving exercises.
One last note of reference, APA stands for American Psychiatric (or
Psychological...I forget) Association. The 1982 convention I attended
was at the Sheraton Plaza complex in Toronto, and a proceedings was
generated so a good library should be able to locate a copy.
Earle.
------------------------------
Date: 14 Aug 84 23:39:09-PDT (Tue)
From: decvax!decwrl!flairvax!kissell @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Now and Then
Article-I.D.: flairvax.720
(Norm Andrews challenges Ray Chen's agnosticsm on cause and effect)
> The concept of proof depends upon the concepts of cause and effect, among
> other things.
This is simply not true. The notion of logical proof involves implication
relationships between discrete statements in discourse. This is an agreed
upon rule of the game. Causality assumes implication relationships between
discrete events in the world. The universe may or may not argue like a
philosopher, and it is not always clear what constitutes a "discrete" event.
> So what's causality? The law of identity applied to action. Things do
> what they do, in any given context, BECAUSE they are what they are.
This is a denial of causality, not a definition. If things do what they
do because they are what they are, then they certainly can't be *caused*
to do anything by something else.
Unless, of course, the only *thing* is everything.
uucp: {ihnp4 decvax}!decwrl!\
>flairvax!kissell
{ucbvax sdcrdcf}!hplabs!/
------------------------------
Date: Mon 13 Aug 84 19:40:34-PDT
From: Richard Pattis <PATTIS@WASHINGTON.ARPA>
Subject: Name the Presidential Candidate who wrote...
Name the presidential candidate who wrote the following:
It was in that mood, living day after day with this matter principally
occuring in my mind, that I halted such peripheral considerations as the
spur-of-the-moment Plotto simulation exemplified, and resolved to go
directly to the crux of the matter of "artificial intelligence."
It was simple enough for me to do. A knowledge of both analog and
computer principles, philosophical rigor, and my competence in
economics: it was a simple matter to lay out in my mind a worldwide
network of task-oriented, linked computers performing production of all
human needs, including the building of task-oriented computers like
themselves.
Such an array is the precondition for supposing that "artificial intelli-
gence" in computers might be approximated, at least in the form of conscious
powers of deduction. Since human consciousness and intelligence depend on
what Kant terms the synthetic a apriori processes, and since there is no
configuration of the indicated sorrt of model which could accommodate such
synthesis, there is no way in which any form of computer could become
willful in a human sense of willful intelligence.
It was obvious, on less rigorous grounds, than no computer could synthesize
intelligent behavior in the manner Minsky and others were approaching this.
That was the simple case to prove. Minsky's problem was that he proceeded
in ignorance of even a Feuerbachian model of the determination of
intelligence.
There is more, but it becomes less focused, and I became tired of typing. As
a hint, the principal accomplishment of the author of this quotation is, "...
that of being, by a large margin of advantage, the leading economist of the
twentieth century to date."
Rich
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 84 17:09 EDT
From: Tim Finin <Tim%upenn.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>
Subject: Project Reports - UPenn
THE CENTER FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE in the Department of Computer
and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania has received
a major award from the U.S. Army Research Office for research and
education in Artificial Intelligence.
The award is for $7.2 million together with a supplementary DOD-URIP
award of $500,000, a total of $7.7 million over a period of five years.
The award will support faculty and technical staff and provide graduate
research fellowships and research equipment. The contract is from the
Electronics Division of the Army Research Office under the direction
of Dr. Jimmie Suttle.
Principle Investigator for the grant is Professor Aravind K. Joshi and
co-Principle Investigators are Professors Norman Badler, Ruzena Bajcsy,
Peter Buneman, and Bonnie Webber.
Pennsylvania's CENTER FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is located in the
Department of Computer and Information Science but includes members from the
departments of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Linguistics,
Philosophy and Psychology as well as the Wharton School and the School of
Medicine. Primary research interests include natural language processing,
flexible communication with knowledge bases, programming languages and
knowledge bases, automated reasoning and expert systems, computer
interaction in three dimensions, interaction of visual and tactile
information, robotics, analysis and synthesis of motion, computer graphics
and animation, computational logic, and the design of languages for
representing and manipulating knowledge.
The CENTER FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE has been the recipient of
several other major grants recently, including an NSF Coordinated
Experimental Research grant ($3.8 million for five years), an IBM grant
for new ventures in Computer Science ($1 million), a Sloan Foundation
grant for Cognitive Science ($1.0 million), an Air Force Office of
Reseach grant for Query Driven Vision System ($1 million), a grant from
NASA for Human Body Motion Modelling ($800,000), and several grants
from the NSF Intelligent Systems Division.
Students interested in applying for graduate admission should write to:
Professor Peter Buneman, Graduate Group Chair
Department of Computer and Information Science,
The Moore School
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Inquiries concerning faculty positions (regular and visiting) and research
staff positions should be directed to Professor Aravind K. Joshi at the same
address as above.
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End of AIList Digest
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