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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 105
AIList Digest Wednesday, 15 Aug 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 105
Today's Topics:
Workshop - AI and Dataflow Machines,
Robotics - Ping-Pong Competition & Discussion List,
Literature - Looking for COLING-76,
Brain Theory - Language and EEGs,
Natural Language - On Having Virtually No Crime Rate,
Anecdote - Fuzzy Cat,
Philosophy - Cause and Effect,
Conference - 1985 Symposium on Logic Programming
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Date: Tue, 14 Aug 84 08:18:26 pdt
From: Stanley Lanning <lanning@lll-crg.ARPA>
Subject: AI and DataFlow machines -- a request for interested parties
A friend asked me to post this on the bboard.... -smL
From DEBONI@Ames-VMSB Mon Aug 13 16:49:54 1984
To All Interested Parties: AI AND DATAFLOW
There will be a cooperative project in modelling the performance of dataflow
systems, invloving personell from MIT, at Nasa Ames Research Center, Moffett
Field, CA, the last two weeks of September. Interested participants are sought
from the AI community who have either general algorithms or specific applica-
tions they would like to see run on such systems. Indications of interest or
queries for further information should be addressed to "DEBONI@AMES-VMSB".
------------------------------
Date: Mon 13 Aug 84 12:14:25-PDT
From: John B. Nagle <NAGLE@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
Subject: Robot Ping-Pong Competition Announced
[Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
The current issue of Robotics Age has an announcement for a robot ping-pong
competition to be held in England in 1985. The rules are set up to encourage
low-cost entries; there are upper limits on size and power of the mechanism
and the visual environment is so defined as to provide high contrast under
uniform illumination. You don't even have to acquire the image of the ball;
it is served from a known location above the net and only has to be tracked.
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Date: 9 Aug 84 5:38:25-PDT (Thu)
From: hplabs!sdcrdcf!sdcsvax!akgua!whuxle!spuxll!abnjh!estate @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Speaking of Robotics...
Article-I.D.: abnjh.788
Would anyone be interested in starting a newsgroup for amateur robotics ?
I haven't got the slightest idea how to go about starting a new newsgroup,
but I've seen quite a few interesting articles and ideas on the net
concerning robotics. To my knowledge their are only a very few periodicals
dealing with the subject of amateur robotics and robotics experiments, but
I have found a few interesting articles on simple robotic interfaces that
will work off a home computer (one of which I built). If anyone else out
there in net-land enjoys tearing apart their household appliances and
and reconstructing them to do things that they were never meant to
do, please let me know and we'll see if we can get anything rolling!
(Visions From The Orcrest Stone)
Carl D.
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Date: Fri, 3 Aug 84 22:47:15 EDT
From: Steven Lytinen <Lytinen@YALE.ARPA>
Subject: COLING-76
I am interested in seeing several articles in COLING-76. Unfortunately,
I can't find a copy anywhere. Does anyone have a copy that they would
be willing to lend me?
Steve Lytinen (lytinen@yale)
------------------------------
Date: 13 Aug 1984 14:21:24-EDT
From: sde@Mitre-Bedford
Subject: Warfian hypothesis, sort of
On a different net it was alleged, though w/o references to check,
that people, both of Japanese and British genetic background, when
raised speaking Japanese show EEG responses to music on the LEFT
side, but that when raised speaking English, their responses are
on the RIGHT side. This has some interesting implications, if true.
Does anyone out there know anything more about such a phenomenon?
Although no references were cited, the description was detailed
enough to sound like it had a basis in fact.
As a possibly related matter, I seem to recall reading somewhere
that musicians, or some subset of them, also show EEG responses
to music on the LEFT side.
Being quite curious about both, I'd love to get more information,
if anyone can assist.
Thanx in advance,
David sde@mitre-bedford
------------------------------
Date: 13 Aug 84 14:48:35-PDT (Mon)
From: ihnp4!houxm!hou2d!wbp @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: On having virtually no crime rate.
Article-I.D.: hou2d.472
"Saudi Arabia has virtually no crime rate," is what the commercial
told me about 30 times before I realized what they are really saying.
I understand what having virtually no crime is, and also a very
low crime rate is within my grasp. But virtually no crime rate is a very
odd construction.
If a place has no crime rate then this means that the statistics
are not gathered and that's O.K too.
If the crime rate is virtually non-existent then it indeed exists,
but is in a state of "almost non-being" which may mean that for all practical
purposes it does not exist, but is known to a select few who will tell
no-one. (Or may be a reflection of their different system of justice!)
Are virtual rates calculated on virtual machines, and does one
need either transcendental or imaginary numbers to express them?
Seriously, what would a program do with such a sentence?
And even more interesting, would a sophisticated program have any
problem with it, and could it not even see a problem with it as I am
sure millons of people did not see one!
Submitted for your approval,
Wayne Pineault (hou2d!wbp)
------------------------------
Date: 12 Aug 84 10:53:16-PDT (Sun)
From: ihnp4!houxm!houxz!vax135!ariel!norm @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: Re: Now and Then
Article-I.D.: ariel.716
> Ahem. Cause and effect may exist, and indeed, in order to function as
> human beings, we seem to need to behave as if it exists, but I don't
> think the principal of cause and effect can be *proved* to exist. The
> association of two events in time does not imply a connection between
> the two.
>
> (For a more detailed argument, read Hume and Kant)
>
> --Ray Chen
The concept of proof depends upon the concepts of cause and effect, among
other things. Even the ideas "anything" and "functioning" depend upon
the idea of cause and effect. All of these concepts depend on or are
rooted in the concepts of identity and identification. Here's why:
To be is to be something in particular, to have a specific identity, or
having specific characteristics. What does it mean to have specific
characteristics or a specific identity? It means that in a particular
context, the entity's existence is manifested in a particular way. An
entity IS what it can DO (in a given context).
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.
"What they are" includes or consists of "what they can do".
This is true irrespective of our ability to identify what they are.
Hume's and Kant's arguements re causality are the analytic-synthetic
dichotomy. For the original presentation of the views that smash
this false dichotomy, see Leonard Peikoff's article "The Analytic-
Synthetic Dichotomy" in the back of recent editions of Ayn Rand's
"Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology". For the epistemological
basis of Peikoff's article, read Rand's Intro.
(I almost posted this to net.cooks, but GOOD cooks know this already...)
-Norm Andrews, AT+T Information Systems, (201) 834-3685
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 1984 18:51 EDT
From: MONTALVO%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA
Subject: Expert Systems, Fuzzy Logic, and Fuzzy Batteries
I had a Fuzzy cat named Zada once. (This is really the truth.) He
was named after Lotfi, of course.
Fanya
------------------------------
Date: 8 Aug 84 12:43:00-PDT (Wed)
From: hplabs!hp-pcd!uoregon!conery @ Ucb-Vax.arpa
Subject: 1985 Symposium on Logic Programming
Article-I.D.: uoregon.30100002
-- CALL FOR PAPERS --
1985 Symposium on Logic Programming
Boston, Massachusetts, July 15-18, 1985
Sponsored by IEEE and its Technical Committee on Computer Languages
The symposium will cover fundamental principles and important innovations in
the design, definition, and implementation of logic programming systems and
applications. Of special interest are papers related to parallel processing.
Other topics of interest are (but are not limited to) FGCS, distributed control
schemes, expert systems, natural language processing, systems programming,
novel implementation techniques, and performance issues.
Authors should send 8 copies of their manuscript, plus an extra copy of the
abstract, to:
John Conery
Department of Computer and Information Science
University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
Paper length should be 8-20 typed, double spaced pages, including figures and
abstract. Submissions will be considered on the basis of appropriateness,
clarity, originality, significance, and overall quality.
Deadline for submission of papers is November 16, 1984. Authors will be
notified of acceptance or rejection by March 8, 1985, and camera ready copy
must be returned by May 10, 1985. Authors of accepted papers will be expected
to sign a copyright release form.
** Proposals for full or partial day tutorials are also being solicited.
Send a one to three page proposal to John Conery by November 16.
Conference Chairman Technical Committee Co-Chairmen
Doug DeGroot Jacques Cohen John Conery
T.J. Watson Res. Ctr. Computer Sci. Dept. Dept. of Computer
PO Box 218 Ford Hall and Information Science
Yorktown Heights, Brandeis University University of Oregon
NY 10598 415 South St. Eugene, OR 97403
(914)945-3497 Waltham, MA 02254 (503)686-4408
(617)647-3370
CSNET: jc@brandeis jc@uoregon
Technical Committee
Ken Bowen (Syracuse) Jack Minker (Maryland)
Jacques Cohen (Brandeis) Fernando Pereira (SRI)
John Conery (Oregon) Alan Robinson (Syracuse)
Doug DeGroot (IBM Yorktown) Sten-Ake Tarnlund (IBM Yorktown)
Seif Haridi (IBM Yorktown) D. S. Warren (Stony Brook)
Bob Keller (Utah) Jim Weiner (New Hampshire)
Gary Lindstrom (Utah)
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End of AIList Digest
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