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AIList Digest Volume 2 Issue 145
AIList Digest Saturday, 27 Oct 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 145
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - Usenet Disconnection,
AI Languages - Buzzwords,
Expert Systems - Logic-Based Expert Systems & Critique,
Humor - Expert Systems & Recursive Riddle & Computational Complexity,
Algorithms - Bad Algorithms as Programming Jokes,
Seminars - Nonmonotonic Inference & Mathematical Language,
Symposium - Expert Systems in the Government
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat 27 Oct 84 21:36:47-PDT
From: Ken Laws <Laws@SRI-AI.ARPA>
Subject: Usenet Disconnection
The SRI-UNIX host that has been the AIList gateway between Arpanet
and Usenet has been undergoing system changes. This broke the
connection about a week ago, and I do not know how soon communication
will be restored. Meanwhile the discussion continues asynchronously
in the two networks.
-- Ken Laws
------------------------------
Date: Mon 22 Oct 84 11:18:59-MDT
From: Stan Shebs <SHEBS@UTAH-20.ARPA>
Subject: Re: buzzwords for different language types
My favorite buzzwords are "low-level" for C, Pascal, and Ada, and
"high-level" for Lisp :-)
But seriously, one can adopt a very abstract (i.e. applicative/functional)
programming style or a very imperative (C-like) style when using Lisp.
On the other hand, adopting an applicative style in C is difficult (yes,
I've tried!). So Lisp is certainly more versatile. Also, Lisp's direct
representation of programs as data facilitates the construction of
embedded languages and the writing of program-analysing programs, both
important activities in the construction of AI systems. On the other
hand, both of these are time-consuming, if not difficult to do in C or
Pascal.
Incidentally, these remarks largely apply to Prolog also (although Prolog
doesn't make it easy to do "low-level" programming).
stan shebs
------------------------------
Date: Thu 25 Oct 84 20:59:56-CDT
From: Charles Petrie <CS.PETRIE@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
Subject: Logic-based Expert Systems
Regarding expert system tools: would anyone like to offer some reasoned
opinions regarding the suitability of logic-based systems for such?
I have no strong definition of "logic-based" to offer, but I have in
mind as prime examples MRS from Stanford and DUCK from SST which provide
interfaces to LISP, forward and back chaining, and various
extra-logical functions to make life easier for the system builder. I
am interested in large systems (1000+ rules desirable) and the control
and performance problems and solutions that people have found. Can
such systems be built successfully? What techniques to constrain
search have been tried and worked/failed? Any references?
Charles Petrie
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 84 20:28:24 pdt
From: weeks%ucbpopuli.CC@Berkeley (Harry Weeks)
Subject: Expert system critique.
An article appears in the current (November/December) issue of
``The Sciences'' (New York Academy of Sciences) by Hubert and
Stuart Dreyfus of Berkeley. The article ``Mindless Machines''
asserts that `computers don't think like experts, and never
will,' invoking, in part, Plato's ``Euthyphro'' (Euthyphro is
a theologian queried by Socrates as to the true nature of
piety) as an allegory. The basic assertion is that so-called
expert systems reason purely from rules, whereas human experts
intuit from rules using the vast experience of special cases.
They cite this `intuition' as being an insurmountable barrier
to building intelligent machines.
Harry Weeks
(Weeks@UCBpopuli)
------------------------------
Date: Fri 26 Oct 84 06:46:39-CDT
From: Werner Uhrig <CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20.ARPA>
Subject: is there an Expert-System like that ?? (-:
[ cartoon in from InfoWorld, Nov 5, 84, page 7]
( 2 ladies having tea in the 'parlor', chatting. with a somewhat perplexed
expression, one stares at a small dirt-pile on the carpet, while the
obvious hostess explains with a smug grin:)
"I thought he was a vacuum cleaner salesman. He came in,
sprinkled dirt on the carpet and then tried to sell me a
software program that would show me how to clean it up. "
------------------------------
From: gibson@unc.UUCP (Bill Gibson)
Subject: Recursive Riddle
[Forwarded from Usenet by SASW@MIT-MC.]
How many comedians does it take to tell a Light Bulb Joke ?
Two - one to say,
"How many comedians does it take to tell a Light Bulb Joke?
Two - one to say,
"How many comedians does it take to tell a Light Bulb Joke?
Two - one to say,
"How many comedians does it take to tell a Light Bulb Joke?
Two - one to say,
"How many comedians does it take to tell a Light Bulb Joke?
...
and one to ask nonsense riddles."
...
and one to ask nonsense riddles."
and one to ask nonsense riddles."
and one to ask nonsense riddles."
and one to ask nonsense riddles."
and one to ask nonsense riddles.
- from the parallel process of - Bill Gibson
------------------------------
Date: Wed 24 Oct 84 19:13:16-PDT
From: Jean-Luc Bonnetain <BONNETAIN@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA>
Subject: minor correction on my msg on "badgorithms"
Afte reading again the message, I *do* find interesting and unusual an
O(n^(3/(pi^3) - 1/e)) algorithm. I'd be real glad to see, and maybe even
touch, one.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 84 07:38 EDT
From: MJackson.Wbst@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: Re: worst algorithms as programming jokes
A very interesting idea, but "badgorithm" as a label should have been
strangled at birth.
How about "algospasm"?
Mark
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 84 08:14:31 cdt
From: "Duncan A. Buell" <buell%lsu.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa>
Subject: Bad Algorithms
Jean-Luc Bonnetain suggests worst algorithms (badgorithms) as programming
jokes. In a similar vein, with interests in winning the Cold War by
shipping some of these to the Soviet Union, what is the slowest possible
way to sort a list of N items? The only requirement should be one (this
problem may not be well-defined yet, but I'm sure people could produce
subproblems that were) to the effect that repetition of a state or
sequence of states should not take place, and that the method actually at
some future date sort the list.
As an example of how to think about this, consider generating the permutations
of N things, then comparing the existing list against each permutation.
How slowly, then, can we generate the permutations of N things? We could
isolate one element, generate permutations of N-1 things, and then insert
the isolated element in N different places. Ignoring the symmetry of the
situation, we could isolate a second element and continue (is this cheating
on the rule?). And generating permutations of N-1 things?
------------------------------
Date: 25 Oct 84 09:58 PDT
From: Kahn.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: Re: Badgorithms in AIList Digest V2 #144
The examples of badgorithms that come to mind (including the sorting by
selecting an ordered permutation and find min and max by sorting, or for
that matter defining the last element of a list as CAR of the reverse of
the list or empty intersection by computing the entire intersection and
then seeing if its empty) all have in common that they are making use of
existing constructs that do what is desired and much more. I think that
these are very reasonable PROGRAMS even if they normally correspond to
bad ALGORITHMS.
The point is that various projects in program transformation
(especially partial evaluation) take as input such programs and
automatically transform them into programs that correspond to very
reasonable algorithms. Also, true fans of logic programming who believe
that an algorithm = logic + control use sort as ordered permutation as
their classic example. They add control anontations that cause the
permutation activity to be coroutined with the order selection.
I'm looking forward to the day when one can write programs that if
interpreted naively correspond to badgorithms and yet are either
tranformed automatically or interpreted cleverly enough so that they run
like a bat out of hell.
------------------------------
Date: 24 Oct 1984 10:35-EDT
From: MVILAIN at BBNG.ARPA
Subject: Seminar - Nonmonotonic Inference
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by SASW@MIT-MC.]
"A Non-Monotonic Inference System"
James W. Goodwin, University of Linkoping.
BBN Laboratories, 10 Moulton St, Cambridge.
Third floor conference room, 10:30 AM.
Tuesday October 30th.
We present a theory and implementation of incomplete non-monotonic
reasoning. The theory is inspired by the success of inference systems
based on dependency nets and reason maintenance. The process of inference is
conceived as a monotonic accumulation of constraints on belief sets.
The "current database" is just the set of constraints accumulated so far;
the current beliefs are then required to be a set which satisfies all the
constraints in the current database, and contains no beliefs which are not
forced by those constraints. Constraints may also be thought of as reasons, or
as dependencies, or (best) simply as individual inference steps.
This approach allows an inference to depend on aspects of the current state
of the reasoning process. In particular, an inference may support P on the
condition that Q is not in the current belief set. This sense of
non-monotonicity is conveniently computable (by reason maintenance), so the
undecidability of Non-monotonic Logic I and its relatives is avoided. This
makes possible a theory of reasoning which is applicable to real agents, such
as computers, which are compelled to arrive at some conclusion despite
inadequate time and inadequate information. It supports a precise idea
of "reasoned control of reasoning" and an additive representation for control
knowledge (something like McCarthy's Advice Taker idea).
------------------------------
Date: 26 Oct 84 15:47:53 EDT
From: Ruth.Davis@CMU-RI-ISL1
Subject: Seminar - Mathematical Language
[Forwarded from the CMU bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
Date: Monday, October 29
Title: PRL: Practical Formal Mathematics
Speaker: Joe Bates, Cornell University
Time: 1:30 pm
Location: 4605 WEH
PRL: Practical Formal Mathematics
Joseph Bates
Cornell University
PRL is a family of development environments which are designed to
support the construction, validation, execution, and communication of
large bodies of mathematics text (eg, books on graph algorithms or
group theory). The design of these systems draws on work in many
areas, from philosophy to Lisp hackery. Tuesday, Constable will speak
on certain issues in the choice of PRL's mathematical language. I
will present, in detail, the most significant aspects of the current
system architecture, and will suggest directions for future work.
------------------------------
Date: 26 Oct 1984 9:27:12 EDT (Friday)
From: Marshall Abrams <abrams@mitre>
Subject: Symposium - Expert Systems in the Government
I am helping to organize a Symposium on Expert Systems in the Federal
Government. In addition to papers, I am looking for people to serve on
the program committee and the conference committee, and to serve as
reviewers and session chairmen. The openings on the conference committee
include local arrangements, publicity, and tutorials.
Please contact me or the program chairman (or both by net-mail) with
questions and suggestions. The call for papers follows.
Call for Papers
Expert Systems in Government Conference
October 23-25, 1985
THE CONFERENCE objective is to allow the developers and implementers
of expert systems in goverenment agencies to exchange information and
ideas first hand for the purpose of improving the quality of
existing and future expert systems in the government sector.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has recently been maturing so rapidly
that interest in each of its various facets, e.g., robotics, vision,
natural language, supercomputing, and expert systems, has acquired
an increasing following and cadre of practitioners.
PAPERS are solicited which discuss the subject of the conference.
Original research, analysis and approaches for defining expert
systems issues and problems such as those identified in the
anticipated session topics, methodological approaches for analyzing
the scope and nature of expert system issues, and potential
solutions are of particular interest. Completed papers are to be no
longer than 20 pages including graphics and are due 1 May 1985.
Four copies of papers are to be sent to:
Dr. Kamal Karna, Program Chairman
MITRE Corporation W852
1820 Dolley Madison Boulevard
McLean, Virginia 22102
Phone (703) 883-5866
ARPANET: Karna @ Mitre
Notification of acceptance and manuscript preparation instructions
will be provided by 20 May 1985.
THE CONFERENCE is sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society and The
MITRE Corporation in cooperation with The Association for Computing
Machinery, The American Association for Artificial Intelligence and
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics National
Capital Section. This conference will offer high quality technical
exchange and published proceedings.
It will be held at Tyson's Westpark Hotel, Tysons Corner, McLean,
VA, suburban Washington, D.C.
TOPICS OF INTEREST
The topics of interest include the expert systems in the following
applications domains (but are not limited to):
1. Professional: Accounting, Consulting, Engineering,
Finance, Instruction, Law, Marketing,
Management, Medicine
Systems, Intelligent DBMS
2. Office Automation: Text Understanding, Intelligent
3. Command & Control: Intelligence Analysis, Planning,
Targeting, Communications, Air Traffic
Control
4. Exploration: Space, Prospecting, Mineral, Oil
Archeology
5. Weapon Systems: Adaptive Control, Electronic Warfare,
Star Wars, Target Identification
6. System Engineering: Requirements, Preliminary Design,
Critical Design, Testing, and QA
7. Equipment: Design Monitoring, Control, Diagnosis,
Maintenance, Repair, Instruction
8. Project Management: Planning, Scheduling, Control
9. Flexible Automation: Factory and Plan Automation
10. Software: Automatic Programming, Specifications,
Design, Production, Maintenance and
Verification and Validation
11. Architecture: Single, Multiple, Distributed Problem
Solving Tools
12. Imagery: Photo Interpretation, Mapping, etc.
13. Education: Concept Formation, Tutoring, Testing,
Diagnosis, Learning
14. Entertainment and Intelligent Games, Investment and
Expert Advice Giving: Finances, Retirement, Purchasing,
Shopping, Intelligent Information
Retrieval
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End of AIList Digest
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