Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
AIList Digest Volume 4 Issue 110
AIList Digest Friday, 2 May 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 110
Today's Topics:
Queries - Common LISP Coding Standards & Neural Networks,
Literature - Connection Machine Article,
AI Tools - Expert Systems Software for MS-DOS,
Anthology - Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing,
Linguistics - OpEd & Italo Calvino AI Project & Trademarks
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 May 86 8:49:14 EDT
From: Marty Hall <hall@hopkins-eecs-bravo.ARPA>
Subject: RE: Common LISP coding standards
Hugh Mcguire writes:
> Perhaps Marty Hall was seeking some guide to LISP style, similar to
> Legard's (et al.'s) *Pascal with Style*; I certainly would find such
> useful, and perhaps others would also...
Yes! That is exactly what I am looking for, and so far have recieved
only meager replies. The type of points Hugh mentioned are exactly the
types of questions we want to have standards on.
Anyone have anything?
-Marty Hall
Arpa: hall@hopkins
uucp ...seismo!umcp-cs!jhunix!ins_amrh
------------------------------
Date: 29 Apr 86 23:59:35 GMT
From: ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (sonntag)
Subject: neural networks
A recent issue of 'Science' had an article on 'neural networks', which,
apparently consist of a highly interconnected repetition of some sort of
simple 'nodes' with an overall positive feedback and some sort of
randomness thrown in for good measure. When these networks are 'powered up',
the positive feedback quickly forces the system into a stable state, with
each node either 'on' or 'off'. The article claimed that some
simulations of moderate sized (10K nodes?) networks had been done, and
reported some rather amazing results. For one thing, it was discovered
that if just 50 out of 10k nodes are preset to a particular value, the
network has just ~100 very similar stable states, out of 10**1000 possibilities.
They also claimed that one such system was able to arrive at a 'very good'
solution to arbitrary 'traveling salesman' problems! And that another
network (hooked to a piece of equipment which could produce phonemes, and
presumably some kind of feedback) had been 'trained' to read english text
reasonably well. They said incredibly little about the actual details of
how each node operates, unfortunately.
So how about it? Has anybody else heard of these things? Is this
really a way of going about AI in a way which *may* be similar to what
brains do? Just exactly what algorithms are the nodes implementing, and
how do you provide input and get output from them? Does anyone know
where I could get more information about them?
Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
--
Jeff Sonntag
ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j
[I will send Jeff a copy of our January discussion on the
connectionist speech learning project. -- KIL ]
------------------------------
Date: Thu 1 May 86 14:29:06-CDT
From: Jonathan Slocum <AI.Slocum@MCC.ARPA>
Subject: Connection Machine article
Hillis has written a book entitled "The Connection Machine."
It's generally available: I purchased a copy recently.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 1 May 86 14:49:50-CDT
From: CMP.BARC@R20.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: Re: Expert systems software for MS-DOS
I hope my Macintosh forgives me for this, but here goes!
I have a few additions to Paul Chisholm's list of expert systems products
for IBM PC's. Since there were so many items, I decided to send them
directly to AIList, as well as to Mr. Chisholm. I have included a number
of AI language implementations, including Lisp's since he isolated xlisp
for some reason. Also I've included a few decision support systems,
which aren't really AI or expert system by-products. But they often do
just as much as expert system shells, and some of the vendor's are even
marketing them as AI, so what the heck.
I haven't read Mr. Chisholm's list all that carefully, but I did notice
some minor errors: Personal Consultant Plus is written in PC Scheme
(not in IQLisp); Mountain View Press's Expert is now known as Expert-2;
what he refers to as expert systems are in fact expert system shells or
development tools. Some specific expert systems are being marketed,
however (a couple of which are on my list below).
The names, addresses, phone numbers, and especially prices are not
guaranteed to be free from typos, line noise, or obsolecence. I have
litlle experience or further information on any of these packages. So
please don't address questions to -- call the companies.
Now, what you've all been waiting for:
AL/X: Expert system shell
ALCS: Expert system shell
Inference Manager: Expert system shell, 500 pounds
Intelligent Terminals Ltd
15 Canal St.
Oxford, UK OX26BH
Also:
George House
36 North Hanover St.
Glasgow, Scotland G1 2AD
041-552-1353
(These might be available from Jeffrey Perrone & Associates)
apes: Expert system shell [micro-Prolog], $250
Programming Logic Systems
312 Crescent Dr.
Milford, CT 06460
(203) 877-7988
ERS: Expert system shell
PAR Technology Corp.
220 Seneca Turnpike
New Hartford, NY 13413
GEN-X: Expert system shell
General Electric Research and Development Center
Schenectady, NY 12345
K:base: Expert system shell
GCLisp (Golden Common Lisp), $495
Gold Hill Computers
163 Havard St.
Cambridge, MA 02139
(404) 565-0771
M.1A: Expert system shell, $2000
Teknowledge Inc.
525 University Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
415-327-6640
Savior: Expert System Shell, 3000 pounds
ISI Limited
11 Oakdene Road
Redhill, Surrey, UK RH16BT
(0737)71327
SeRIes PC: Expert system shell, $15,000
SRI International
Advanced Computer Systems Division
333 Ravenswood Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(415) 859-2859
TOPSCI: Expert system shell, $75/$175
Dynamic Master Systyems Inc.
PO Box 566456
Atlanta, GA 30356
(404) 565-0771
Micro In-Ate: Expert system shell for fault diagnosis, $5000
Automated Reasoning Corporation
290 West 12th St., Suite 212-252
New York, NY 10014
(212) 206-6331
TK!Solver: Symbolic math expert, $399
Lotus/Software Arts
27 Mica Lane
Wellesley, MA 02181
(617) 237-4000
Comprehension: Expert system for thought analysis, $75
Thunderstone Corp.
PO Box 839
Chesterland, OH 44026
(216) 729-1132
Arborist: Decision support, $595
PC Scheme: Lisp, $95
Texas Instruments
PO Box 809063
Dallas, TX 75380-9063
(800) 527-3500
Expert Choice: Decision support, $495
Decision Support Software Inc.
1300 Vincent Place
McLean, VA 22101
(703) 442-7900
Lightyear: Decision support, $495
Lightyear, Inc.
1333 Lawrence Expwy., Bldg. 210
Santa Clara, CA 95051
(408) 985-8811
Byso Lisp, $125
Levien Instrument Co.
Sittlington Hill
PO Box 31
McDowell, VA 24458
(703) 396-3345
Q'NIAL: Nested Interactive Array Language, $395/$995
Starwood Corporation
PO Box 160849
San Antonio, TX 78280
(512) 496-8037
Methods: SmallTalk, $250
Digitalk Inc.
5200 West Century Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(213) 645-1082
IQLisp, $175
Integral Quality
6265 Twentieth Avenue (or POB 31970)
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 527-2918
LISP/80, $40
Software Toolworks
15233 Ventura Blvd., Suite 1118
Sherman Oaks, CA 91403
(818) 986-4885
LISP/88, $50
Norell Data Systems
PO Box 70127
3400 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 748-5978
muLisp-85, $250
Microsoft Corp.
10700 Northup Way
Box 97200
Bellevue, WA 98004
(206) 828-8080
PSL (Portable Standard Lisp), Distribution costs ($75?)
The Utah Symbolic Computation Group
Department of Computer Science
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
TLC-Lisp, $250
The Lisp Co.
PO Box 487
Redwood Estates, CA 95044
(408) 426-9400
UO-Lisp, $150
Northwest Computer Algorithms
PO Box 90995
Long Beach, CA 90809
(213) 426-1893
Waltz Lisp, $169
ProCode International
15930 SW Colony Place
Portland, OR 97224
(503) 684-3000
There are some reasonable reviews of AI tools and languages for the
IBM PC in "Computer Language", July and August, 1985. The October 1985
issue of "Expert Systems" contains surveys and descriptions of expert
system shells and languages on micros. The books "Understanding AI"
(H.C. Mishkoff) and "Expert Systems: AI in Business" (P. Harmon and
D. King) also have useful information about expert system products on
the IBM PC.
Dallas Webster
CMP.BARC@R20.UTexas.Edu
{ihnp4 | seismo | ctvax}!ut-sally!batman!dallas
------------------------------
Date: Thu 1 May 86 11:54:01-PDT
From: Matt Heffron <BEC.HEFFRON@USC-ECL.ARPA>
Subject: Another PC Expert System Application
SpinPro (tm)
$2500
written in GCLISP
Plans Ultracentrifugation experiments for bio-tech lab
Beckman Instruments, Inc.
Spinco Division
(415)-857-1150 (sales info)
(714)-961-3728 (technical info) Matt Heffron
------------------------------
Date: Thu 1 May 86 15:50:52-EDT
From: DDAVIS@G.BBN.COM
Subject: Anthology - Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing
GENETIC ALGORITHMS AND SIMULATED ANNEALING,
Call For Papers
The Pitman Series of Research Notes in Artificial Intelligence
(Derek Sleeman and N.S. Sridharan, Senior Editors) will publish a
volume of papers entitled "Genetic Algorithms and Simulated
Annealing" early in 1987. The volume will be edited by David
Davis of Bolt Beranek and Newman and will be refereed by experts
in the fields of genetic algorithms and simulated annealing.
Submissions to the volume are invited. Papers should be no more
than 20 pages in length, should be primarily concerned with one
or both of the two fields of research, and should conform to
accepted editorial standards. In order to submit a paper,
mail four copies to
(Lawrence) David Davis
BBN Laboratories Incorporated
10 Moulton Street
Cambridge, MA 02238.
In order to prepare and publish the volume on time, we will not
be able to consider papers postmarked after September 30, 1986.
For further information, contact David Davis at (617) 497-3120,
or send electronic mail to ddavis@bbng.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 May 86 08:30:38 cdt
From: porter@fall.cs.UTEXAS.EDU
Subject: Colloq at UTexas
It appears to be necessary to present an alternate opinion of the
colloquium presented by Sergio Alvarado at UTexas on April 22.
We do NOT agree with the evaluation written by Aaron Temin and
posted to this bulletin board on April 24. Mr. Temin is a
graduate student in the computer sciences department. We believe
that his critical review was inaccurate.
Alvarado's colloquium reviewed his PhD dissertation research at UCLA
(under Michael Dyer). His research presents a computational model for
comprehension of arguments, such as those in letters to the editor
of a newspaper.
Alvarado's system, called OpEd, recognizes the structure of arguments
as a critical first step in their comprehension. For example,
Alvarado reviewed an example of an editorial by Milton Friedman which
argues that restriction of foreign imports will have negative consequences
for employment. From natural language input, OpEd recognizes
this editorial as an instance of the "plan achieves the opposite
of the desired effect" argument structure. OpEd uses bottom-up processing
to instantiate argument structures and top-down processing to
disambiguate interpretation using a (partially) instantiated structure.
The important contributions of Alvarado's research thus far
include a collection of general argument structures and a computational
model for recognition of a particular argument structure in text.
Alvarado is investigating the extension of this research to include
argument evaluation and teaching of argumentation skills.
In summary, Alvarado's research is an extension of "knowledge-rich"
NLP into a challenging domain. Significant results were obtained
and promising research directions illuminated.
Robert Simmons
Ben Kuipers
Bruce Porter
------------------------------
Date: 2 May 86 04:44:05 GMT
From: brahms!gsmith@ucbvax.berkeley.edu (Gene Ward Smith)
Subject: Italo Calvino AI project
I must apologize to Bandy for posting a genuine rumor to net.rumor, but
this is a real rumor I found on net.followup:
>I have it on good authority (although second-hand) that an entire
>*novel* was generated by computer. It was the result of a research
>project which aimed to "parameterize" an author's writing style. The
>study concentrated primarily on one author, Italo Calvino, and I have
>heard that the novel, "If on a winter's night a traveller", was actually
>published and marketed with Calvino's blessing.
[Jack Orenstein]
ucbvax!brahms!gsmith Gene Ward Smith/UCB Math Dept/Berkeley CA 94720
ucbvax!weyl!gsmith The Josh McDowell of the Net
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 1 May 86 12:10 EDT
From: Seth Steinberg <sas@BBN-VAX.ARPA>
Subject: Trademarks
Under trademark law Xerox is obligated to point out misuses of their
company name or they stand the chance of it legally falling into the
public domain. If this happens Cannon will be able to advertise their
copier as the Cannon(TM) Xerox Machine. I have been corrected at
restaurants when I order a Coke and they only have Pepsi or RC. There
was a particular consent agreement with Brigham's a little while ago.
Trademarks, as Shakespeare pointed out in Othello, have an intrinsic
worth and the value of something like Xerox runs in the hundreds of
millions. How much did Standard Oil spend on ads to tell you about
Exxon? Some trademarks such as zipper and aspirin have fallen into
common usage. When Aspirin fell into the common usage the company
(Sterling?) was given the trademark Bayer which originally belonged to
Bayer AG but had been seized during World War I as enemy property.
Seth
I would have signed this Bill Bulko but I know how people feel about
names.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 1 May 86 12:23:50-PDT
From: Rich Alderson <ALDERSON@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
Subject: "Xerox" vs. "xerox"?
Laws concerning trademark usage aside, De Smedt is perfectly
correct in pointing out that the verb 'to xerox', meaning to copy
on a dry-xerographic copier, and associated constructions ( a
xerox copy, etc.), are now in fact part of the language. [...]
Its no use, guys, you can't stop people using the word in the way
they want to. A dictionary which omitted 'to xerox' would not be
accurate.
It's interesting to note that at one time, "frigidaire" (no caps) was
considered to be a synonym for "refrigerator." Frigidaire, the
company, fought this in order not to lose trademark status. How often
does one hear this usage these days?
(Not to mention those not in the various computer-related fields who
STILL use "IBM" to mean "computer"...)
Rich Alderson
Alderson@Score.Stanford.EDU (=SU-SCORE.ARPA)
------------------------------
End of AIList Digest
********************
