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AIList Digest Volume 5 Issue 092
AIList Digest Tuesday, 31 Mar 1987 Volume 5 : Issue 92
Today's Topics:
AI Tools - How to FTP TMYCIN,
Policy - TMYCIN Code and Military AI,
Conference - Computing and Political and Social Issues,
Query & Replies - Daemons,
AI Tools - Genetic Algorithms,
CAD - Solid Modeling
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Date: Mon 30 Mar 87 10:42:04-CST
From: Gordon Novak Jr. <AI.NOVAK@R20.UTEXAS.EDU>
Subject: How to FTP TMYCIN
An earlier msg to this list offered TMYCIN, a small EMYCIN-like expert system
tool. Due to a policy of not distributing code on AILIST, the code was
excised by the editor.
The TMYCIN files are located on R20.UTEXAS.EDU ; Arpanet sites should be
able to get them, from directory <AI.NOVAK> , by anonymous FTP. If you
can't get them by FTP, let me know and I'll attempt to mail them.
The single file TMYCIN.ALL contains all the material appended together.
That may be the easiest to FTP. The individual files are TMYCIN.CL ,
TMDOC.DOC , TMTEST.CL . TMYCIN.CL is the largest, at about 22K chars.
Personally, I think AILIST should change its policy on distributing source
code; it would benefit a lot of people and be more valuable than much of the
material that appears on AILIST now. I have had poor luck in mailing code
to non-Arpanet sites. So long as code is identified as such so that people
can skip it if they don't want to see it, I don't see the objection to
including it. The bibliography lists are each as big as the TMYCIN code,
and lots of them are put on the AILIST.
If anyone wants to move the TMYCIN files to repositories of code where
people can get it more easily, that is fine with me. And let me add my
support to the idea of starting such a repository on the Arpanet.
Cheers, Gordon
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 30 Mar 87 10:08:31 pst
From: Eugene Miya N. <eugene@ames-pioneer.arpa>
Subject: TMYCIN code and Military AI
The following should be regarded as opinion and commentary rather than
the expression of fact.
First, the dissemination of Tiny MYCIN sounds interesting.
I wish I had a convenient Common LISP machine to try it out.
I realize that TMYCIN is just a tool, but I wonder how good a tool
it really is. What is the value of learning about this tool
(to learn about ESs) when you don't have an expert around (rhetorical
question, obviously some value)? I ask this because I have a relative
who does research in pathology and got his PhD in bacteriology
at BYU (any connection with Dugway Proving Ground is not coincidence).
Anyway, anyone in the South SF Bay with a Common LISP machine which we
can try this code out on?
Second, I too am torn about the posting of military AI material.
My immediate response was against it. But Ken Laws (The voice of reason)
made some good points: similar to ones I made about why the UC should
keep the weapons labs (to prevent them from disappearing from public
view, but I don't like the idea of a U doing this work). The comments
by another reader (which had nothing to do with AI) just go to reinforce
certain observations of latent (?) rascism within military circles
and is a prejudice I occasionally get (when I get asked to attend certain
military meetings as an outside reviewer). For some people, WWII has
not ended, nor I guess has the Civil War for some.
Recent trade developments again have people talking about Economic
Pearl Harbors (Fujitsu-Fairchild and other chip agreements). I know a
decorated, one armed Senator and our local House Representative who
are watching developments very carefully. (The Rep is on the side of the
USA, but will defend against any and all attacks against a people who were
interned during a prior war.) Watch it people.
--eugene miya
------ Asian Italian ancestory(?)
NASA Ames Research Center
eugene@ames-aurora.ARPA
"You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
"Send mail, avoid follow-ups. If enough, I'll summarize."
{hplabs,hao,ihnp4,decwrl,allegra,tektronix,menlo70}!ames!aurora!eugene
------------------------------
Date: 30 Mar 87 16:58:04 GMT
From: jon@june.cs.washington.edu (Jon Jacky)
Subject: Battle Management at AAAI, mod.ai postings policy, "Militarism"
I think it is fine that you ran the AAAI Battle Management Workshop
announcement. I have grave reservations about a lot of that stuff;
nevertheless it is useful even for critics to be informed of what's going on
in the area.
Also, it is important to note the role of the military in
supporting so much AI research. If anything, there is too little rather than
too much acknowledgement of this fact in the AI community. The original
announcement noted the recent "order of magnitude increase in funding for
battle management AI projects," but that is only the tip of the iceberg --
a very large body of apparently more generic AI work is also funded by the
Department of Defense. Much of that is putatively basic research, but the
motivation for the funding, as described to Congress and the Secretaries of
Defense, emphasises potential weapons applications. This relationship
should be frankly acknowledged, rather than concealed or glossed over.
A very important question is, does this source of funding and this kind of
motivation for even "basic" AI research make any difference, either for the
content of the technical work, or for the larger matters of war and peace?
These issues will be addressed at another event (here comes the plug). On
Sunday, July 12 in Seattle, the day before the AAAI conference, the Seattle
Chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is sponsoring
a one day-conference concerning computing and political and social
issues.
The keynote speakers will be Bob Kahn, who now heads the nonprofit
Corporaton for National Research Initiatives and who until 1985 was director
of the Information Processing Techniques Office at DARPA, and Terry
Winograd. We are accepting papers until April 1. (If you have something
you would like to submit but are worried about making the deadline, or would
just like to attend, call or write to me).
-Jonathan Jacky
University of Washington
jon@june.cs.washington.edu
(206)-548-4117
------------------------------
Date: 29 Mar 87 14:43:44 GMT
From: ihnp4!cord!gwr@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (GW Ryan)
Subject: daemons... where's the name from?
this came up in a class last week; we came up with a few interesting ideas but
no real answers. Why are "daemons" called "daemons"? that is, what is the
derivation of that name?
We got answers like "something to do with Maxwell's daemon" and "maybe if you
say the magic words (i.e. satisfy the conditions to fire the daemon) then the
daemon wakes up".
anybody know the right answer??
mail to me, and I'll summarize to the net.
thanks
jerry
allegra!cord!gwr
gwr@cord.garage.nj.att.com
------------------------------
Date: 29 Mar 87 22:20:49 GMT
From: flowers@locus.ucla.edu
Subject: Re: daemons... where's the name from?
>this came up in a class last week; we came up with a few interesting ideas but
>no real answers. Why are "daemons" called "daemons"? that is, what is the
>derivation of that name?
>From "Pattern Recognition by Machine", by Selfridge and Neisser,
Scientific American 1960, in describing the Pandemonium model they proposed:
In parallel processing all the questions would be asked at once,
and all the answers presented simultaneously to the decision
maker. Different combinations identify the different letters.
One might think of all the various features as being inspected by
little demons, all of whom then shout the answers in concert to a
decision-making demon. From this conceit comes the name
"Pandemonium" for parallel processing.
This paper was reprinted in the seminal and still useful book
_Computers and Thought_, Feigenbaum and Feldman, eds., 1963. Anyway,
Selfridge and Neisser have some earlier publications about pattern
matching and the Pandemonium model which probably introduced the idea
of demons. I don't know if their use of the term was inspired by any
prior specific use.
Around 1970 demons were utilized and popularized by Charniak's Ph.D.
thesis.
Margot Flowers, Asst. Prof., UCLA AI Lab
Flowers@CS.UCLA.EDU [or Flowers@UCLA-CS for old host tables]
...!{ucbvax|ihnp4}!ucla-cs!flowers (uucp)
------------------------------
Date: 29 Mar 87 23:10:00 GMT
From: ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!port@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: daemons... where's the name from?
The use of daemon in Unix for a program that `wakes up' and
does some task whenever it is required is actually a
regular use of the word. It isnt one of those typical
computing terms that has an arcane history (one thinks
of the derivation of `nroff, grep, awk, winchester,' etc).
The word is classical Greek for any kind of spirit or
genie -- some kind of minor deity. In Latin they borrowed
the Greek word and spelled it daemon (for Greek daimon-ion),
to descdribe such spirits. For the Christians, of course,
all such deities were paganisms so, they were viewed
as evil. Thus the English word demon has the strong
flavor of evil about it.
But we also seem to have split the word in two,
so now the original pagan meaning has been restored in
modern English with a more classical spelling as daemon.
The use in `Maxwell's daemon' is in just this sense.
Similarly, in the 1950's Selfridge proposed a parallel model of
the perception of alphabetic letters that had `daemons'
for each letter. They were competing with each other
to `find themselves' in the incoming visual features.
The one that `shouted' the loudest was the one that
caused a `decision demon' to issue a conclusion.
The use of this word for independent procesess
that seem to have a `will of their own' as in operating
systems is very appropriate.
------------------------------
Date: 26 Mar 87 15:50:33 GMT
From: hpcea!hpfcdc!hpfclp!hillary@hplabs.hp.com (Hillary Davidson)
Subject: Re: Genetic Algorithms
Concerning GAs....
I am researching genetic algorithms for my Master's thesis work at CSU in
Ft. Collins, CO. I am doing this research under Dr. Darrell Whitley.
There is a conference on GAs this summer....it is the 2nd International
Conference on Genetic Algorithms an Their Applications, sponsored by AAAI
and the U.S. Navy Center for Applied Research in AI (NCARAI). It will be
on July 28-31, 1987 at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. John Holland is the
Conference Chairperson.
For more information contact:
Mrs. Gayle M. Fitzgerald
Conference Services Office
Room 7-111
MIT
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 253-1703
The first of this conference was held on July 24-26, 1985 at Carnegie-Mellon
U. in Pittsburgh, PA. I obtained a copy of the proceedings by writing the
editor at the following address:
Dr. John J. Grefenstette
Navy Center for Applied Research in AI
Naval Research Laboratory
Washington, DC 20375-5000
gref@NRL-AIC.ARPA
(202) 767-2685
Holland's newest book "Induction: ...." is a well written book. It expands on
the chapter in "Machine Learning, Volume 2" that he wrote.
Hope this info is helpful.
Hillary Davidson :-) {hplabs,ihnp4}!hpfcla!hillary
------------------------------
Date: 30 Mar 87 19:52:10 GMT
From: puff!upl@rsch.wisc.edu (Future Unix Gurus)
Subject: Re: Solid Modeling
In article <798@ssc-bee.ssc-vax.UUCP> thornton@ssc-vax.UUCP
(Ken Thornton) writes:
>
>
>Unfortunately, there is no CAD/CAM, Robotics, or Automation newsgroups
>so I decided to post here.
>
>I am interested in hearing from people who know about solid modeling systems
>and have experience using them. Specific questions I'm interested in are:
I am doing a solid modeling based animation system as my senior's thesis
(on the Amiga1000. I also hope to eventually release it as a product, it
should beat the living daylights out of Caligari. (Modesty is not one of my
strong points)). In preperation for the thesis, I have spent the past year
and a half researching pertinient issues such as solid modeling techniques.
While I am not as informed as someone might be who has been working in the
field in the real world (i.e. not a student) I have learned a fair bit.
I am also VERY interested in discussing this topic with ANYONE out there!
>
>What is generally preferred, constructive solid geometry (CSG) representations
>or boundary represesentations (B-rep)?
The current trend seems to be toward CSG-BREP hybrid systems. BREP is very
good for generating wireframes, doing things like mass calculations, and
certain approaches to ray tracing. The big problem with BREP is the user
interface. We do not have a true 3d output device available yet, and
most of the systems for plotting 3d points on 2d displays are awkward,
confusing, and time consuming. BREP offers a system in which the user
can work with 3d primatives to begin with, on a more higher level and in
a manner more natural to most people. What most of the systems I've seen
do is take input as CSG from the user, and simultaneously perform
CSG operations on pre-defined BREP primatives that approximate the CSG
ones. There is a good article in the conference proceedings from
Siggraph '86 on one way to do these CSG ops on BREP objects.
>
>Of the available commercial systems, is CSG or B-rep more predominant?
>
See the above. Realize that I have seen more art intended systems than
CAD type systems, but they seem to be the same difference.
>
>More than anything, I'm interested in stimulating some discussion about
>solid modeling and related computer graphics algorithms. If such a
>discussion is considered inappropriate to this newsgroup, I might be
interested
>in forming another group or starting a mailing list, if anyone is
>interested.
GREAT! Lets discuss!
Jeff Kesselman
ihnp4!uwvax!puff!uhura!captain
(Captain @ Uhura in the Undergraduate Project Lab)
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End of AIList Digest
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