LAWS@SRI-AI.ARPA (12/22/84)
From: AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws <AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI.ARPA> AIList Digest Saturday, 22 Dec 1984 Volume 2 : Issue 181 Today's Topics: Math - Fermat's Last Theorem, AI Tools - XLISP Interpreter & PROLOG & Expert System Tools, Reports - SEAI Survey & Winograd on Semantics & Barwise on Logic, Opinion - Skeptical Viewpoints, Seminar - REVE: Solving Problems in Equational Theories (CSLI), Course - Reasoning About Knowledge (SU) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 19 December 1984 1724-EST From: Oswald Wyler@CMU-CS-A Subject: Fermat's last Theorem [Forwarded from the CMU bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.] The first two sentences of an AMS abstract, 816-11-188, by Chen Wenjen, read: The missing proof of Fermat's Last Theorem has been rediscovered. The proof is elementary, zigzag, and truly wonderful as claimed by Fermat nearly three and a half centuries ago. Anyone know more about this? ------------------------------ Date: 19 Dec 1984 2001 PST From: Larry Carroll <LARRY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA> Reply-to: LARRY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA Subject: Xlisp interpreter Some time back David Betz announced he'd placed into the public domain a Lisp interpreter with object-oriented extensions. Where is it stored in FTPable form? Thanks. Larry @ jpl-vlsi ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 84 00:06 MST From: May%pco@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA Subject: Re Issue 179, "micro-PROLOG info request" Dr. George Luger, at the University of New Mexico, is developing a Prolog that runs on PC-compatibles. It is currently in beta-test. (no phone # available) Also, the University of York, Heslington, York, YO1 5DD, England, has a C&M Prolog that is written in standard Pascal. It requires three file-system-specific procedures to be written for the host, which is usually a minor job. The original version compiled cleanly under Turbo-Pascal but we haven't yet checked it out for correct execution. The same source compiled and executed cleanly on a mainframe host. Contact Mrs. Jenny Turner, Secretary, Software Technology Centre, telephone 0904 59861, or at the above address. (A few months ago, they were charging 200 Pounds.) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 84 15:20:44 pst From: weeks%ucbpopuli.CC@Berkeley (Harry Weeks) Subject: Prolog on Micros. There is an article in the December 1984 issue of Byte on `micro-Prolog', which runs on CP/M and MS-DOS machines (including the IBM PC). It is distributed in the United States by Programming Logic Systems, 31 Crescent Drive, Milford, Connecticutt 06460, 203 877 7988. -- Harry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Dec 84 07:07:46 pst From: Paul A. Ehrler <ehrler%cod@Nosc> Subject: Expert System Tools Are there any head-to-head comparisons of the so-called 'fifth generation' expert system building tools like KEE, ART, S1, SRL, and LOOPS? I've heard that ART has been improved since the AAAI conference. The demo I saw then was not very informative, since they didn't have an extra Symbolics to put in their hotel suite for serious shoppers; I was more favorably impressed by KEE at the time. As for the others, first impressions are that S1 was out of date, SRL was underdeveloped and overpriced ($70K), and LOOPS was unsupported, but had lots of potential. Anything more concrete (performance, ease of use, robustness, support provided, etc) would be welcome, especially direct comparisons. If I missed any of importance (not of the EMYCIN generation, please), that would also be useful to know. Speaking of prices, are they serious about the exorbitant prices for secondary copies of the software? I can understand, given the tradition of whatever the market will bear, that something extra must be charged for more application, but we have a LAN of five 1108's all on the same project, and I can't see charging more for the secondary copies than the machines cost - that's a big reason we're using LOOPS now. Maybe they're thinking like the micro houses, assuming that since most of their customers are going to cheat, they'll use the honest suckers to subsidize. ------------------------------ Date: Thursday, 20 December 1984 01:26:44 EST From: Duvvuru.Sriram@cmu-ri-cive.arpa Subject: SEAI Publications Another report by SEAI titled "Artificial Intelligence: A New Tool for Industry and Business" discusses a number of products in the market. The utility of this book, which costs $485, is summarized by Price (see SIGART Newsletter, Oct. 1984) as "it is expensive but it would cost more to assemble the same information. It is not directed towards researchers but managers who want to determine how AI can be effectively used in their business". I wonder if there is a significant difference in content between this one and the ones mentioned by Ken Laws! Sriram ------------------------------ Date: Wed 19 Dec 84 18:32:28-PST From: Dikran Karagueuzian <DIKRAN@SU-CSLI.ARPA> Subject: Reports - Winograd & Barwise [Forwarded from the CSLI Newsletter by Laws@SRI-AI.] CSLI REPORTS ``Moving the Semantic Fulcrum'' by Terry Winograd (Report No. CSLI--84-17) has just been published. Report No. CSLI--84-2, ``The Situation in Logic--I'' by Jon Barwise, which has been out of print, is now available. To obtain a copy of these reports write to Dikran Karagueuzian, CSLI, Ventura Hall, Stanford 94305 or send net mail to Dikran at SU-CSLI. ------------------------------ Date: 18 Dec 84 13:03:55 CST (Tue) From: ihnp4!utzoo!henry@Berkeley Subject: Re: Personal Assistants -- a skeptical viewpoint [Forwarded from the Human-Nets Digest by Laws@SRI-AI.] > Dear sir--oh, my very dear sir. Is NOTHING going to cheer you > up? Can the micro revolution do nothing to help you? Nope, I'd rather be grumpy and play Devil's Advocate. Bah. Humbug. (Who is that odd fellow with the chains coming through my wall...?) > For me, I keep remembering what a joy Electric Pencil was after > typing millions of words on a Selectric; and while nothing that > has come after Pencil has been the quantum step up that Pencil > was in 1977, there has been steady improvement. Computers make > my life simpler. (Well, actually more complex; but I get more > done, and spend more of my time doing that which I LIKE > doing...) I have similar memories of encountering computerized text editing for the first time, back in 1972. I've never written anything substantial on a typewriter since, and have no wish to. I do appreciate the vast improvement computers have brought, and the continuing improvements in the situation. What I do dislike is sales hype, or the equivalent, which claims that innovation X is going to bring about Nirvana here on Earth in just a few years. I.e., Real Soon Now. (Yes, I read and enjoy your column in Byte.) In particular, the next time somebody tells me that applied AI and/or the Fifth Generation is going to solve all my problems, I think I'm gonna throw up. The AI folks are notorious for exuberant promises followed by failure and disillusionment. I would have thought they, of all people, would be a bit more cautious about predicting the Millenium yet again. Nope, same old snake oil... What I should have made clearer, in my earlier note, was that I do expect some very interesting by-products from the inevitable failures. I have no quarrel with anyone who merely predicts significant advances and the appearance of useful new tools. This cloud is indeed likely to have a silver lining, even though it's not going to be solid platinum as its proponents claim. Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry ------------------------------ Date: 20 December 1984 00:46-EST From: Jerry E. Pournelle <POURNE @ MIT-MC> Subject: Personal Assistants -- a skeptical viewpoint [Forwarded from the Human-Nets Digest by Laws@SRI-AI.] Ah well, I suppose I must agree regarding the hype. As to AI: there is a famous story. John McCarthy some years ago is said to have bought a Heathkit television for the Stanford AI lab. When it arrived a student eagerly fell upon it, but was restrained. "We will construct a robot to build the kit," McCarthy is said to have said. Last I heard the box was unopened. The story is probably apocryphal, but I do recall the Great Foreign Language Translation Revolution predicted in the 60's... ------------------------------ Date: Wed 19 Dec 84 18:32:28-PST From: Dikran Karagueuzian <DIKRAN@SU-CSLI.ARPA> Subject: Seminar - REVE: Solving Problems in Equational Theories (CSLI) [Forwarded from the CSLI Newsletter by Laws@SRI-AI.] SUMMARY OF NOVEMBER 21 AREA C MEETING Topic: REVE: A system for solving problems in equational theories, based on term rewriting techniques Speaker: Jean-Pierre Jouannaud, Professor at University of NANCY, FRANCE, on leave at SRI-International and CSLI. Equational Logic has been adopted by mathematicians for a very long time and by computer scientists recently. Specifications in OBJ2, an ``object-oriented'' language designed and implemented at SRI-International, uses equations to express relations between objects. To express computations in this logic, equations are used one way, e.g. as rules. To make proofs with rules in this logic requires the so-called ``confluence'' property, which expresses that the result of a computation is unique, no matter the order the rules are applied. Proofs and computations are therefore integrated in a very simple framework. When a set of rules does not have the confluence property, it is augmented by new rules, using the so-called Knuth and Bendix completion algorithm, until the property becomes satisfied. This algorithm requires the set of rules to have the termination property, i.e., an expression cannot be rewritten forever. It has been proved that this algorithm allows one to perform as inductive proof without invoking explicitly an induction principle and to solve equations (unification) in the corresponding equational theory as well. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Dec 84 16:15:12 PST From: Joe Halpern <halpern%ibm-sj.csnet@csnet-relay.ARPA> Subject: Course on reasoning about knowledge I'll be teaching a course on reasoning about knowledge at Stanford in the winter quarter, along much the same lines as [my IBM-SJ] seminar. He are the details: Reasoning About Knowledge (CS400B) Knowledge seems to play a crucial role in such diverse areas as distributed systems, cryptography, and artificial intelligence. We will examine various attempts at formalizing reasoning about knowledge, and see to what extent they are applicable to the areas mentioned above. In particular we will consider such problems as resource-bounded reasoning, inconsistency of beliefs, belief revision, and knowledge representation. There is no text from the course; we will be concentrating on current research. Officially the course meets on Tuesdays in the winter quarter, from 2:45-5:00. I would be willing to consider moving that time to another afternoon (although I suspect it might be hard to reach agreement). It might be nice to push the meeting time forward to 1:30-3:45, so those interested can attend the CS Colloquium. I've enclosed a brief (tentative!) outline for the course. As of now, the emphasis is on material I'm most familiar with (i.e., papers I've written), but I would be interested in hearing suggestions from participants in the course on other material to cover. Auditors are welcome. Week 1 and 2: Philosophical background and thorough introduction to possible-worlds semantics for knowledge. References: W. Lenzen, Recent work in epistemic logic, Acta Philosophica Fennica, 1978. J.Y. Halpern and Y.O. Moses, A guide to the modal logics of knowledge and belief, to appear as an IBM RJ, 1985. Week 3: The "knowledge structures" approach References: R. Fagin, J.Y. Halpern, and M.Y. Vardi, A model-theoretic analysis of knowledge, in "Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of Foundations of Computer Science", 1984, pp. 268-278 Week 4: Knowledge in distibuted systems References: J.Y. Halpern and Y.O. Moses, Knowledge and common knowledge in a distributed environment, in "Proceedings of the 3rd ACM Conference on Principles of Distributed Computing", 1984; IBM RJ 4421, 1984. R. Strong and D. Dolev, Byzantine agreement, IBM RJ 3714, 1982. Weeks 5 and 6: Resource-bounded and incomplete knowledge, relevance logic, the "syntactic approach" References: H.J. Levesque, A logic of implicit and explicit belief, Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1984, pp. 198-202. K. Konolige, A deduction model of belief, Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University, 1984. R. Fagin and J.Y. Halpern, Knowledge and awareness, unpublished manuscript, 1985. S. Shapiro and M. Wand, The relevance of relevance, Indiana University Technical Report No. 46, 1976. Weeks 7 and 8: Belief revision and non-monotonic reasoning References: D. McDermott and J. Doyle, Non-monotonic logic I, Artificial Intelligence 13, Vol. 1,2, 1980, pp. 41-72. R. Reiter, A logic for default reasoning, Artificial Intelligence 13, Vol. 1,2, 1980, pp. 81-132. J. McCarthy, Circumscription - a form of non-monotonic reasoning, Artificial Intelligence 13, Vol. 1,2, 1980, pp. 27-39. W.R. Stark, A logic of knowledge, Zeitschrift fur Mathematische Logik und Grundalagen der Mathematik 27, pp. 371-374, 1981. D. McDermott, Non-monotonic logic II: non-monotonic modal theories, Journal of the ACM, Vol. 29, No. 1, 1982, pp. 35-57 R.C. Moore, Semantical considerations on non-monotonic logic, SRI Technical Note 284, 1983. H.J. Levesque, A formal treatment of incomplete knowledge bases, Fairchild Technical Report No. 614, FLAIR Technical Report No. 3, 1982. K. Konolige, Circumscriptive ignorance, Proceedings of the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1982, pp. 202-204. J.Y. Halpern and Y.O. Moses, Towards a theory of knowledge and ignorance, Proceedings of Workshop on Non-monotonic Reasoning, 1984; IBM RJ 4448, 1984. R. Parikh, Monotonic and non-monotonic logics of knowledge, unpublished manuscript, 1984. Week 9: Knowledge bases References: H.J. Levesque, A formal treatment of incomplete knowledge bases, Fairchild Technical Report No. 614, FLAIR Technical Report No. 3, 1982. K. Konolige, A deduction model of belief, Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University, 1984. Week 10: Knowledge and cryptography; puzzles References: M.J. Merritt, Cryptographic protocols, Ph.D. Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1983. S. Goldwasser, S. Micali and C. Rackoff, Knowledge complexity, unpublished manuscript, 1984. X. Ma and W. Guo, W-JS: a modal logic about knowing, Proceedings of the 8th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1983. D. Dolev, J.Y. Halpern and Y.O. Moses, Cheating spice and other stories, unpublished manuscript, 1984. ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ********************