FC01@USC-ECL@sri-unix.UUCP (08/12/83)
About knowledge representation---
Although many are new to this ballgame, the fundamentals of
the field are well established. Look in the dictionary of information
science a few years back (5-10?) for an article on the representation
of knowledge by Irwin Marin. The (M,R) pair mentioned is indeed a
general structure for representation. In fact, you may recal 10 or 20
years ago there was talk that the most efficient programs on computers
would eventually consist of many many pointers (Rs) that pointed
between datums (Ms) in may different ways - kinda like the brain!!! It
has gone well beyond the (M,R) pair stage and Marin has developed a
structure for representation that allows top down knowledge
engineering to proceed in a systematic fashion. I guess many of us
forsake history in many ways, both social and technical.
As to the 'race' to 5th generation computers, it may indeed be
a means to further the military industrial complex in the area of
computing, but let us also consider the tactical implications of a
highly intelligent (take the term with a grain of salt when speeking
of a computer) tactical computer. Perhaps the complexities of battle
could be simplified for human consumption to the point where a good
general could indeed win an otherwise lost war. Perhaps not. The
scientific sharing of ideas has always been the boon of science and
the bust of government. The U.S. is in an advantageous vantage point
from the boom point of view because we share so much with each other
and others. We are also tops in the bust category because it is so
easy to get our information to other places. Somewhere the scientific
need for communication must be traded off with the possible effects of
the research. This is what I call scientific responsibility. As
scientists we are responsible not only to our research and the
dissemination of our knowledge, but also responsible for the effects
of that knowledge. If we shared the 'secrets' of the atomic bomb with
the world as we developed it, do you think more or fewer people would
have died? I think the Germans (who were also working on the project)
might have been able to complete their version sooner and would have
killed a great number more people. In the case of Japan, we are
talking economic struggle rather than political, but the concept of
war and destruction can be visualized just as well. A small country
using a very rapid economic growth to push ahead of the rest of the
world, now has no place to expand to. Heard it before? What new
technology will be developed using the new generation of computers?
Can we afford to lose our edge in yet another technological area to
the more eager of the world? Is this just another ploy of the M.I.
complex to get money from the people and take food from the hungry?
Tough questions, without the facts hard to answer.
Another controversy ignited or
enflamed by yours truly,
Fred