FC01%USC-ECL@sri-unix.UUCP (07/29/83)
Lots of things to talk about today, A good lisp book for the beginner:
The LISP 1.6 Primer. It really explains what's going down, and even
has exercises with answers. It is not specific to any particular lisp
of today (since it is quite old) and therefore gives the general
knowledge necessary to use any lisp (with a little help from the
manual).
Nondeterministic production systems: Lots of work has been done. The
fact is that a production system is built under the assumption that
there is a single global database. The tree version of a production
system doesn't meet this requirement. On the other hand, there are
many models of what you speak of. The Petri-net model treats such
things nondeterministically by selecting one or the other (assuming
their results prevent each other from occuring) seemingly at random.
Of course, unless you have a real parallel processor the results you
get will be deterministic. I refer you to any good book on Petri-nets
(Peterson is pretty good). Tree structured algorithms in general have
this property, therefore any breadth-first search will try to do both
forks of the tree at once. Other examples of theorem provers doing
this are relatively common (not to mention most multiprocess operating
systems based on forks).
%th generation computers: There is a lot of work on the same basic
idea as 5th generation computers (a 5th generation computer by any
other name sounds better). From what I have been able to gather from
reading all the info from ICOT (the Japanese project directorate) they
are trying to do the project by getting foreign experts to come and
tell them how. They anounce their project, say they're going to lead
the world, and wait for the egos of other scientists to bring them
there to show them how to really do it. The papers I've read show a
few good researchers with real good ideas but little in the way of
knowing how to get them working. On the other hand, data flow, speech
understanding, systolic arrays, microcomputer interfaces to
'supercomputers' and high BW communications are all operational to
some degree in the US, and are being improved on a daily basis. I
would therefore say that unless we show them how, we will be the
leaders in this field, not they.
***The last article was strictly my opinion-- no reflection on anyone
else***
Fredras@philabs.UUCP (Rafael Aquino) (08/04/83)
Bully for you Fred! I also believe the Japanese do not have the know how nor the man-power to create such a machine. They make great memory devices but thats where it ends. Rafael Aquino !plabs
sts@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stanley T Shebs) (08/05/83)
Concerning your lack of concern about the Japanese: They may not have the manpower now, but they have been hiring outside Japan and giving some pretty strong support to their researchers. I'd go in a minute if they made me an offer... stan the leprechaun hacker ssc-vax!sts (soon utah-cs)
ditzel@ssc-vax.UUCP (Charles L Ditzel) (08/06/83)
Whereas it is true the Unites States holds a substantial lead in AI over
the Japanese, it really is beyond me how a person can believe that they
do not have the resources to overcome such a lead.
In my *opinion* somethings make a possible Japanese lead in AI machines
possible. Like:
*It is a national effort with an attempt to coordinate goals. The fact
that the project will be a coordinated effort rather than various
incongruously related developments should facilitate compatibility among
the different topics.
*It may well be that Japan will have to go to the outside world to make their
project a success. What of it...a success is still a success.
*In addition to believe that a priority project supported by both government
and industry will not try to encourage,educate and nurture talented individuals
toward the topics covered by the 5th generation is not realistic.
*Worse yet, to believe such a project will not have an intense political
and social effect on Japan is also ignoring reality. If and when successes
in project goals do come, various segments of the society and industrial
sectors may begin to participate.
*The 5th generation project at least is visionary, a bit idealistic and
very ambitious. The outside 'egos' don't have an equivalent project in
the United States. (i.e.-one that has substantial backing from industry
and government *and* has fairly substantial financing for the next
five to ten years).
The point is we are very early into the project.... wait a bit.... we
may learn a thing or two if we are not energetic enough.
cldsanjay@utah-cs.UUCP ( Sanjay) (08/10/83)
Will people in the Stanford, San Fransisco area please do something to prevent colloquium announcements that are only of local intrest from being broadcast over the entire net. - Sanjay
norm@ariel.UUCP (N.ANDREWS) (08/10/83)
Sanjay requests: Will people in the Stanford, San Francisco area
please do something to prevent colloquium announcements that are only of local
interest from being broadcast over the entire net.
Well, PLEASE IGNORE SANJAY's REQUEST! He doesn't know that those
announcements are of interest beyond the Stanford area. I, and probably others
on the East coast, have an interest in West coast colloquim announcements, so
please keep a full-net distribution for them. Sorry I had to post this...
--Norm Andrews, ABI, Holmdel, New Jersey