AIList-REQUEST@SRI-AI.ARPA (AIList Moderator Kenneth Laws) (01/12/86)
AIList Digest Sunday, 12 Jan 1986 Volume 4 : Issue 4 Today's Topics: Seminars - Organization of Semantic Knowledge Systems (MIT) & LISP architectures (NASA Ames) & Computational Networks in Silicon and Biology (PARC), Course - Values, Technology, and Society (SU) & Highly Parallel Architectures for AI (UPenn), Conference - 3rd Symposium on Logic Programming ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Jan 86 03:44:31 EST From: "Steven A. Swernofsky" <SASW@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU> Subject: Seminar - Categorical Organization of Semantic Knowledge Systems (MIT) Monday 2, December 4: 00-6:00pm Room: E25-117 HARVARD UNIVERSITY-MIT DIVISION OF HEALTH SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY "The Categorical Organization of Semantic Knowledge Systems" Elizabeth K. Warrington Professor of Neurology The National Hospitals for Nervous Diseases Queen Square, London Patients with cerebral lesions provide an important source of evidence about the organization of semantic systems. Striking instances of the selective preservation and selective impairment in the comprehension of particular categories of verbal and visual stimuli have long been reported in the neurological literature and more recently such dissociations have been investigated and assessed using experimental methods. The issue of modality specificity will be discussed and it will be argued that there are at least partially independent systems that subserve verbal and visual semantics. Evidence for both broad category specific impairments, such as knowledge of concrete and abstract concepts, and more fine grain category impairments such as knowledge of animate and inanimate objects will be reviewed. It will be argued that there are modality specific semantic systems and that these are categorised in their organization. Host: Lucia Vaina ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jan 86 07:58:25 pst From: eugene@AMES-NAS.ARPA (Eugene Miya) Subject: Seminar - LISP architectures (NASA Ames) National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT Computational Research Branch SPEAKER: Raymond S. Lim Computational Research Branch TOPIC: LISP Machine Architectures of MIT CADR, Symbolics 3600, & TI Explorer ABSTRACT: Common LISP is becoming a standard, and MULTI-LISP is contemplating for parallel LISP Processing. A modern LISP machine is a conventional virtual memory, Von Neuman machine with addded hardware to support runtime data type checking and incremental garbage collection. This presentation will discuss the architecture issue of LISP machine, starting from the MIT CADR. DATE: 23 Jan 1986 TIME: 9:30-11:00 BLDG: 233 ROOM: 172 POINT OF CONTACT: Becky Getz PHONE NUMBER: (415)-694-5197 VISITORS ARE WELCOME: Register and obtain vehicle pass at Ames Visitor Reception Building (N-253) or the Security Station near Gate 18. See map below. Do not use the Navy Main Gate. Non-citizens (except Permanent Residents) must have prior approval from the Director's Office one week in advance. Submit requests to the point of contact indicated above. Non-citizens must register at the Visitor Reception Building. Permanent Residents are required to show Alien Registration Card at the time of registration. ------------------------------ Date: 10 Jan 86 14:27:59 PST (Friday) From: Kluger.osbunorth@Xerox.ARPA Reply-to: Kluger.osbunorth@Xerox.ARPA Subject: Seminar - Computational Networks in Silicon and Biology (PARC) Xerox Palo Alto Research Center Forum Thursday, January 16, 1986 4:00 pm, PARC Auditorium J.J. Hopfield Divisions of Chemistry and Biology Caltech and AT&T Bell Laboratories will speak on Computational Networks in Silicon and Biology The brain as a piece of computer hardware violates most of the sensible design criteria for good computers, yet manages to be extremely effective. We investigate the kinds of behavior which circuits built in a neuronal fashion--emphasizing large connectivity, large size, analog response, and self-timed--naturally have. The collective properties of such systems lead naturally to the behaviors needed for associative memory, or pattern recognition, error decoding, visual information processing and many complex optimization problems. At the same time, the circuits are relatively robust (fail soft), like their biological relatives. Such circuits may be of use as high density associative memories and as signal processors. The effectiveness of biological computation may in part result from the use of the collective decision capabilities of neural networks. This Forum is OPEN. All are invited. Host: Larry Kluger (Information Systems Division, 496-6575) Refreshments will be served at 3:45 pm Visitors: Welcome! The PARC Auditorium is located at 3333 Coyote Hill Road. The street is between Page Mill Road (west of Foothill) and Hillview Avenue, in the Stanford Research Park, Palo Alto. Enter the building through the *auditorium's* entrance, at the upper level of the building. ------------------------------ Date: 03 Jan 86 1404 PST From: John McCarthy <JMC@SU-AI.ARPA> Subject: Course - Values, Technology, and Society (SU) [Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.] The following course will be given by John McCarthy in Winter 1986 in the Values, Technology and Society program. As will be noticed from the description, it will emphasize opportunities rather than problems. It will meet 14:15-15:30 Tuesdays and Thursdays in room 202 History corner (bldg 200). Technological Possibilities for enhancing man This course surveys the technological possibilities for increasing human capability and real wealth. It is oriented toward what people will want rather than around what we might think is good for them. Some of the improvements discussed are in the direction of (1) making housework trivial (2) making government responsive (3) increasing the ability of one person to build an object like a car, airplane or house to suit him without organizing others (4) allowing groups to live as they prefer less hindered by general social laws and customs. We will emphasize computer and information technology and ask what will be genuinely useful about computers in the home and not just faddish or flashy. To what extent are futurists and science fiction writers given to systematic error? Can we envisage advances as important as electricity, telephones, running water, inside toilets? The second topic concerns the social factors that determine the rate of scientific and technological progress. Why was scientific advance a rare event until Galileo? Why didn't non-Western cultures break through into the era of organized scientific and technological progress and why did it take Western culture so long? Why isn't the rate of progress faster today? As examples, we shall inquire into the obstacles that made cellular telephone systems and electronic funds transfer take so long. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Jan 86 16:33 EST From: Tim Finin <Tim%upenn.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> Subject: Course - Highly Parallel Architectures for AI (UPenn) From: Lokendra Shastri <Shastri@UPenn> on Wed 8 Jan 1986 at 15:44, 45 lines COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT CIS704 Highly parallel architectures for Artificial Intelligence PREREQUISITES: This is an advanced course in artificial intelligence. It will be assumed that the participants are familiar with basic issues in AI. DESCRIPTION: There is a growing interest in highly interconnected networks of very simple processing elements. These networks are referred to as Connectionist Networks and are playing an increasingly important role in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. This course is intended to discuss the motivation behind pursuing "connectionism" and to survey the state of current research in this area. We will review connectionist models of language understanding, parsing, knowledge representation, limited inference, and learning, and compare the connectionist approach to traditional AI approaches. TEXTS: None. A reading list will be provided. ASSIGNMENTS: Students will be expected to prepare a presentation of (or lead a discussion on) a paper on the reading list. There will be two or three assignments and a term paper. PLACE: TB 309. M, W 4:30-6:00 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jan 86 20:33:58 MST From: keller@utah-cs.arpa (Bob Keller) Subject: Conference - 3rd Symposium on Logic Programming [Forwarded from the Prolog Digest by Laws@SRI-AI.] '86 SLP Call for Papers Third Symposium on Logic Programming Sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society September 21-25, 1986 Westin Hotel Utah Salt Lake City, UT The conference solicits papers on all areas of logic programming, including, but not confined to: Applications of logic programming Computer architectures for logic programming Databases and logic programming Logic programming and other language forms New language features Logic programming systems and implementation Parallel logic programming models Performance Theory Please submit full papers, indicating accomplishments of substance and novelty, and including appropriate citations of related work. The suggested page limit is 25 double-spaced pages. Send eight copies of your manuscript no later than 15 March 1986 to: Robert M. Keller SLP '86 Program Chairperson Department of Computer Science University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT 84112 Acceptances will be mailed by 30 April 1986. Camera-ready copy will be due by 30 June 1986. Conference Chairperson Exhibits Chairperson Gary Lindstrom, University of Utah Ross Overbeek, Argonne National Lab. Tutorials Chairperson Local Arrangements Chairperson George Luger, University of New Mexico Thomas C. Henderson, University of Utah Program Committee Francois Bancilhon, MCC William Kornfeld, Quintus Systems John Conery, University of Oregon Gary Lindstrom, University of Utah Al Despain, U.C. Berkeley George Luger, University of New Mexico Herve Gallaire, ECRC, Munich Rikio Onai, ICOT/NTT, Tokyo Seif Haridi, SICS, Sweden Ross Overbeek, Argonne National Lab. Lynette Hirschman, SDC, Paoli Mark Stickel, SRI International Peter Kogge, IBM, Owego Sten Ake Tarnlund, Uppsala University ------------------------------ End of AIList Digest ********************