Patricia.Mackiewicz@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU.UUCP (04/01/87)
SPECIAL AI SEMINAR TOPIC: "The Anatomy of AI Tarpits" SPEAKER: Phil Agre, MIT WHEN: Monday, April 6, 1987, 1:00 pm WHERE: Doherty Hall 3313 ABSTRACT This is a talk I gave at a recent workshop on Meta-Level Architectures. I originally wrote it to blow off steam at the last dozen AI papers I had read, but I have come to think that it provides a clean, simple explanation of why AI (among other fields) is wedged. My thesis is that AI, as a field, has a pathological attitude toward language. AI repeatedly gets itself into tarpits based on pseudo-technical words like, for example, "planning." The community (or, lately, some sub-field of it) cultivates a habit of seeing "planning" in an activity's slightest intentionality, regularity, deliberateness, or planfulness -- and marginalizing or ignoring anything else. Then it writes (destruct plan ...). I will describe an anatomy of tarpits that lets us predict in remarkable detail how their victims will get stuck. Then I will discuss five examples: the mind, planning, knowledge, variables, and the meta level. Along the way I will suggest some ways out. ************************************************************************** If you are interested in an appointment with Phil Agre please contact Patty at extension 8818 or pah@d. **************************************************************************