colonel@sunybcs.UUCP (Col. G. L. Sicherman) (10/08/86)
In article <10332@cca.UUCP>, g-rh@cca.UUCP (Richard Harter) writes: ) In article <> edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) writes: ) > I believe the roots of Lambda Calculus can be traced farther back ) > then that. People like liebnitz (sp ?) and others from the 12th -14th ) > century. And the notion of artificial intelligence to the same period ) > by I think Raoul (sp ?). One of my prof's showed my Computational ) > Linguistics Class a reference in Latin from a book from that period. ) > The words Artificial Intelligence were clearly distinguishable, even ) > though it was Latin. ) ... ) There was also a spaniard who had a logical wheel, resembling a ) circular slide rule. It had multiple disks, with each disk divided ) into categories. He was trying to create a universal reasoning machine. ) The date, however, was in the 1500s as I recall (I can't lay my hand on ) a reference at the moment.) That was Lully; his project was known afterwards as the Ars Magna Lulli. Then there's Kurd Lasswitz's Universal Library, as adapted by Borges ... I think the original argument is missing the point. Programmers don't use lambda calculus--even McCarthy would have to admit that--and they don't use recursion and iteration in the same way that mathematicians do. Programming practice is not based in mathematical theories; on the contrary, mathematicians have just begun trying to devise formal theories of "real" programs. The first time a student writes "N=N+1", he has stepped out of the old mathematical universe and into a new world. -- Col. G. L. Sicherman UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel CS: colonel@buffalo-cs BI: colonel@sunybcs, csdsiche@sunyabvc