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CSLI Calendar, February 11, 3:17


       C S L I   C A L E N D A R   O F   P U B L I C   E V E N T S
_____________________________________________________________________________
11 February 1988                   Stanford                    Vol. 3, No. 17
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     A weekly publication of The Center for the Study of Language and
     Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
                              ____________
	   CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR THIS THURSDAY, 11 February 1988

   12 noon		TINLunch
     Ventura Hall       Reading: "Default Reasoning, Nonmonotonic Logics,
     Conference Room  	and the Frame Problem"
			by Steve Hanks and Drew McDermott
			Discussion led by Hideyuki Nakashima
			(nakashim@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract in last week's Calendar

   2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
     Room G-19          A Type-free Theory of Types and Propositions
     Redwood Hall  	Jon Barwise
			(barwise@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract in last week's Calendar
			
   3:30 p.m.		Tea
     Ventura Hall		
                             --------------
	   CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, 18 February 1988

   12 noon		TINLunch
     Ventura Hall       Reading: "The Limits of AI"
     Conference Room  	by J. T. Schwartz
			Discussion led by Jerry Hobbs
			(hobbs@warbucks.ai.sri.com)
			Abstract below

   2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
     Room G-19          Intelligent, Communicating Agents
     Redwood Hall  	Nils Nilsson
			(nilsson@score.stanford.edu)
			Abstract below
			
   3:30 p.m.		Tea
     Ventura Hall		
                             --------------
			  NEXT WEEK'S TINLUNCH
		       Reading: "The Limits of AI"
			    by J. T. Schwartz
		      Discussion led by Jerry Hobbs
			Hobbs@warbucks.ai.sri.com
			       February 18

   In this paper, Schwartz examines AI critically from the perspective of
   a mathematician and a hard computer scientist.  He admits that
   algorithmic specificity could overcome the 1,000,000:1 advantage the
   brain has over near-future computers in computational power.  But he
   feels that mainstream AI technology based on search and
   theorem-proving has not made a dent in the combinatorial explosion,
   and hence has not achieved this algorithmic specificity.  He argues
   that the only real successes in AI have been in peripheral areas where
   features of the specific problem can be exploited and more classical
   mathematics can be applied.

			     --------------
			   NEXT WEEK'S SEMINAR
		    Intelligent, Communicating Agents
			     Nils J. Nilsson
		      (nilsson@score.stanford.edu)
		     Department of Computer Science
			   Stanford University
			       February 18

   Research in artificial intelligence (AI) has concentrated largely on
   systems that are able to reason about specialized topics.  Typical
   examples are expert systems.  Except for work in robotics, AI
   researchers have not yet paid much attention to connecting their
   reasoning systems to the physical world, and robotics work to date has
   not focused on high-level reasoning.  We examine the special problems
   encountered when the computational chain from sensory perception to
   effector action is forced to go through a reasoning system (as it
   sometimes must if the system is to perform appropriately in complex
   environments).  We are concerned especially with designing intelligent
   systems that must function in environments in which there are other
   active entities---entities complex enough that it is best to consider
   them as "agents" having beliefs, goals, and intentions.  A central
   problem in such research concerns the communicative acts engaged in by
   such agents.
      There will be a series of three lectures.  The first, by Nilsson,
   will give an overview of the ICA project and will discuss some of the
   approaches being taken in designing the overall architecture of these
   agents.

			     --------------
			    NEW LECTURE NOTES

   Two new titles in the CSLI Lecture Notes series have recently been
   published.  The first, by David Hilbert, is entitled "Color and Color
   Perception: A Study in Anthropocentric Realism." A brief description
   of the book appears below.  "Natural Language Processing in the 1980s:
   A Bibliography" (ed. Gerald Gazdar et al.)  is the second volume.
   This book contains over 1,700 entries and an introduction, as well as
   two indexes, one to keywords, the other to second and subsequent
   authors. An online version of this bibliography can be found on
   Russell, and, according to Jeff Goldberg, "It is possible to search
   this bibliography automatically by computer mail."  As he points out,
   "Mail to clbib@russell.stanford.edu with the word `help' as the
   Subject line of your message for details.  Most questions you may have
   are likely to be answered in that file.  Mail to

		   clbib-request@russell.stanford.edu

   to report bugs in the program that handles the automatic searching."

      Both titles are distributed by the University of Chicago Press and
   may be ordered directly (5801 Ellis Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60637)
   or purchased at the Stanford University Bookstore.

   Color and Color Perception
   ISBN 0--937073--16--4 (Paper) $11.95
   ISBN 0--937073--15--6 (Cloth) $24.95

   Natural Language Processing in the 1980s
   ISBN 0--937073--28--8 (Paper) $11.95 
   ISBN 0--937073--26--1 (Cloth) $29.95


   Color and Color Perception

   Color has often been supposed to be a subjective property, a property
   to be analyzed correctly in terms of the phenomenological aspects of
   human experience.  In contrast with subjectivism, an objectivist
   analysis of color takes color to be a property objects possess in
   themselves, independently of the character of human perceptual
   experience.  David Hilbert defends a form of objectivism that
   identifies color with a physical property of surfaces---their spectral
   reflectance.
      This analysis of color is shown to provide a more adequate account
   of the features of human color vision than its subjectivist rivals.
   The author's account of color also recognizes that the human
   perceptual system provides a limited and idiosyncratic picture of the
   world.  These limitations are shown to be consistent with a realist
   account of color and to provide the necessary tools for giving an
   analysis of common-sense knowledge of color phenomena.

			     --------------
			 OTHER NEW PUBLICATIONS

   The Sixth West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics Proceedings
   (WCCFL6) volume has just appeared.  It is available at the Stanford
   University Bookstore or may be purchased by writing to the CSLI
   Publications office at Ventura Hall.  (ISBN 0-937073-31-8; 352 pp.;
   $12.00) This volume contains twenty-four papers presented at the 1987
   WCCFL held at the University of Arizona.  WCCFL proceedings are
   published by the Stanford Linguistic Association.