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CSLI Calendar, 23 February 1995, vol.10:17
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To: friends
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Subject: CSLI Calendar, 23 February 1995, vol.10:17
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From: Tom Burke <burke>
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Date: Wed, 22 Feb 1995 13:18:06 -0800
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
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23 February 1995 Stanford Vol. 10, No. 17
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A weekly publication of the Center for the Study of Language and
Information (CSLI), Stanford University, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
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CSLI ACTIVITIES DURING 22 FEBRUARY -- 3 MARCH 1995
WEDNESDAY, 22 FEBRUARY
4:00 - Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Oblivious Decision Graphs for Supervised Machine Learning
Ron Kohavi, Stanford Computer Science
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 23 FEBRUARY
4:15 - SSP Forum
Building 60, Room 61-F
The Violent Origin of Symbolic Systems
Rene Girard, Stanford French and Comparative Literature
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 24 FEBRUARY
12:00 - Logic Lunch
Building 380, Room 383-N
Term Rewriting Techniques in Proof and Recursion Theory
Andreas Weiermann, Muenster University
Abstract below
12:30 - HCI Seminar
Terman Auditorium
An Organic User Interface for Searching Citation Links
Jock Mackinlay, Xerox PARC
Abstract below
2:15 - Special Colloquium
Building 200, Room 219
Le Pont Science-Nature: Presentation du Projet Mediologique
Regis Debray
Abstract below
3:15 - Philosophy Colloquium
Building 90, Room 91-A
Laws and Cause
Donald Davidson, UC Berkeley Philosophy
3:30 - Linguistics Colloquium
Cordura Hall, Room 100
A Paradox in English Syntax
Paul Postal, NYU Linguistics
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 2 MARCH
12:00 - STASS Seminar
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Mathematically Modeling Situation Theory
Rachel Lunnon, UCLA Mathematics
Abstract below
2:15 - CSLI Seminar
Series on Visual Programming
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Prograph CPX
Kurt Schmucker, Apple Computer
Abstract below
4:15 - SSP Forum
Building 60, Room 61-F
Life After SSP: A Discussion with Recent Graduates
of the Symbolic Systems Program
FRIDAY, 3 MARCH
12:00 - Logic Lunch
Building 380, Room 383-N
Adding the Lambda Calculus to Set Theory
Rachel Lunnon, UCLA Mathematics
Abstract below
12:30 - HCI Seminar
Terman Auditorium
Content and Community on the Web
Jonathan Steuer, Stanford and HotWired
Abstract below
2:30 - Linguistics Colloquium (NOTE THE TIME CHANGE)
Cordura Hall, Room 100
The Status of English After Colonization: Problems with
Predictors and Criteria in Cross-polity Comparison
Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva Linguistics
Abstract below
3:15 - Philosophy Colloquium
Building 90, Room 91-A
What Can We Do "In Principle"?
Charles Parsons, Harvard Philosophy and CASBS
Abstract below
____________
The CSLI Calendar appears on Thursday of each week throughout the academic
year. Announcements, abstracts, and other information to appear in the
Calendar on a given Thursday should be submitted by e-mail to
incalendar@csli.stanford.edu by 5:00 p.m. on the previous Tuesday.
Past issues of the CSLI Calendar, a quarterly schedule of upcoming CSLI
events, and other information about CSLI are available on the World Wide Web:
<http://csli-www.stanford.edu/>. The Calendar, with available abstracts, is
also posted each week to the csli.bboard newsgroup.
____________
SEMINAR ON COMPUTATIONAL LEARNING AND ADAPTATION
on Wednesday, 22 February
4:00 p.m., Cordura Hall, Room 100
Oblivious Decision Graphs for Supervised Machine Learning
Ron Kohavi
Stanford Computer Science
<ronnyk@cs.stanford.edu>
I will discuss some theoretical and practical aspects of using oblivious
decision graphs as the underlying hypothesis representation language for
supervised classification learning. I will discuss two algorithms for
constructing these knowledge structures. One algorithm operates in a
bottom-up manner, building the graph from the leaves; the other algorithm
works in the opposite direction, building a tree and then collapsing it to a
graph by pruning from the top down. I will show experimental results on
artificial and real-world data sets. The talk will assume background
knowledge about supervised machine learning, but not about decision graphs.
The goal of this seminar is to increase communication among local researchers
with interests in computational approaches to learning and adaptation. If you
would like to be added to (or removed from) the mailing list, or if you are
interested in giving a talk in the seminar, please send email to
<langley@cs.stanford.edu>.
____________
SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 23 February
4:15 p.m., Building 60, Room 61-F
The Violent Origin of Symbolic Systems
Rene Girard
Stanford French and Comparative Literature
<et.mmt@forsythe.stanford.edu>
This talk will discuss how mimetic theory accounts for the genesis and role of
symbolic systems in human cultures. The birth of symbolic systems and of
human culture coincides with the birth of religion in the midst of collective
violence. When a community finds itself in a situation which fosters rivalry
and violent contagion, it reaches a crisis which threatens to destroy that
community. The crisis can be resolved only by the unanimous and spontaneous
polarization of the members of the community against an arbitrary victim, or
scapegoat, the collective murder of which restores peace and order. The
victim is taken to be completely responsible for the violent crisis, but also
for its resolution, resulting in its divinization by the crowd.
This sort of sacred victim is at the center of all primitive religions and
cultures, and their myths and symbol systems ultimately have their basis in
this type of concrete event. It is probable that the first symbolic systems
arose from the radical contrast of the victim and its order-restoring power
against a background of untrammeled violence. The most primitive signifier is
the victim. The signified constitutes all actual and potential meaning the
community confers on to the victim and, through its intermediacy, on to all
things.
Furthermore, the modern world can be characterized as a weakening symbolic
systems due to the recognition of the arbitrary collective violence concealed
by this victimage mechanism.
RENE GIRARD is Andrew B. Hammond Professor of French Language, Literature and
Civilization at Stanford, as well as Professor of Religious Studies and of
Comparative Literature. His books include _Violence and the Sacred_, _Things
Hidden Since the Foundation of the World_, and _The Scapegoat_.
____________
LOGIC LUNCH
on Friday, 24 February
12:00 noon, Building 380, Room 383-N
Term Rewriting Techniques in Proof and Recursion Theory
Andreas Weiermann
Muenster University
If the termination of a rewrite system can be shown by using a multiset
(lexicographic) path ordering then the resulting derivation lengths are
bounded by a primitive (multiply) recursive function. More generally, as
conjectured by Cichon, it can be shown that a termination proof for a rewrite
system with a "standard" termination ordering yields that the resulting
derivation lengths are bounded by a function from the slow growing hierarchy
of ordinal level determined by the order type of the termination ordering.
We give an elementary proof of the classical result that the schemata of
parameter recursion and unnested multiple recursion do not lead outside the
class of primitive recursive functions.
We define a (higher order) rewrite system for the Kirby and Paris hydra
battle, prove its termination with the use of the Howard Bachmann ordinal, and
classify its derivation lengths. We define rewrite systems for Buchholz's
extension of the hydra battle, prove their termination, and classify their
derivation lengths.
____________
SEMINAR ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION
on Friday, 24 February
12:30 p.m., Terman Auditorium
Butterfly: An Organic User Interface for Searching Citation Links
Jock D. Mackinlay
Xerox PARC
<mackinlay@parc.xerox.com>
Butterfly is an Information Visualizer application for accessing DIALOG's
Science Citation databases across the Internet. Network information often
involves slow access that conflicts with the use of highly-interactive
information visualization. Butterfly addresses this problem, integrating
search, browsing, and access management via four techniques:
1. visualization supports the assimilation of retrieved information
and integrates search and browsing activity,
2. automatically-created ``link-generating'' queries assemble
bibliographic records that contain reference information into
citation graphs,
3. asynchronous query processes explore the resulting graphs for the
user, and
4. process controllers allow the user to manage these processes.
Our positive experience with the Butterfly implementation suggests a general
approach for information access, called Organic User Interfaces for
Information Access, in which a virtual landscape grows under user control as
information is accessed automatically.
JOCK D. MACKINLAY joined Xerox PARC after receiving a Ph.D. in 1986 from
Stanford University on the automatic design of graphical presentations of
relational information. For the last five years, he has been collaborating
with Stuart Card and George Robertson on the Information Visualizer (IV), an
information visualization application based on 3D graphics and interactive
animation.
____________
SPECIAL COLLOQUIUM
Co-sponsored with Department of French
on Friday, 24 February
2:15 p.m., Building 200, Room 219
Le Pont Science-Nature: Presentation du Projet Mediologique
Regis Debray
La route des savoirs positifs est-elle en S? Apres le tournant semiologique
des annees soixante, le tournant mediologique amorce par une nouvelle
generation de chercheurs repart en sens inverse. Hier, dissiper l'illusion du
naturel a l'aide des systemes de logique nous a liberes de l'empiricisme et de
l'incantation psychologique. Il s'agirait a present de dissiper l'illusion du
signifiant, en s'evadant des scholastiques du code, afin de retrouver le
monde, ses materiaux, ses vecteurs, et ses techniques. Et ce sera de nouveau
une liberation.
The Bridge between Science and Nature: A Presentation
of the Project of Mediology
Does the road of empirical knowledge have S-turns in it? After the
semiological turn of the 60's, the mediological turn undertaken by a new
generation of researchers takes off in the opposite direction. Previously,
logical systems helped to disperse the "illusion of the natural," and liberate
us from empiricism and psychologism. Now we're concerned with dispersing the
"illusion of the signifier," with escaping the scholastics of the code, so as
to to get back to the world, with its substances, its mediums, and its
technologies. And this will be another liberation.
____________
PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 24 February
3:15 p.m., Building 90, Room 91-A
Laws and Cause
Donald Davidson
UC Berkeley Philosophy
____________
LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 24 February
3:30 p.m., Cordura Hall, Room 100
A Paradox in English Syntax
Paul Postal
NYU Linguistics
A recurrent problem in English syntax is posed by so-called main verb
inversions (MVIs), certain of which (called XMVIs) are illustrated in (1):
(1) a. Under the table was lying an elderly crocodile.
b. Toward the island advanced the huge enemy armada.
c. To the director fell the task of firing the handicapped employees.
d. From that premiss can be derived the fact that all verbs exist.
XMVIs consist of a preverbal PP (the X-PP) a verbal expression, optional
elements and a postverbal NP expression determining finite verb agreement,
referred to as the P(otential)-subject. For, in general each XMVI clause
corresponds to a non-XMVI where the P-subject is in standard subject position
(and the X-PP postverbal). XMVIs have rather curious properties linked to the
notion subject as follows. Most English (finite) clauses have an
unambiguously identifiable element one can refer to as a standard superficial
subject (S3). The S3 precedes the finite verb in non-subject/auxiliary
inversion clauses, determines agreement, corresponds to the raised element in
a raising construction with seem, occurs postposed to the first auxiliary in
auxiliary in version clauses, etc. Principle (2) is then plausible:
(2) Every English finite clause has one and only one S3.
XMVI main clauses challenge (2) in that there is no clear candidate for S3
status. There are several logical responses and various proposals actually
found in the literature. A response rejecting (2) and taking XMVIs to lack
S3s apparently has no advocates. If (2) is maintained, there are at least
three subpositions with respect to XMVIs:
(3) a. The S3 is an invisible expletive; see Postal (1977); Lawler (1977);
Coopmans (1989).
b. The S3 is the post-verbal NP which determines verb agreement
(e.g., the huge enemy armada in (1b)); see Bresnan (1976);
Kathol and Levine (1993).
c. The S3 is the X-PP; see Stowell (1981); (Bresnan (1994) and
other recent works).
Work by Bresnan and others providing strong evidence for (3c) combines with
certain standard assumptions to yield a paradox, since even stronger evidence
against (3c) and in favor of (3a) can be found. The paradox can be eliminated
by adopting (3a), abandoning two standard assumptions and appealing to a novel
relational view of abstract case-marking.
____________
STASS SEMINAR
on Thursday, 2 March
12:00 noon, Cordura Hall, Room 100
Mathematically Modeling Situation Theory
Rachel Lunnon
UCLA Mathematics
<lunnon@math.ucla.edu>
In this talk I will discuss how the tools developed by Peter Aczel and myself
can be used to model some of the aspects of situation theory given in the
Barwise and Cooper preprint: "Simple Situation Theory and its Graphical
Representation." I will also discuss some of the problems that arise when
trying to model some of the other operations.
____________
CSLI SEMINAR
SERIES ON VISUAL PROGRAMMING
on Thursday, 2 March
2:15 p.m., Cordura Hall, Room 100
Prograph CPX
Kurt Schmucker
Apple Computer
<schmucker1@applelink.apple.com>
The Prograph CPX is one of the few commercial strength object-oriented visual
programming environments available today. (Real visual environments, not
those that just use the word 'visual' because they have a direct manipulation
window layout tool.) This talk will present a overview of the Prograph
language, its environment, and its class library. Demos of the environment
will be given. RAM and disk footprints statistics for the same applications
written in Prograph and MacApp, as well the speed differences in execution and
development will also be presented. (MacApp is a C++ application framework
for the Macintosh.) One of the main approaches in this comparison is the
re-implementation in CPX of the MacApp sample applications, and demos of these
will be shown.
KURT SCHMUCKER has been at Apple for over seven years and has lead a variety
of projects in its Advanced Technology Group, including the Scientific
Computing Project and portions of the Human Interface Group. Currently he is
using Prograph CPX to accelerate the transition of ATG research into Apple
products. Prior to Apple, he worked for a decade in the US Department of
Defense as a computational linguist, computer scientist, and research
mathematician.
Kurt is the author of three books, including _Object-Oriented Programming for
the Macintosh_, and is a frequent contributor on Prograph topics in both
Visual News and the MacTech Magazine. He has advanced degrees in both
mathematics and computer science. The brand of shame ("ABD") is on his
forehead, but has faded somewhat with the passing of the years.
____________
SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 2 March
4:15 p.m., Building 60, Room 61-F
Life After SSP: A Discussion with Recent Graduates
of the Symbolic Systems Program
This SSP Forum will feature Symbolic Systems graduates talking about their
work after graduation. The speakers are:
Reid Hoffman '90 Greg Edwards '94
MA Philosophy, Oxford Archimedes Project
Interface designer at Apple CSLI
Srinija Srinivasan '93 Martin Reinfried '94
Ontological engineer Started up company called Architext
Cyc Project
____________
LOGIC LUNCH
on Friday, 3 March
12:00 noon, Building 380, Room 383-N
Adding the Lambda Calculus to Set Theory
Rachel Lunnon
UCLA Mathematics
<lunnon@math.ucla.edu>
A theory of sets and functions which is non-well-founded will be presented.
The functions that have to exist in models of the theory are considered. It
is shown that some interesting functions, such as a powerset function, do not
have to exist in models, but they may be added.
____________
SEMINAR ON HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION
on Friday, 3 March
12:30 p.m., Terman Auditorium
Combining Content and Community: The Potential
and Pitfalls of WWW Publishing
Jonathan Steuer
Stanford Computer Science and HotWired
<jonathan@cyborganic.com>
In August 1993, the newly-launched Wired magazine decided to pursue
Internet-based publishing. On October 27, 1994, Wired begat HotWired, one of
the first commercially-supported content-oriented sites on the World Wide Web.
The goal was to create a new kind of online space, one that both permitted
traditional magazine-like distribution of content, and one that served as a
discussion space in which readers could interact with each other, and with the
architects of their online environment, in novel and meaningful ways. In
other words, the goal was to combine content and community via the Web.
These goals were achieved with varying degrees of success. This presentation
will address the difficulties of Web publishing in relation to these goals,
highlighting in particular the following:
* The difficulty of integrating top-down and bottom-up content structures.
* Interface and information design problems.
* Lessons learned about integrating content and community.
* How these lessons can be applied to new kinds of online spaces.
JONATHAN STEUER led the construction and development of HotWired, Wired
Magazine's successful new World Wide Web-based publication. Jonathan led
online activities for Wired from September 1993 through December 1994, and has
been involved in getting Wired wired since the magazine's launch in January
1993.
He has been on the Net and attending PCD seminars since 1989, and is very
interested in the social implications of networked interactive media. His
company, Cyborganic Media, hopes to launch the Cyborganic Clubhouse, an
integrated real/virtual community space, some time in 1995.
Jonathan received his BA from Harvard University in June 1988, and his Ph.D.
in Communication Theory and Research from Stanford University in January 1995.
As a graduate student, he helped found the Social Responses to Communication
Technologies research group with Professors Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves.
Some of this work has become the cornerstone for Microsoft's new "social
interface" operating system, "Bob".
____________
LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 March
2:30 p.m., Cordura Hall, Room 100
The Status of English After Colonization: Problems with
Predictors and Criteria in Cross-polity Comparison
Joshua Fishman
Yeshiva Linguistics, visiting Stanford
<fishman@csli.stanford.edu>
The relative assets and debits of three different methods of cross-polity
comparison (cross-tabulations, cumulative multiple correlations, and
rankings/ratings performed on case-study data) will be illustrated. The
examples presented are derived from my ongoing study with Andrew W. Conrad and
Alma Rubal-Lopez, prompted by Phillipson's _Linguistic Imperialism_ (1992),
and following up on my earlier _The Spread of English_ (1976) with Robert L.
Cooper and Andrew W. Conrad.
____________
PHILOSOPHY COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 March
3:15 p.m., Building 90, Room 91-A
What Can We Do "In Principle"?
Charles Parsons
Harvard Philosophy and Stanford CASBS
<parsons@casbs.stanford.edu>
Philosophers frequently appeal to what is "in principle" within the capacity
of agents, even when this far outstrips the actual abilities of human beings
(or real machines). Such possibilities enter discussion of the foundations of
mathematics at at least two points: the theory of computability, and
explication of constructivist views, in particular intuitionism.
Clearly the possibilities in question are highly idealized, and appeal to them
has been challenged. An attempt will be made to determine to what extent
appeal to such possibilities makes sense, what its actual use in mathematical
contexts is, and what philosophical weight it will bear.
____________