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CSLI Calendar, October 8, 1997, vol. 13:
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
______________________________________________________________________
8 October 1997 Stanford Vol. 13, No. 4
______________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Ventura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
____________
ACTIVITIES DURING 8 OCTOBER - 17 OCTOBER 1997
WEDNESDAY, 8 OCTOBER
3:45pm Psychology Department Colloquium
Jordan Hall, room 420:050
Primate cognition
Michael Tomasello
Emory University
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
DEC Preservation of Historical Computer Systems
Bob Supnik
Abstract below
THURSDAY, 9 OCTOBER
12 noon CSLI CogLunch
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Creating Context in Interaction Design:
What can we Learn from Cognitive Science?
Terry Winograd
Stanford CS
4:00pm Xerox PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium, Xerox PARC
Ebonics: A Closer Look
John Rickford, Stanford University
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Gates 100
To be announced
FRIDAY, 10 OCTOBER
12:30pm Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Gates B03 (NEC classroom)
The Digital Michelangelo Project
Marc Levoy, Stanford Computer Science
3:15pm Philosophy Department Colloquium
Bldg. 90:92Q
"From Russell's Paradox to Higher Set Theory"
Harvey Friedman, Ohio State University
SATURDAY, 11 OCTOBER
10am-3pm Symposia: Are Computers Approaching Human-Level
Creativity?
Law School, room 290
Symposium I: Chess and Go
Information below
MONDAY, 13 OCTOBER
4:15pm Stanford Digital Libraries Seminar
Gates 104
Open House
4:30pm 1997 Camp Lectures at Stanford
History 200:002
The Search for Consciousness: Intersections of
Philosophy, Neuroscience and Psychology
"To Have but Not to Hold"
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Oxford University
TUESDAY, 14 OCTOBER
4:30pm 1997 Camp Lectures at Stanford
History 200:002
The Search for Consciousness: Intersections of
Philosophy, Neuroscience and Psychology
"Thought without Language. Thought without Awareness?"
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Oxford University
Information below
WEDNESDAY, 15 OCTOBER
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Laboratory Colloquium
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
Detection of Weak, Narrowband Extrasolar Signals
Kent Cullers
SETI Institute
[http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/lect04.html]
4:30pm 1997 Camp Lectures at Stanford
History 200:002
The Search for Consciousness: Intersections of
Philosophy, Neuroscience and Psychology
"The Blind Leading the Sighted, and Learning from their
Pupils"
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Oxford University
Information below
THURSDAY, 16 OCTOBER
10:00am - 4:00pm
CSLI Special Event: Using Action and Technology to Build
Community
Cordura Hall, Room 100
Information below
4:00pm Xerox PARC Forum
George Pake Auditorium, Xerox PARC
The Political Origins of the Information Revolution
Paul Starr
Princeton University
4:15pm Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation (SCLA)
Gates 100
David Moriarty,
Daimler-Benz Research and Technology Center, Palo Alto.
4:30pm 1997 Camp Lectures at Stanford
History 200:002
The Search for Consciousness: Intersections of
Philosophy, Neuroscience and Psychology
"Imaging the Imageless"
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Oxford University
Information below
FRIDAY, 17 OCTOBER
12:30pm Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Gates B03 (NEC classroom)
The WebTop - HotJava Views and Beyond
Don Gentner, JavaSoft, Sun Microsystems
3:15pm Philosophy Department Colloquium
Bldg. 90:92Q
"Reheated Cabbage?: Descartes and Ancient Skepticism"
Gail Fine, Cornell University
3:30pm Linguistics Department Colloquium
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:146
Bickerton
SATURDAY, 18 OCTOBER
10am-3pm Symposia: Are Computers Approaching Human-Level
Creativity?
Law School, room 290
Symposium II: Language and Literature
Information below
____________
EE380: COMPUTER SYSTEMS LABORATORY COLLOQUIUM
4:15PM, Wednesday, 8 October 1997
NEC Auditorium, Gates Computer Science Building B03
[http://www.stanford.edu/class/ee380/contents.html]
Retro Computing: Researching the Receding Frontiers of Computers
Robert M. Supnik
Vice President
Corporate Research and Advanced Development
Digital Equipment Corporation's research labs in Palo Alto and
Cambridge are the cutting edge of the company's work in advanced
computer technology. Responsible for such diverse developments as
AltaVista, Millicent, Gigaswitch/ATM, and the Palo Alto Internet
Exchange, the labs focus on pushing the frontiers of computers in
scalable systems, Internet infrastructure and services, and
human-computer interaction.
While the researchers chase computing's future, the research manager
(in his copious spare time) chases computing's past. Computing's
history is of significant educational, historical, and economic value,
and it is rapidly being lost. Computing's past is mostly represented
by narrative texts and preserved non-functional artifacts; access to
working examples is limited to a handful of scattered hobbyists
worldwide.
This talk will cover (briefly) the work of Digital's research labs but
will mostly be devoted to retrocomputing: the art and science of
recovering usable examples of computing's past. The talk with cover
"computer archaeology" -- the recovery of lost information and data;
the role of folklore; the varied merits of restoration and simulation
as strategies for preserving the past; and SIMH, the speaker's
historical systems simulator, which currently includes eight
significant systems with supporting software.
Biography: Robert M. Supnik is vice president of Corporate Research
and Advanced Development (RAD) in Digital's Corporate Strategy and
Technology group. RAD provides Digital with strategic new
technologies, competencies and products. In this position, Supnik is
responsible for identifying and understanding new technological
opportunities and helping Digital apply them for business success.
Supnik currently manages Digital's Cambridge Research Laboratory,
Network Systems Laboratory, Systems Research Center, and Western
Research Laboratory, where he focuses on applications technology,
innovative inter-networking systems, systems research, and mainstream,
high-performance computer systems.
Supnik has been on the vanguard of technology throughout his 20 years
at Digital. A Senior Corporate Consultant Engineer, Supnik started the
Alpha program, and managed it until first product ship. He also
started the MicroVAX chip project, for which he was both project
manager and microprogrammer. Supnik was technical director for the
Alpha and VAX Systems Group, and group manager for the Semiconductor
Engineering Group Microprocessor Development. He also served as
product strategist in the CSD/LSI Microprocessor Group, and project
manager for the J-11 chip. In 1994, he was promoted to vice president
of Technology and Architecture in the Computer Systems Division.
Supnik joined Digital in 1977 as a supervisor, then manager, in the
Storage Subsystems Group. He holds BS degrees in mathematics and
history from MIT, and an MA in history from Brandeis University.
In addition to his work at Digital, Supnik is the author of a series
of emulators for historically significant minicomputers.
____________
Coglunch, Terry Winograd, Creating Context in Interaction Design: what
can we learn from Cognitive Science?
12:00 Thursday, October 9
Title: Creating Context in Interaction Design: What can we Learn from
Cognitive Science?
The era of the desktop computer is waning. AS laptops become palmtops,
become PDAS, and as wall-scale displays become affordable, we will
have an increasing number of interactions with computers that do not
have the conventional amount of display and input bandwidth. One of
the key issues in this new development is the representation and use
of CONTEXT in the effective presentation of information. In this
exploratory talk we will look at the issues that areise at both ends
of the size spectrum -- context representation on large displays, and
efficient use of small scale devices through contextual (linguistic)
techniques.
Representing context:
Many of today's workstation-based display designs make use of a dual
presentation of figure/ground, or context/focus. Many presentation
systems have modes in which the table of contents of a document
appears in a panel on the left of the screen, while the actual pages
appear in a panel next to it. This enables users to view the
higher-level structures and use them for navigation, while seeing the
details on the same screen. The DLITE interface for our Stanford
Digital Libraries project consists of a task workspace and a browser,
operating side by side.. Many video games provide some kind of
overhead or map view along with the first person view of the player.
Graphics programs show the position of the current visible portion of
an image, as a rectangle on a thumbnail of the full image.
This menagerie of special-purpose systems (and many more like them)
can be the basis for creating a more generally applicable mechanism
that can become a standard part of creating any information space to
help a person navigating information spaces to get an overview - to
see the forest for the trees.
Research questions include:
What are the different types of context presentation (2Dmaps,
abstract trees and graphs, textual outlines, 3D visualizations, etc.)
that span the useful space of context representations for online
information spaces?
What are the criteria for mapping a given space onto a
representation that is appropriate for its content, structure, and
uses (both the choice of representation and the mapping of the
underlying information onto its visible dimensions)?
What kinds of opportunities does each representation afford for
manipulation and navigation (choosing a region, selecting an item,
reordering, remembering paths and histories, etc)? What new conceptual
models and metaphors for manipulation and navigation can be supported?
How do these different representations and models fit with devices
other than the standard screen and keyboard?
What uniform tools can be provided for the designers of
information spaces (and browsers for information spaces) to apply
these mappings easily and effectively).
Efficiency of language
In their work on Situation Semantics, Barwise and Perry emphasize the
"efficiency" that natural language offers through its use of
context. When a person says "Come here!" the actual meaning includes a
large amount of information that is not mentioned explicitly: I (the
speaker) am requesting that you (the hearer) move from wherever you
are now to the point where I am currently, at the time this is being
uttered, etc. If the words "Come here" were found on a scrap of paper
floating in a bottle at sea, they would be nearly meaningless, since
the contextual elements are missing. At a deeper level, Winograd and
Flores have pointed out that even the interpretation of content words
depends on a shared background of context. They give the example of
asking "Is there any water in the refrigerator?", which has a
different meaning when asked by a thirsty housemate, or when asked for
the purpose of finding low-humidity cool storage (in which case, for
example, the vegetables contain vater).
When we create wide-applicability information devices and
presentation, as we do in the digital library, we greatly decrease the
specificity of information context, compared to ordinary face to face
conversation. In order to avoid misunderstandings, the tendency is to
compensate for this loss of specificity by making more things explicit
in the visible presentation. This is both inefficient (especially when
we look at small devices), and ultimately limited in the amount that
can be made explicit.
Linguistic theorists have elaborated multiple dimensions of context,
and the ways in which context is used for effective communication. In
addition to the work on semantics by Barwise and Perry (mentioned
above), researchers at CSLI have explored the context of task
structure (Grosz), and the psycholinguistic dimensions of context and
the role they play in human-humna interaction (Clark,
B.Tversky). Baldonado (SenseMaker) has developed a theory of document
sets (and associated dimensions) as an approximation to concept
spaces. These serve as an interpretive context for making sense of
large numbers of results in activities such as online search.
Our exploration of these issues is still in an early (pre-funded)
stage. Through discussion at the lunch, I hope to better envision the
directions for future research.
-----------------------
Seminar on Computational Learning and Adaptation
Learning's Impact on the Speed-Accuracy Tradeoff in Motor Skills
by Wayne Iba, Institute for the Study of Learning and Expertisee
Although often overlooked, motor skills play an important role in
development and intelligent behavior. In this talk, I present an
overview of Meander, a computational model of human motor skill
learning. The model addresses both the recognition and generation of
movements. Learning leads to improved movement recognition thorugh
observation as well as the improved movement generation through
practice. Although Meander accounts for a variety of human motor skill
phenomena, in the second half of the talk I focus on one of the most
robust behavioral phenomena -- the speed-accuracy tradeoff. I will
present an overview of this tradeoff and cover several analytic
characterizations including Fitts' Law. Experimental results with
Meander measuring accuracy while varying movement speed conform nicely
to the human data. Interestingly, the model suggests several
predictions, one being that learning should attenuate the severity of
the speed-accuracy tradeoff. The literature focussed on the tradeoff
ignores learning but this prediction is validated by the model's
behavior as well as data found in the broader literature on motor skills.
------------------------
The Digital Michaelangelo Project
Stanford Seminar on People, Computers, and Design
Recent improvements in laser rangefinder technology, together with
algorithms developed in our research group for combining multiple
range images, allow us to reliably and accurately digitize the
external shape of many physical objects. As an application of this
technology, we have embarked on a multi-year project to create a
high-quality 3D archive of the sculptures of Michelangelo.
To accomplish this project, I and a team of Stanford students will
spend the 1998-99 academic year in Italy, basing ourselves at the
Stanford Overseas Studies Center in Florence. Our primary acquisition
device will be an ultra-high resolution laser rangefinder mounted on a
mobile gantry. The output of this process will be a set of 3D computer
models, one per sculpture, each model consisting of about 100 million
triangles. At certain sites, we will also employ a video camera
mounted on a (different) mobile gantry. The output of this second
process will be a set of light fields, which are dense arrays of images
viewable using new techniques from image-based rendering.
The goals of this project are primarily scholarly and educational,
although commercialization is also possible. In this talk, I will
briefly outline the scholarly motivations, technical challenges, and
possible outcomes of this project. I will also enumerate some of the
problems posed by incorporating 3D graphics and image-based rendering
techniques into interactive multimedia venues. Finally, I will mention
some applications of these technologies to problems in art
preservation and archeology.
------------------------
ARE COMPUTERS APPROACHING
HUMAN-LEVEL CREATIVITY?
A Series of Symposia
Prompted by Some Striking Recent
Developments in Artificial Intelligence
[http://ccrma-www.stanford.edu/CCARH/events/courses/symp97f.html]
Stanford University, Fall 1997
These symposia are sponsored by the Center for Computer-Assisted
Research in the Humanities (CCARH) with the participation of the
Office of the Associate Dean for Humanities and organized and
moderated by Douglas Hofstadter.
Each symposium will bring together world experts in a particular field
in which human creativity shines; all will deliver short talks
expressing their view about the degree to which computers have become
genuinely creative in that field, after which there will be a panel
discussion with audience participation. The organizer will moderate
the panels, as well as participating as a panelist himself.
Symposium I: Chess and Go
Saturday, 11 October 1997, 10am-3pm (coffee at 9:30)
Law School, Room 290
Eliot Hearst, Psychology, Columbia University U.S. Senior
and Life Master and former captain of U.S. Chess Olympic team;
author on computer chess
Monroe Newborn, Computer Science, McGill University
Developer of the chess program Ostrich; author of Kasparov vs. Deep
Blue
Tim Klinger, Computer Science, New York University
Researcher on Go and developer of a sophisticated Go-playing
program
Symposium II: Language and Literature
Saturday, 18 October 1997, 10am-3pm (coffee at 9:30)
Law School, Room 290
Gilles Fauconnier, Cognitive Science, UC San Diego
Author of Mental Spaces and other books on language's cognitive
underpinnings
Ashwin Ram, Computer Science, Georgia Tech
Developer of the science-fiction-reading program ISAAC; author on
case-based reasoning
Mark Turner, English, University of Maryland
Author of The Literary Mind and other books on the mutual relevance
of literature and cognitive science
____________
THE 1997 HARRY CAMP MEMORIAL LECTURES
The Search for Consciousness:
Intersections of Philosophy, Neuroscience and Psychology
Lawrence Weiskrantz
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Oxford University
[http://shc.stanford.edu/shc/1997-1998/events/weiskrantz.html]
650/723-3052
Lecture 1: "To Have but Not to Hold"
Monday, 13 October 1997, 4:30pm
(Reception to follow lecture)
History, room 200:002
Lecture 2: "Thought without Language. Thought without Awareness?"
Tuesday, 14 October 1997, 4:30pm
History, room 200:002
Lecture 3: "The Blind Leading the Sighted, and Learning from their Pupils"
Wednesday, 15 October 1997, 4:30pm
History, room 200:002
Lecture 4: "Imaging the Imageless"
Thursday, 16 October 1997, 4:30pm
History, room 200:002
"Understanding has always been in the debt of the study of damage." -
Lawrence Weizkrantz, Consciousness Lost and Found
The phenomenon of 'consciousness' is intrinsically related to one's
awareness of the physical world and one's self, past and present.
What, then, can be learned about consciousness from people who, as a
result of brain damage, suffer from conditions that affect their
awareness, such as amnesia or blindsight? The research of Prof.
Weizkrantz demonstrates that many of these patients retain intact
capacities of which they are unaware, what is known as "covert
processing." Weizkrantz's work maps new research in neuropsychology
into a philosophical argument which, combined with the latest brain
imaging studies, points the way to specific patterns that may be
involved in conscious awareness.
Biography: Lawrence Weiskrantz is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at
Oxford University. He was Director of the Department of Experimental
Psychology at Oxford from 1967-1993. Prior to his appointment at
Oxford University, he held an appointment at Cambridge University for
11 years. He earned his B.Sc. degree from Oxford in 1950, and his
Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1953. He is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of London and a member of the U.S. National Academy of
Sciences. He has received numerous awards including the Craik Prize
from Cambridge, the Hughlings Jackson Medal from the Royal Society of
Medicine, and the William James Fellowship of the American
Psychological Soceity. He delivered the Royal Society's Ferrier
Lecture in 1989. He is a distinguished neuropsychologist who has
worked with patients suffering from amnesia and blindsight (a
phenomema he discovered) for over 30 years.
Prof. Weiskrantz's most recent book is Consciousness Lost and Found
(OUP, 1997). He is also the author of Blindsight: A Case Study and
Implications (OUP, 1986) and editor of and contributor to Analysis of
Behavioural Change (Harper and Row, 1963), Neurospychology of
Cognitive Function (Royal Society, 1982), Animal Intelligence (OUP,
1985), and Thought Without Language (OUP, 1988).
About this series: The Harry Camp Memorial Lectures were established
in 1956 by friends and associates of Harry Camp, a prominent
businessman in San Francisco, and a gentle and wise humanitarian,
active in many philanthropies. The Harry Camp Memorial Fund was
established to bring outstanding speakers to the University for public
lectures. These lectures should promote the study of "the concept of
the dignity and the worth of the individual." Previous Camp lecturers
have included: Eric R. Kandel, M.D.; Edward W. Said; Jean Franco;
Richard Poirier; Natalie Zemon Davis; Clifford Geertz; Herbert
A. Simon; E.P. Thompson; Kenneth J. Arrow; J.H. Hexter; Elie Wiesel;
Roger H. Sessions; and Erwin D. Canham.
____________
CSLI SPECIAL EVENT
Using Action and Technology to Build Community
Thursday, 16 October 1997, 10:00am -- 4:00pm
Organizer: Keith Devlin (CSLI Senior Researcher)
mailto:devlin@csli.stanford.edu
[http://www-csli.stanford.edu/csli/Coglunch/special-971016.shtml]
A limited supply of lunches and drinks will be available for purchase
between Sessions 1 and 2.
Session 1: 10:15 - 11:45 AM
Creating Community by Defining the Human-Technology Boundary
Clifford Nass
Associate Professor of Communication and CSLI
mailto:nass@leland.stanford.edu
It is increasingly difficult to draw clear distinctions between humans
and computers. This talk will focus on the resulting problems and
opportunities for defining communities.
About the Speaker: Clifford Nass is an associate professor of
Communication at Stanford University, with appointments in Symbolic
Systems, Sociology, and Science, Technology, and Society. He is an
internationally recognized expert in the area of social-psychological
effects of human-computer interaction. He is co-author (with Byron
Reeves) of "The Media Equation: How People Treat Computers,
Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places," as well as
over 30 articles on human- computer interaction and statistical
methodology. Nass (and Reeves)'s research has been the basis for a
number of new media products for companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett
Packard, OMRON, and General Magic.
Session 2: 12:00 - 1:45 Cordura 100
Using Action to Build Community
Julia Rowntree
Director of the LIFT Business Arts Forum, UK
mailto:lift@mail.easynet.co.uk
The talk will explore the way that drama, participation and
celebration help build communities and understanding across many
boundaries.
About the Speaker: Julia Rowntree is Director of the LIFT (London
International Festival of Theatre) Business Arts Forum in the
UK. Since 1981, LIFT has brought over 3000 artists from 60 different
countries to theaters, outdoor locations and diverse communities
across the UK capital. The LIFT Education program brings international
artists together with young people in schools and is currently
coordinating projects in Japan and South Africa. The Business Arts
Forum is a pioneering experiment in business education, exploring
cultural issues affecting today's workplace via events in the
Festival.
Rowntree is currently touring the USA as a Winston Churchill Fellow.
Among institutions she is visiting in the Bay Area are Global Business
Network and Xerox PARC.
Session 3: 2:15 - 3:45 Cordura 100
Using Technology to Build Community
David Leevers
Manager of Multimedia Communications, BICC plc, UK
mailto:DavidLeevers@compuserve.com
The "Cycle of Cognition" is a framework for integrating natural and
electronic communications. This talk will report on work in progress
in using the cycle to create an information environment that
encourages a sense of community in the heterogeneous, distributed and
rapidly evolving teams typical of the construction sector.
Workplace studies in a major construction project are helping to
clarify how the cycle can provide a sense of context for
communications actions. The cycle is a promising example of how
situation theory can be used to support the design of communications
and information services.
The very spatial nature of the construction process and of new
collaboration tools such as Virtual Reality is proving to be a
powerful catalyst for understanding the relationship between the
"Inner Space" of mental models, the physical space of the 3D
environment and the social space shared with other people.
About the Speaker: David Leevers is Manager, Multimedia Communications
at BICC plc, a major UK based construction and cable making
company. He is currently leading two European Community projects, CICC
and RESOLV, that are exploring how the Web, Augmented Reality,
reconstructed reality and common artifacts can be used to improve
collaboration and effectiveness in construction and manufacturing.
____________
END MATERIAL
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____________