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∂CSL Prof. A. G. Dale, Chairman↓Department of Computer Science
↓University of Texas↓Austin, TEXAS 78712∞

Dear Professor Dale:

	Here is the information for inclusion in your brochure:

title: Some Expert Systems Require Common Sense

abstract: Human common sense involves certain knowledge and ability
that is only beginning to be identified by artificial intelligence
research.  Only part of it has been formalized enough to be usable
by computer programs, and even less is involved in current expert
systems.  Many current expert systems are quite impressive and even
useful without it.  However, many important tasks require common sense
knowledge and reasoning ability.

	This lecture describes some of this knowledge and ability
and discusses what kinds of tasks require it.  Common sense knowledge
includes the following:

	1. General facts about how events occur in time and affect situations.

	2. Facts about the ability of actions to achieve goals.

	3. Concurrent events.

	4. Knowledge and belief and ways of obtaining knowledge.

	5. Physical objects, their shapes, their construction and
destruction, and their motion.

	6. Naive or common sense physics.

	Common sense reasoning includes logical reasoning, non-monotonic
reasoning (a new area of research), and obtaining facts by observation.

Biographical sketch:

	John McCarthy is Professor of Computer Science at Stanford
University.  He has been interested in artificial intelligence since
1949 and coined the term in 1955.  His main artificial intelligence
research area has been the formalization of common sense knowledge.
He invented the LISP programming language in 1958, developed the concept of
time-sharing in the late fifties and early sixties, and has worked on
proving that computer programs meet their specifications since the early sixties.
His most recent theoretical development is the circumscription method
of non-monotonic reasoning since 1978.

	Tentatively I will need a reservation for the nights of
October 19 and 20, although I may not be able to come until the
20th.

.sgn

cc: W. W. Bledsoe