∂25-Dec-79  0005	JMC   via SU-TIP    
To:   TOB    
Thanks, I'll talk to you in January.

∂23-Dec-79  2021	JMC   via SU-TIP 	rolex  
To:   JMC    
The Secretariat, The Rolex Awards for Enterprise,
P.O. Box 178, Dept. 316, 1211 Genveva 26, Switzerland
For an official application form, send name and address and
state the general nature of the project.  Entries on
form must reach secretariat by April 30, 1980.

my category is applied sciences and invention.

∂21-Dec-79  1353	JMC  
To:   LES    
Why did you agree to the file format change before having the new programs?
The previous was not just a rhetorical question; I need to know who controls
what.

∂21-Dec-79  1353	JMC  	!Why did you agree to the file format change before having the new programs?   
The previous was not just a rhetorical question; I need to know who controls
what.

∂21-Dec-79  1329	JMC  	lack of warning on xgp  
To:   REG
CC:   LES   
There was no warning on XGP downness and no estimate of
its return time.

∂21-Dec-79  1308	JMC  
To:   LES    
SOB is broken.  After accepting DEC as date, it asks for ppn and crashes.

∂20-Dec-79  2215	JMC  	imlac    
To:   ROY    
The connection works now, although it thinks I'm at Weyhrauch's house.
However, the Imlac is displaying the characters too large so they don't
all fit on the screen.

∂20-Dec-79  1620	JMC  
To:   LGC    
I'll try to have an hour.

∂20-Dec-79  1538	JMC  →13326 (3-Jan-80)   
To:   "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"    
I will  be away rom Dec 25 to Jan 3.

∂20-Dec-79  1438	JMC  	Dennett as unknown 
To:   LES    
I thought I did what has to be done to make DCD stand for Daniel Dennett.
What did I omit that leaves him still unknown?

∂20-Dec-79  1434	JMC  
To:   "@AIPHIL.LST[F79,JMC]" at SU-AI 
ET DISCUS[F79,JMC] for the beginning of a discussion file.

∂19-Dec-79  1257	JMC  
To:   bmoore at SRI-KL 
Thanks, it's fixed.

∂18-Dec-79  1322	JMC  
To:   sandelin at SUMEX-AIM 
.REQUIRE "DECL.PUB[PUB,PAT]" SOURCE
.GROUP SKIP 10
.BEGIN CENTER
%3Biography
.skip
JOHN MCCARTHY
%1Computer Science Department
Stanford University
.END
.SKIP 3
John McCarthy has been Professor of Computer Science
and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory since 1962.
His interests include artificial intelligence (especially its
epistemological problems), proving correctness of computer programs,
time-sharing computer systems, and the relations between technology
and society.  He is the inventor of the LISP programming language
for symbolic computation and received the A. M. Turing award of
the Association for Computing Machinery.

∂17-Dec-79  1747	JMC  	letters  
To:   HVA    
Is Monica putting contract numbers on outgoing letters.  I am beginning
to suspect that one didn't go, and I got another back for postage.

∂17-Dec-79  1555	JMC  
To:   nilsson at SRI-KL
I'm sending Firdman reprints.

∂17-Dec-79  1554	JMC  
To:   HVA    
Hersche: Please have Firdman sent my recent "Ascribing mental qualities
to machines" and "Circumscription - A Form of Non-Monotonic Reasoning".
The former is an AI memo, and the latter is circum.new[s79,jmc] which has
to be pubbed.
 ∂17-Dec-79  1528	Nilsson at SRI-KL (Nils Nilsson) 	Henry Firdman   
Date: 17 Dec 1979 1526-PST
From: Nilsson at SRI-KL (Nils Nilsson)
Subject: Henry Firdman
To:   JMC at SU-AI
cc:   Nilsson

Henry Firdman is a Russian friend of mine who has been denied an
exit visa and is now without a job in the Soviet Union.  He holds
various advanced degrees in computer science and is an expert in
computer architecture, hardware design, and artificial intelligence.
Among his various publications is a 1976 book entitled "Algorithmic
Foundations of Intellectual Robots and Artificial Intelligence."
It is one of the better known Soviet books on AI.

Henry needs any help that might pursuade the Soviet authorities to
reconsider their decision about an exit visa.  He has been without
employment since November 1978 and has a wife and two small children.
He wants to continue his technical work and would welcome correspondence.
His current interests are in knowledge representation theory and in
natural language understanding.  

Henry's mother and younger brother have been able to leave the Soviet
Union and are now in Philadelphia.  They have been in touch with
various American scientists, including Jack Minker, Committee of
Concerned Scientists; they would also appreciate correspondence and
help.

Addresses:

Henry Firdman				Henry's mother:
Mytnynskaya str. 31, apt. 3		
Leningrad 193144			Mrs. Mina Firdman
USSR					1421 Kerper St., 2nd flr.
(phone 271-31-06)			Philadelphia, PA 19111


Thanks in advance for any help that you might be able to give.


--Nils Nilsson
-------

∂17-Dec-79  1334	JMC  
To:   MAX    
It will be worth your while to talk to more people than just me.

	1. You should talk with Dick Gabriel (RPG) about MACLISP (spelled
with an A).  He will know about the state of the manual and about its
exportability.  A replacement for MACLISP called NIL (for New Implementation
of Lisp) is being developed.  Maybe that should be your target.  Gabriel
will know about it.

	2. I formerly used an Algol-like source language for LISP called
RLISP in my course.  It worked ok, but I don't use it any more.

	3. You should talk with Richard Weyhrauch about FOL.  The current
version is not in MACLISP but in the older UCI LISP.  A new FOL is planned,
and it will be in MACLISP or possibly in NIL.  My guess is that you can
adapt the old version to MACLISP with some work or use the new one.  A lot
depends on the computer you will have at Peking and whether it has enough
memory.  It will be very difficult to remain compatible with American
LISPs or LISP based systems without rather large memory, since everyone
is planning to break out of the 256K word limitation of the PDP-10 as
soon as possible.

	4. Recently I have been emphasizing the aspects of Elephant
related to proving properties of sequential programs, and haven't
thought further about its direct use as a way of avoiding specification
of data structures.  I think it requires more thought before this can
be specified.  If you and Dr. Tang have ideas along this line, I would
be glad to hear about them.  In general, I would be very happy if some
version of Elephant were implemented at Peking University and would
help in any way possible.

Would it be possible to meet on these and other questions Wednesday at
2pm in my office in MJH?

∂17-Dec-79  1328	JMC  
To:   LGC    
fine

∂17-Dec-79  1317	JMC  
To:   MAX    
Please ask Hersche Allen about the telephone.  As for terminals, there
is a shortage of parts, and they expect more late this month.  Unfortunately,
there are often delays during the holiday season.  Some people have
increased their priority for terminals by volunteering to help install
them.  About half the Data-discs have been installed, so the next batch
should finish it.  I presume your office is scheduled for a terminal, but
you should ask Les Earnest for definite information.

∂17-Dec-79  1310	JMC  
To:   sandelin at SUMEX-AIM 
Ralph Gorin and I have independently considered the 4331 as possibly playing
a role in providing student word-processing capability.  Therefore, I would
like to take part in discussions with IBM, if they are willing to consider
the matter seriously.  Additional development: since Friday the results have
come in on a survey by Les Earnest and Denny Brown on the number of terminals
required to put one on every CS desk.  The result is from 250 to 300 terminals,
which is a factor of two more than I and everyone else had supposed.  Therefore,
we need a very economical way of doing it, but I think we can do it with money
in hand.  At least we can get the central concentrator and more than half of
the terminals using a bit map.

∂15-Dec-79  1906	JMC  
To:   LGC    
It doesn't matter to me if you change it further.

∂13-Dec-79  2308	JMC  
To:   LGC    
How about Monday at 2 instead?

∂13-Dec-79  1708	JMC  
To:   MTC    
What are you doing these days, i.e. with the computer.

∂13-Dec-79  1457	JMC   via SU-SCORE  
To:   LES    
Please tell Hersche to read her mail on system daily.

∂13-Dec-79  1453	JMC  
To:   sandelin at SUMEX-AIM 
See you tomorrow.

∂12-Dec-79  1900	JMC  
To:   LLW    
Please phone 321-7580 or 497-4430 but not after 12:30am. Not about S-1.

∂12-Dec-79  1621	JMC  
To:   cmb at MIT-ML    
	Can you transmit to Ronni Rosenberg the fact that I know nothing
of Egbert Lehman, except having read in the newspaper that he had been
arrested?  The only East German computer scientist I know is the LISP
enthusiast Herbert Stoyan, who also lives in Dresden.

∂11-Dec-79  2047	JMC  
To:   wilkins at SRI-KL
That's 321-2052.

∂11-Dec-79  1829	JMC  
To:   wilkins at SRI-KL
Phone me at the Center some afternoon.

∂11-Dec-79  1439	JMC  
To:   LYN    
Thanks for the reminder.  I intend to come.

∂10-Dec-79  1814	JMC  
To:   LGC    
I'll do it. - John

∂10-Dec-79  1615	JMC  
To:   CLT    
 ∂10-Dec-79  1556	HEARN at UTAH-20 	LISP Book   
Date: 10 Dec 1979 1552-MST
From: HEARN at UTAH-20
Subject: LISP Book
To: mccarthy at SU-AI

John, I hear that you and Carolyn Talcott are working on another LISP
book. Any chance I could see a draft?
Thanks,
Tony
-------

∂08-Dec-79  1717	JMC   via AMES-TIP  
To:   LES    
Don't we need more telephone lines?

∂07-Dec-79  1745	JMC  
To:   sandelin at SUMEX-AIM 
OK, Friday noon at Faculty Club

∂07-Dec-79  1739	JMC   via SU-SCORE  
To:   LES    
Please tell Hersche to check her mail.

∂07-Dec-79  1514	JMC   via SU-SCORE 	copy of letter 
To:   HVA    
Please have someone print a copy of newbor.xgp[let,jmc] and
send it to Frederic A. Friedel,Hauptstrasse 28 b,
2114 Hollenstedt, West Germany.

∂07-Dec-79  1509	JMC   via SU-SCORE  
To:   LES    
That was me asking for the legitimization of Dennett.

∂07-Dec-79  1215	JMC  
To:   TOB    
Please mail me Chern's current address.

∂07-Dec-79  0057	JMC  
To:   TOB    
I got it, and it looks adequate.  How about Chern as a reference?

∂05-Dec-79  1616	JMC  
To:   horowitz at MIT-XX    
You have my permission for a $150 fee, payable half to me and half to
Mike Levin who has shared royalties.

∂05-Dec-79  1614	JMC  
To:   card at PARC-MAXC
Much thanks for the information.  If I have reactions, I'll write you.

∂04-Dec-79  1909	JMC   via SU-SCORE 	reports   
To:   card at PARC-MAXC
Dan Bobrow tells me that you have done recent studies of the
conditions under which mouses are preferable to all keyboard
control of editors.  I wwould like to know the results.
				John McCarthy

∂04-Dec-79  1906	JMC   via SU-SCORE 	poddible sail of datamedia    
To:   LES    
John Haugeland, now at CASBS, will want to buy a terminal for his
own use when he leaves in June.  He will be used to datamedias,
but the Stanford mods will not be useful.  Might it be to mutual
advantage to sell him an old datamedia?  If so, what would be a
reasonable price?

∂04-Dec-79  1643	JMC  
To:   sandelin at SUMEX-AIM 
If it's just the two of us, would it be convenient for you to come out
to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, say for
lunch some noon.  You can reach me there 321-2052 most afternoons.
Otherwise the Faculty Club is possible.

∂03-Dec-79  1606	JMC  
To:   lamport at SRI-KL
Professor Jon Barwise of Philosopy is the most likely to be interested.
My own motion has been in the opposite direction.  I have come to the
opinion that the explicit use of time is better for most purposes in
computer science and maybe in AI and philosophy.

∂30-Nov-79  1814	JMC  	xgpsyn   
To:   HPM    
It would be nice if it worked since it could take some load off
the flakey XGP while few terminals are available.  None of Ralph,
Martin or Rob understand what hardware is involved.

∂30-Nov-79  1413	JMC  
To:   LGC    
I'll phone you late this afternoon.

∂30-Nov-79  1410	JMC  	request for information 
To:   morton at PARC-MAXC   
I need to know whether the AI Journal paper by McDermott
and Doyle has their names in that order or in the reverse.
The exact title of that paper and the paper by Reiter are
also needed.  This is a rush matter, because Danny wants
me to get him a proposed addendum by Monday.

∂30-Nov-79  1046	JMC  
To:   JRA    
I think you're doing fine.  I think the benefits of sponsorship
are marginal, and the costs of intereaction with all those
ACMocrats would be substantial.

∂29-Nov-79  2227	JMC  
To:   LGC    
Please phone me at CASBS 321-2052.

∂26-Nov-79  1317	JMC   via AMES-TIP 	test 
To:   csd.mccarthy at SU-SCORE   
foo

∂26-Nov-79  1314	JMC   via AMES-TIP 	Dennet    
To:   rms at MIT-AI    
He's here for the academic year.

∂17-Nov-79  1457	JMC  	haunt    
To:   HPM    
RPG's recipe for saving a core image
seems to work from ai 
main job but not from a ptyjob.
How can I save at the end of one of my canned sequences?

∂12-Oct-79  1339	JMC  
To:   LES
CC:   RPG   
Sounds plausible.

∂12-Oct-79  1337	JMC  
To:   JRA    
You can phone him at 494-8670.

∂12-Oct-79  1115	JMC  
To:   JRA    
I suggest you phone Pat Hayes at 321-2052 to ask for suggestions.

∂12-Oct-79  1114	JMC  
To:   wilkins at SRI-KL
SEARLE[E79,JMC] is the source and SEARLE.XGP[E79,JMC] the xgp version
of a reply to Searle's second draft.  If you want a paper copy, message
Patte to send you one.  I shall be away for two weeks, but after the
first of November, I will be glad to discuss these matters with you.
Perhaps you would like to visit our AI and philosophy group at the
Behavioral Science Center for lunch sometime.

∂09-Oct-79  1857	JMC  
To:   DPB at SU-AI, "@FAC.DIS[1,DPB]" at SU-AI  
My opinion is that letting Bell Lab make a pitch is a good idea.  If it
gets out of hand we can either limit it or stop it.  A more genuine
interaction between industry and the academic world is desirable.
However, it should be tried out rather gingerly with pitches in only one
or two classes where the instructors agree.  Alternatively, we could ask
them to give a seminar at a time of their convenience on work at Bell
Labs.  If we say we're trying it out, we don't have to let anyone else
do it until and unless we decide we like it and what form it should take.
This is assuming the recruiters are actually researchers and not just
random personnel men.

∂08-Oct-79  2336	JMC  
To:   CLT    
abilit.xgp again

∂08-Oct-79  2038	JMC  
To:   ME
ME - About 3500 tracks (of quotas).  Of course, we won't get it back until
the musicians have had a chance to transfer it to their new computer.
I don't understand the units.  How many tracks are there, and what
is a typical quota of 150K words in those units.

∂08-Oct-79  1843	JMC  
To:   ME
About how much disk will we recover when we separate from the musicians?

∂08-Oct-79  1519	JMC  
To:   PAT    
Thanks for the references.

∂08-Oct-79  1357	JMC  
To:   HPM    
think so but not sure

∂07-Oct-79  1327	JMC  	references    
To:   PAT    
There were two special issues of Reviews of Modern Physics containing
reports of American Physical Society studies on nuclear energy.  One
discussed reactor safety and the other the fuel cycle and waste
disposal.  Please get me the precise references including exact titles
and dates.  The physics library will have it.   I don't need the
documents themselves.

∂06-Oct-79  2050	JMC  
To:   DON    
Speaking of the wetsuit, did you know that if you put the wetsuit on when
you find it but drop all the wetsuit will be on the floor.  Nevertheless,
it will protect you in the water.  Indeed a magic wetsuit.

∂05-Oct-79  2220	JMC  	nonmonotonic conference credit    
To:   CLT
CC:   LES, HVA   
HVA will find out who paid for Drew's McDermott's
trip and I'll try to think whom to credit
if anyone.  Basically, we had no expenses except for that and so needn't
credit anyone but ourselves and SAIL as an organization.  I'll ask Les
if he can think of any benefit to crediting any AI Lab sponsor.  Probably
there will be some benefit in crediting ARPA.

 ∂05-Oct-79  2211	CLT  	??? 
I received the following query.  I can answer most of the it.  
What about the funding?
Does someone/agency get credit for bringing Drew out?  If so who?


 ∂05-Oct-79  1619	BOBROW at PARC-MAXC2 	Credit line for Nonmonotonic lgic confeence
Date:  5 OCT 1979 1616-PDT
From: BOBROW at PARC-MAXC2
Subject: Credit line for Nonmonotonic lgic confeence
To:   talcott at SAIL

I am putting together a special issue of the AI journal which
will contain all the papers presented at said conference which you
and John organized ( I have been told).  I would like to give
credit to the conference and the organizers for stimulating the
special issue.  Will you please tell me the dates, the exact title,
who to credit (You, John, funding agency, SAIL???) etc.
Thanks.
danny
-------

∂05-Oct-79  2203	JMC  
To:   DON    
I'll trade one way of lighting match (only one I know) for how to live.

∂05-Oct-79  1931	JMC  
To:   MFB    
how about friday nov 30 at 2:15. that's ok

∂05-Oct-79  1928	JMC  
To:   JRA    
Stoyan should be invited to be on the committee and to give a paper.
The probability of his being allowed out is epsilon so nothing should
hang on it.

∂05-Oct-79  1926	JMC  
To:   JRA    
There is no reason that I see for Stanford LISP to be represented.  Almost
all of us have switched to Maclisp, and those that haven't don't prefer
Stanford LISP but just have large programs to maintain.  I am dubious
about the value of ACM co-operation; they have a reputation for imposing
conditions.  I think this applies only to their "sponsorship" - not to
listing it as a coming event in their publications.

∂05-Oct-79  0106	JMC  
To:   rms at MIT-AI    
Misstatement.  I meant "... couldn't be sure that learning in an ARBITRARY
model made sense ..."

∂05-Oct-79  0104	JMC  
To:   rms at MIT-AI    
I agree with the considerations of your message.  It made me nervous
that I couldn't be sure that learning in a particular model made sense,
but I don't see anything wrong with the idea that this just excludes
particular shared pointer models.  Also I don't have an actual example
in which shared pointers do harm, but my present intuition is that
it wouldn't be difficult to make one.  I'll think about it.

∂05-Oct-79  0058	JMC  
To:   HPM    
"every option ..." indeed arises after pulling oil lever.

∂05-Oct-79  0039	JMC  	haunt    
To:   HPM    
1. eating the orchid at 23:58 or at midnight has no special effect.
2. pushing normal causes the elevator to break
3. I have been unable to get anything but the sheep message from
blowing the horn which incidentally causes it to disappear - at
least if one is in the house.  I didn't check effect on score.
I thought the message might depend on the stage of the game, but
even pushing it before using special properties of elevator still
elicits only sheep message.  Do you remember under what circumstances
you got the other message?  Still, the horn may be a means of getting
hints.  Maybe I'll see what happens if I blow it after pulling the
oil lever.

∂04-Oct-79  2100	JMC  
To:   RWW    
The Aiello letter is fine except that I have changed the last phrase
which was open to the interpretation that we think she might be good
enough for the Italians even though she might not be suited to an
American univerity position.  If joint publications are in the works,
this should be mentioned even though details can be left for her resume.
Ask Patte to get it on a letter for me to sign.
Use this modified version.

Dear sirs,

Luigia Aiello has been a visitor at the Stanford Artificial Laboratory
on two occasions  -  January 1973 to August 1974, and February 1979
until the present.  During her first visit here she worked with
Richard Weyhrauch on the LCF project and they produced several papers
together.  On her currrent visit she is involved with the formal 
reasoning project and is working with the FOL system.
She has made considerable contributions to both these
projects and as a result we are currently augmenting her Italian 
financial support.  I believe that she is well suited for a
university teaching position.

∂04-Oct-79  1205	JMC  
To:   JRA    
Raj Reddy said IJCAI might sponsor LISP meet, and you should send him a message.

∂04-Oct-79  0038	JMC  
To:   rms at MIT-AI    
The Sato paper got back, thank you.

The circumscription paper is finished.  Its source is circum.new[s79,jmc]
if you are interested in FTPing it.  Otherwise, I'll send you a paper
copy if you want, or you can wait for it to appear in the non-monotonic
issue of the AI journal or as a Stanford AI Memo.

I don't remember saying that anything might not have finite models.
What I think I did say was that I wanted to axiomatize the wise men
and S and P puzzles so that there would be no merging accesibility
paths in order that my definition of learning would work properly.
That would force there to be only infinite models and I know how
to do it.  All I need is an axiom that says that a world can be
accessible only from one world other than itself.  The point is
that a merging of accessibility paths may be compatible with
an initial state of knowledge, but an inconsistency could arise
when I define learning as allowing only those accessibility relations
compatible with what is learned.  If the same world were accessible
in two ways, learning something might want to cut off one of its
outgoing accessibilities from one point of view and not from another.
I lose nothing by postulating non-merging.

∂03-Oct-79  1922	JMC  
To:   admin.gorin at SU-SCORE    
The time is ok for me, but I leave at noon.  How about the Dept. Chairman's
conference room?

∂02-Oct-79  2329	JMC  
To:   HPM    
Kicking the football broke the dome, but it was moonlight and bat escaped.