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\F2\CSTANFORD ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F0


						January 28, 1974






Dr. J. J. Horning
Computing Laboratory
University of Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
England

Dear Dr. Horning:

\J	I have just noticed your \F1Artificial Intelligence:  Further
comments on the SRC paper symposium\F0.  On the whole, I disagree with
your opinions, but I wouldn't write to you except that you make some
misstatements about me, and I wonder where you imagine you got your
information.

	You say that LISP owes more to my concern for mathematical theory
than to a desire to program the \F1Advice Taker\F0.  Historically, this
is just not so.  LISP was started in the fall of 1958 at the same time
as I was writing the paper \F1Programs with Common Sense\F0 that
outlined the \F1Advice Taker\F0.  The work on mathematical theory of
computation didn't start for two years after that.

	I hope you will undertake to correct the misinformation you
have perpetrated.\.


						Sincerely yours,


						John McCarthy
						Professor of Computer Science
						Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory