00010	Comments on JMC'S COMMENTS ON LIGHTHILL
00020	
00030	My general comments first-
00040	
00050	The tone of the review impresses me as being much too much on the
00060	defensive. Lighthill has made some valid points and one should
00070	concede these but there is no point in going to battle on his chosen
00080	battle ground. Wouldn't it be better to define the field in your own
00090	way and then to point out that Lightfield has chosen to distort this
00100	classification so as to ignore the real contributions of AI and to do
00110	battle only on a restriicted field where his enemy (the AI workers)
00120	is weakest.
00130	
00140	Why not start something like this.
00150	
00160	"Professor Lighthill's attack on the field of artificial
00170	intelligence, submitted as a review, does a disservice to science and
00180	to the tradition of scientific fairness. Professor Lighthill of
00190	Cambridge University is a famous hydrodynamicist with a recent
00200	interest in applications to biology. The review in question was"
00210	(continue with your first paragraph)
00220	
00230	"Let us begin by defining what artificial intelligence is. Artificial
00240	Intelligence is a study of the mechanisms of intelligent behavior.
00250	Most of the workers in this field believe that it is possible and
00260	indeed desirable to advance this field, by studying specific problems
00270	as well as by studying problem solving methods. This leads to both
00280	experimental and theoritical work which quite naturally can best be
00290	done bu using computers.
00300	
00310	As an example of one such problem, one might cite the problem of
00320	obtaining a three-dimensional world model from vision, not how the
00330	the eye and the animal mind does this but rather how it can be done
00340	at all. The fact that this might lead to the design of a Mars Rover
00350	is quite beside the point or even that one might find it desirable to
00360	construct a robot of sorts to test out one's ideas. To confuse AI
00370	work with its possible application is quite analogous to confusing
00380	any basic work with its application, say confusing basic work in
00390	number theory with its application to bookkeeping, or to bring the
00400	matter closer to home, confusing Profesor Lighthill's work in
00410	hydrodynamics with its present application in the construction of
00420	levees along the Mississippi. Professor Lighthill would certainly not
00430	want his work assessed in such terms.
00440	
00450	Just as mathematics contributes to other fields, AI contributes to
00460	other disciplines, such, for example, to psychology and to
00470	neurophysiology but to confuse AI with its side applications is
00480	equally wrong."
00490	
00500	Your second Paraghaph could follow this but your third paragraph
00510	could now be omitted.
00520	
00530	I would also suggest that the paragraph on neurophysiology be put
00540	after the material on psychology.
00550	
00560	Your paragraph on practical applications leans rather heavily on your
00570	own contributions to AI, as well it might, but your defense of AI
00580	might be accepted as being more dispassionate were this not so
00590	obvious. I am hard put to know what to suggest to remedy this,
00600	perhaps being more forthright might help, say something as follows-
00610	
00620		"Some of more significant work on programming languages has
00630	been motivated by its use in AI work. As an early example I might
00640	mention my own work on the LISP language which has found applications
00650	in other fields as well, e.g. physics."
00660	
00670	Your last Paragraph is a bit weak. Inverting the first sentence would
00680	help.
00690	
00700	"Artificial Intelligence is bound to incur systematic attacks of a
00710	kind that other sciences do not suffer, largely because many people
00720	feel that attempts to develop artificial intelligence are challenges
00730	to man's supremacy. Somehow this fear gets translated into a hope
00740	that human level of intelligence will never be achieved and into
00750	attempts to prove the correctness of this posture."
00760