perm filename MINSKY.NOT[ESS,JMC] blob
sn#005542 filedate 1971-11-17 generic text, type T, neo UTF8
00100 Conversations with Minsky, Papert and Hewitt.
00200
00300 I had some difficulty maintaining the usefulness of predicate
00400 calculus representations of knowledge. The important criterion
00500 seems to be epistemological adequacy. Namely, it is not clear
00600 that the procedural representations of info favored by them
00700 can be used to represent the information actually transmitted
00800 between humans.
00900
01000 A key problem to try to axiomatize is that of attending
01100 the Japan AI conference in all its gory detail including:
01200
01300 1. What other people will or might do if induced. Represent
01400 them by parallel indeterminate programs. (Side thought: Suppose we
01500 have parallel indeterminate programs with <before> and <after>
01600 statements. In general, a set of such programs will be inconsistent,
01700 but under suitable conditions they will be consistent and replacable
01800 by programs with a specific synchronizing mechanism, a la Manna
01900 and Ashcroft. It may be easier to write, and prove the properties
02000 of the programs with the before and after.)
02100
02200 2. The location of information in documents and in people
02300 who will say it when asked.
02400
02500 3. What we know now and what we know about information
02600 becoming available when needed.
02700
02800 4. The form of the program for going to Japan and the
02900 pseudo-proof that it will work.