perm filename W81.OUT[LET,JMC] blob
sn#579429 filedate 1981-04-01 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
COMMENT ⊗ VALID 00129 PAGES
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C00011 00003 ∂01-Jan-81 1704 JMC today
C00012 00004 ∂02-Jan-81 0119 JMC
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C00015 00006 ∂02-Jan-81 0133 JMC
C00018 00007 ∂03-Jan-81 0004 JMC
C00019 00008 ∂04-Jan-81 1542 JMC TA possibility
C00020 00009 ∂05-Jan-81 1214 JMC lenat
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C00046 00019 ∂06-Jan-81 0050 JMC
C00047 00020 ∂06-Jan-81 1647 JMC commonwealth club
C00048 00021 ∂07-Jan-81 1042 JMC
C00049 00022 ∂07-Jan-81 2317 JMC reprints for cs226
C00050 00023 ∂07-Jan-81 2339 JMC seminar
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C00062 00031 ∂10-Jan-81 1927 JMC
C00063 00032 ∂11-Jan-81 0133 JMC Censoring Research and Best Wishes
C00065 00033 ∂11-Jan-81 1138 JMC earthquake
C00067 00034 ∂11-Jan-81 1138 JMC
C00068 00035 ∂11-Jan-81 1157 JMC escape from fire
C00069 00036 ∂11-Jan-81 1510 JMC
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C00076 00039 ∂12-Jan-81 1608 JMC reports for Inkeles
C00077 00040 ∂12-Jan-81 1626 JMC
C00078 00041 ∂12-Jan-81 2218 JMC speaker
C00079 00042 ∂12-Jan-81 2221 JMC Pat Hayes
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C00092 00051 ∂14-Jan-81 1702 JMC visitors
C00093 00052 ∂14-Jan-81 1739 JMC my opinion
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C00101 00059 ∂16-Jan-81 1722 JMC friedl and disk
C00102 00060 ∂18-Jan-81 0050 JMC
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C00114 00062 ∂18-Jan-81 0137 JMC passwords for equipment
C00115 00063 ∂18-Jan-81 1822 JMC cv needs more
C00117 00064 ∂18-Jan-81 1905 JMC
C00118 00065 ∂18-Jan-81 1906 JMC
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C00121 00068 ∂19-Jan-81 0245 JMC please pick up letter
C00122 00069 ∂19-Jan-81 0934 JMC
C00123 00070 ∂19-Jan-81 1544 JMC office mate
C00124 00071 ∂19-Jan-81 1546 JMC office mate
C00125 00072 ∂20-Jan-81 0159 JMC
C00126 00073 ∂20-Jan-81 0200 JMC
C00127 00074 ∂20-Jan-81 1657 JMC cs226
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C00138 00085 ∂23-Jan-81 0011 JMC The knowledge level
C00139 00086 ∂23-Jan-81 0016 JMC
C00140 00087 ∂23-Jan-81 0016 JMC lwe
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C00143 00090 ∂23-Jan-81 1424 JMC
C00144 00091 ∂23-Jan-81 1639 JMC
C00145 00092 ∂23-Jan-81 1705 JMC Kurt Konolige
C00146 00093 ∂24-Jan-81 2213 JMC
C00147 00094 ∂25-Jan-81 1448 JMC
C00148 00095 ∂25-Jan-81 1452 JMC
C00149 00096 ∂25-Jan-81 2339 JMC Pournelle meeting travel
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C00161 00108 ∂27-Jan-81 1829 JMC account
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C00164 00111 ∂28-Jan-81 0117 JMC King David's Space Ship
C00166 00112 ∂28-Jan-81 0923 JMC
C00167 00113 ∂28-Jan-81 1757 JMC
C00168 00114 ∂28-Jan-81 1834 JMC changes to exer2
C00169 00115 ∂28-Jan-81 2310 JMC handout
C00170 00116 ∂28-Jan-81 2313 JMC
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C00172 00118 ∂28-Jan-81 2358 JMC Non-monotonic issue of AI Journal
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C00176 00122 ∂31-Jan-81 1941 JMC
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C00183 00129 ∂03-Feb-81 2021 CSD.MCCARTHY at SU-SCORE ARPAnet
C00185 ENDMK
C⊗;
∂01-Jan-81 1704 JMC today
To: CLT
I'm taking Sarah at 8:15 to see Kagemusha and would like to eat in time.
Will you change your mind and come? Did you lose any files?
∂02-Jan-81 0119 JMC
To: FFL
Please send him one.
∂01-Jan-81 1936 Henry at MIT-AI (Henry Lieberman) Your Lisp Book
Date: 30 DEC 1980 0016-EST
From: Henry at MIT-AI (Henry Lieberman)
Subject: Your Lisp Book
To: JMC at SU-AI, CLT at SU-AI
Carl Hewitt has told me that you are working on an introductory book on
Lisp. I am doing research on programming environments for Lisp which I
hope will make Lisp programming easier to learn for beginning users, and
for AI applications. Surveying introductory textbooks will help me see
how programming concepts are initially presented to users and provide
examples of simple kinds of programs new users write. Would it be
possible for me to obtain a draft copy of the book? [I can FTP and Dover
it over the net if sending hard copy is a hassle.] Thank you.
Henry Lieberman, MIT AI Lab
∂02-Jan-81 0127 JMC
To: henry at MIT-AI
CC: CLT at SU-AI
I have asked my secretary to send you a copy.
∂02-Jan-81 0133 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
CC: minsky at MIT-AI
I will come to your end of January space meeting if invited. Perhaps a
previous message to that effect got lost. Also, in case you didn't know,
our computer was down from just before Christmas to Dec 31, so I'm just
catching up on my mail.
In my opinion something can be done to get an EOP system with reasonable
security and capability, but it first it is necessary to know what has
already been done and the state-of-the-art on secure and convenient
time-sharing systems. I even believe that people can work from home with
greater security than taking documents home and having a safe. It
requires an editing terminal that keeps encrypted files and transmits only
encrypted files to the central system. I think that the new developments
in cryptography, i.e. public key, are not needed for this, and I suspect
that there are experts that know almost all relevant facts. The one
possibility for "revolution" is that the experts may have talked
themselves into a more paranoid attitude to computer-based systems than to
manual systems, so that switching from present systems to a computer-based
system with known imperfections may be better than staying with present
systems. Moreover, I'll bet there is an enormous amount of EOP work which
requires no more security than is provided by ordinary operating systems.
∂03-Jan-81 0004 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
OK, have a good trip. MAIL when you return.
∂04-Jan-81 1542 JMC TA possibility
To: konolige at SRI-KL
Carolyn Talcott told me that you needed TA credit but weren't interested
in money. I'm teaching CS226, Epistemological Problems of Artificial
Intelligence, next quarter and hadn't planned on a TA, since it will be
a rather small ccurse. However, there may be a co-incidence of interests,
since I could use some help in introducing the students to FOL and in
the preparation of sets of axioms in FOL. My present ideas don't add
up to very much work, though you or I might think of something more to
do.
∂05-Jan-81 1214 JMC lenat
To: buchanan at SUMEX-AIM
I go along with your recommendation. My long range reservations about
Lenat have been more concerned with what he produces than with how much.
If as I believe, the approach he took in AM misses the essence of the
problem of discovery, then the two problems are related.
∂05-Jan-81 1253 JMC
To: CLT
PROOFS[F80,JMC] contains the material I received from Boyer, but the
messages were addressed to you also.
∂05-Jan-81 1315 JMC
To: bledsoe at UTEXAS-11
It now looks like I'll be on time.
∂05-Jan-81 1643 JMC
To: konolige at SRI-KL
The class is Tuesday and Thursday at 11 in 380C starting tomorrow.
There will be no class on Thursday this week. You should try to
attend at least half of the classes at least in the early part of
the quarter.
∂05-Jan-81 1847 JMC
To: ME
;@ should use option.txt on login area.
∂05-Jan-81 1944 JMC
To: buchanan at SUMEX-AIM
Do you still need the Datamedia?
∂05-Jan-81 2043 JMC
To: BYY
n050 1352 05 Jan 81
BC-PHILOSOPHY
(EDUCATION)
By EDWARD B. FISKE
c. 1981 N.Y. Times News Service
BOSTON - As in Athens, so in America: Philosophers disagree,
sometimes with passion. Last week, in a battle fought with virtually
every traditional academic weapon short of hemlock, proponents of
''analytic'' philosophy reasserted their control of the Eastern
Division of the American Philosophical Association.
At the division's annual meeting here, the analysts soundly defeated
candidates of a coalition of ''pluralists'' who charge that they have
been unfairly excluded from positions of leadership.
The debate, marked by personal acrimony as well as philosophical
differences, dramatized the political nature of the world's oldest
academic profession. ''All academic fields have factions and
personality conficts,'' said John J. McDermott, a pluralist from
Texas A&M. ''In philosophy the issue seems to be whether some of us
are actually in the profession.''
Since World War II, the ''analytic'' approach to philosophy has been
dominant in American universities. Primarily a product of such
20th-century thinkers as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, it
seeks to clarify traditional problems of philosophy through logic and
by careful analysis of language and concepts. ''Philosophy is a
continuation at a more abstract or inclusive level of the natural
sciences,'' said Willard Quine of Harvard University, one of the
greatest of contemporary American analytic philosophers.
The opposing term, ''pluralist,'' describes not a single approach
but a variety of nonanalytical schools, including phenomenology,
existentialism, metaphysics and the American ''pragmatism'' that grew
from the thought of John Dewey and William James. Unlike the
analysts, they see philosophy as a way of describing the world rather
than analyzing thoughts, and they see themselves as heirs to the
philosophers and issues of the past.
In discussing the ethics of abortion, for example, an analytical
philosopher might begin by analyzing terms such as ''non-voluntary,''
while a representative of one of the pluralist schools might start by
describing a situation in which an abortion took place.
Pluralists charge that analysts' fascination with logic and highly
technical arguments - cou pled with their acknowledged indifference
to the history of philosophy - is driving undergraduate students away
from philosophy courses. ''In schools like Vanderbilt and Stony
Brook, where pluralists are represented on the faculties, you get as
much as 15 percent of students enrolled in philosophy courses at any
given time,'' said Donald Idhe, a professor at the State University
of New York at Stony Brook. ''At places like Maryland or Pittsburgh,
where the analysts are dominant, you get only about five percent.''
The struggle between the two factions broke out at last year's
convention of the Eastern Division, when the ''Committee on
Pluralism'' successfully challenged the ''official'' slate of
officers. The dissidents managed to elect John E. Smith of Yale as
vice president and captured the other two available elective seats on
the10-member executive committee. Professor Smith now moves up to the
presidency of the 3000-member division.
At last week's convention, the analysts fought back. A letter was
circulated over the signatures of nine past presidents charging that
the Committee on Pluralism ''seeks to obtain through political means
a position of influence which its members have not been able to
obtain through their philosophical work.''
The counterstrike succeeded. When the votes were counted, Adolf
Grunbaum of the University of Pittsburgh, an analytic philosopher who
had lost the election last year, won the vice-presidency over William
Barrett, the New York University professor who was the pluralist
entry. The pluralist candidates for the exeutive committee, John
Lachs of Vanderbilt University and Sandra Rosenthal of Loyola in New
Orleans, were also defeated.
The rhetoric of the political debate left little doubt that the
participants were professional philosophers. At a rally organized by
pluralists on the eve of the election Bruce Wilshire of Rutgers
University said that he looked forward to a day when ''the various
groups and parts of it will define themselves as parts of the whole,
not parts which are the whole.''
Privately, the two sides frequently engaged in personal attacks. A
Yale analyst described one pluralist colleague as ''a joke'' and
another as ''not a serious contributor to philosophical literature.''
Lachs riposted for the pluralists: ''How about those who have the
political power without philosophical distinction?''
Underlying the conflict are some fundamental nonintellectual
tensions within philosophy. As in other fields, there has been a
dispersion of talent beyond such traditional bastions of influence as
Harvard, Princeton, Michigan and, more recently, Pittsburgh; and
departments at universities such as Vanderbilt, Kansas and Arizona
have become increasingly visible.
The pluralists, most of whom come from such newer institutions,
claim that the structure of the APA does not reflect this
''democratization.'' ''It's a revolt of the provinces against the
Northeast,'' said Lachs.
The pluralists also claim that analysts conspire to keep nonanalytic
philosophy out of the influential journals and that they do not
regard the pluralist approaches as serious philosophy. It would be
most unusual, for example, for a student at Harvard to do a
dissertation on Dewey or James.
nyt-01-05-81 1652est
***************
∂05-Jan-81 2111 JMC
To: BYY
The news service is called by the ns command. Here is a sample
of commands. The ; and what follows each command is my comment. Don't type it.
ns ; said to the system gets you into the news service program
/after 7am; not necessary if you want it to start at previous midnight
barwise; looks for stories with the name barwise. Note the initial space.
barwise*feferman-mccarthy; looks for stories with b and f and not m
u; goes to the next story
i; goes to the previous story
j; the next part of a story
k; the previous part of a story
e; exits not forgetting what stories you have seen while you remain logged in
<form>; another screenful
<vt>; back to the previous screenful
?; gets you into the descriptions of features of the program
"et msg" gets you the page beyond the last message page you
have changed. Even adding a space will do it.
Is there a logic seminar tomorrow? I can't speak on the 27th,
because I am committed to give the Computer Science Colloquium on that
day but can speak at the next available time. Richard Weyhrauch mentioned
that he had committed himself to speak on FOL at some time, and he would
be willing to speak on that date. He is RWW.
Now that it is clear that logicians use terminals, do you suppose
that Sol Feferman would want one on the same terms as yours. By the way,
now that you're hooked, you should buy your own when you can get the cash
from a grant. I think they have to be bought in batches if they are to
have the SAIL keyboard, so there needs to be advance notice.
∂05-Jan-81 2338 JMC
To: newell at CMU-10A
Dear Allen:
Thanks for the copy of your presidential address. As you
suggested, I agree with most of it and suppose much of it anticipated
by my previous work. However, the idea of a logical level as distinct
from the use of logic as a representation language was new to me, and
I see that some of the arguments I advanced for the use of logic as
a representation language may apply more directly to the concept of
a logical level in intelligence and to regarding it as a competence.
Here are some corrections and comments:
1. The title of my 1977 IJCAI paper is "Epistemological Problems of Artificial
Intelligence" not "Predicate Calculus".
2. Schank is misspelled in several places, Abelson is consistently misspelled,
and Dennett is misspelled in the references.
3. The diagram on page 31 seems to be garbled slightly. I think the second
half should be
Program should assert:
Pat dialed Mary's telephone number.
but should not assert:
Pat knows Mary's telephone number.
4. Many of the issues of ascribing knowledge that you discuss
here are discussed in my
%3McCarthy, John (1979)%1:
"Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines" in %2Philosophical Perspectives
in Artificial Intelligence%1, Ringle, Martin (ed.), Harvester Press, July 1979.
available as a the file at SU-AI
MENTAL[F76,JMC] 05-Dec-77 ASCRIBING MENTAL QUALITIES TO MACHINES
or I can send you another reprint. I would be grateful for a mention that
the paper discusses the issue of when specific beliefs, desires, etc.
can be ascribed.
5. I certainly have advocated the use of logic as a representation
language, and my own work has been devoted almost entirely (with the
exception of chess) to its use. Nevertheless, I haven't claimed it should
be the sole language. I am quite sympathetic with your idea of the "knowledge
level" as a higher level of abstraction.
6. Your solution on page 32 to the Pat and Mike problem suffers
from problems, some of which I have pointed out on various occasions
and which were also discussed in Bob Moore's 1975 M.I.T. Master's thesis,
"Reasoning from Incomplete Knowledge in a Procedural Deduction System",
Garland Publishing Co., New York. If you must represent a person's
data structure's then you can't easily represent disjunctions like,
"He knows A or he knows B", or non-knowledge "Brezhnev doesn't know
whether Reagan is standing or sitting at this moment".
Some proposals for solving this problem are in my
%3McCarthy, John (1979)%1:
"First Order Theories of Individual Concepts and Propositions",
in Michie, Donald (ed.) %2Machine Intelligence 9%1, (University of
Edinburgh Press, Edinburgh).
CONCEP[E76,JMC] 01-Sep-77 FIRST ORDER THEORIES OF INDIVIDUAL CONCEPTS
AND PROPOSITIONS
7. There are an unusually large number of misprints and misspellings that led
me to suppose the article was partly transcribed from a recording of the
speech. Here are some wrong words which can be found by a secretary
in the text using a string search. Some occur more than once.
convienient represenation attendent questionaire respondant discription
cacaphony redundent ie determinency fragement descrimination obstruse
counter_examples analysizing mileaux communality (commonality is meant)
explaning publically peoples anomolous espcially miniscule
from (where form is meant on p. 36) ubquitous its (where in is meant)
scholorly LaJolla desireable glimse Compter continutiy eg suprising
Messers
With Best Regards
John McCarthy
∂05-Jan-81 2341 JMC
To: FFL
Where do we stand on the permission letters?
∂06-Jan-81 0050 JMC
To: DPB at SU-AI
Kurt Konolige will TA for cs226 for free to meet TA requirement. OK?
∂06-Jan-81 1647 JMC commonwealth club
To: TOB
You will get a phone call from Mr. Sweeney of the Commonwealth Club
in SF asking whether you will speak to them about robotics. I was
going to talk about the long range future of it, but when I didn't
get around to supplying a biography, they put off the meeting. I
suppose he will be agreeable to any robotics topic you want.
∂07-Jan-81 1042 JMC
To: FFL
I suppose we should get the class notes out serially to give us
more time. I would like "Programs with Common Sense" to distribute
next Tuesday, and 50 copies will be required, since the enrollment
was about 40. It is ready to go now. After that the permission
letters have priority.
∂07-Jan-81 2317 JMC reprints for cs226
To: FFL at SU-AI
CC: konolige at SRI-KL
Kurt Konolige aka KONOLIGE%SRI is the TA for the course.
He will distribute the reprints and collect.
How long is the delay to get something printed, with and without declaring
an emergency. There is one other paper I would like by Tuesday if it
isn't too hard, namely the article by Fodor in the Scientific American
I left on your desk. I will have some material on knowledge this weekend.
Will it be reasonable to distribute it on Thursday if it is ready to be
printed Monday morning? I won't be in except briefly today (Jan 8).
∂07-Jan-81 2339 JMC seminar
To: FFL
The knowledge and action seminar will be next Thursday, and the speaker
will be Richard Waldinger of SRI. He says you have the abstract already.
If not call him at SRI. You can also try Zohar's office, because he is
often there.
∂08-Jan-81 0017 JMC
To: boyer at SRI-F2
I shall be on time. Woody apparently hasn't yet got the habit of
reading his ARPAnet mail. Do you know where Henry' is?
∂08-Jan-81 0020 JMC
To: boyer at SRI-F2
I hope to make the meeting in SF, possibly a bit late because of a
class. Anyway I have an idea for an intermediate prize.
The program used to verify the four-color theorem was never proved
correct - either by hand or machine. It is disgraceful that the referees
wrote their own program. It is almost as though a proof was offered that
consisted of a selection of cases and the referees accepted the paper on
the basis of some further examples.
Whether one regards the above analogy as valid or not, it is clear
that assurance of the correctness of the four color conjecture would be
greater if the program had been proved to meet certain specifications.
Even suppose that no-one had proved anything aobut the programming
language, the compiler or the computer itself. It is ultimately desirable
to prove them correct also, but there is an important distinction between
them and the program specifically intended to verify the conjecture in
that the latter is subject to wishful thinking by the author and even by
the referees.
My suggestion then is that the committee offer a prize for the
first computer-checked proof (whether generated by computer or not) that a
program is correct that is the basis of a substantial published proof of a
matematical conjecture.
There is a lesser example than the four color theorem which I
understand better. A Stanford CS graduate student named Oren Patashnik,
while at Yale, proved that 3 dimensional tic-tac-toe with four on a side
is a win for the first player using about 1500 hours of computer time.
The paper about it was recently published in %2Mathematics Magazine%1. In
my opinion, it wouldn't be very hard to prove correct a program that
verifies cases. .next page;
Like the four color problem, Patashniks proof involved finding
winning moves in certain situations with the help of the computer and then
using the computer to verify that the moves were winning and the positions
formed an adequate set. I think he or someone else would deserve a
moderate prize for a computer checked proof. More than likely, a new
program would be written for the verification work that would be easier to
prove correct and would run in a reasonable time.
∂09-Jan-81 0003 JMC
To: KLC
I'll be in tomorrow afternoon, but I don't have anything yet either.
∂09-Jan-81 1505 JMC
To: alr at MIT-AI
McCarthy, John (1963): "A Basis for Mathematical Theory of Computation",
in Braffort, P. and D. Hirschberg (eds.) %2Computer
Programming and Formal Systems%1, North-Holland Publishing Co. (1963).
treats the mathematical properties of conditional expressions.
The first printed proposal to use conditional expressions in programming
languages is probably in a note in CACM that was printed as a letter to
the editor in 1959 or 1960.
The purely logical ternary connective, i.e. where B and C are required
to be 0 or 1 is much earlier. There is a reference in "Mathematical Logic"
by Alonzo Church, towards the end of one of the chapters on propositional
calculus.
∂09-Jan-81 1528 JMC
To: FFL
colmer.3[let
∂10-Jan-81 0116 JMC
To: neumann at SRI-KL
Yes, I'm interested, but I'll have to look at the Proceedings to see
whether I would want to make a presentation.
∂10-Jan-81 0211 JMC
To: FFL
common.tex[epi,jmc] is the current version.
∂10-Jan-81 1927 JMC
To: boyer at SRI-F2
Well, now that you and J have decided to stay at SRI in order to do
research full time, let me mention that for some time I have been
intending to suggest that the Computer Science Department ask one
or both of you to give a course some time. Delay only due to my
limited bureaucratic initiative. Might you be interested?
Anyway, it's good for us here that you are staying.
Peter invited me, and I have accepted.
∂11-Jan-81 0133 JMC Censoring Research and Best Wishes
To: pool at MIT-MULTICS
I saw your article in Society and agree entirely. After I fumed at the
Stanford notice I received this Fall, I scrapped it as not applicable to me
anyway, since I don't do surveys. However, ever since I have been
pondering it and wishing I had sent back a letter stating my intention
not to comply should the occasion arise.
Now that I have read your article, I have been thinking
of actually creating a test case. My best present idea is to send my
fellow faculty members a questionnaire on this issue itself - noting on it
that the questionnaire is unapproved. Do you have any other ideas or
comments on this one? I suppose others at Stanford are already involved,
but I don't know them.
I heard from Richard Solomon that you had an operation, and I hope
it was successful and you are recovering well.
- John McCarthy
∂11-Jan-81 1138 JMC earthquake
To: SOL at SU-AI
I have been thinking about that study for a few days. In my view it doesn't
address the main issues that it should. First, what is the potential
saving in lives and property between a well co-ordinated and a poorly
co-ordinated response to an emergency? How many more would have been
saved in Italy if the response had been better? Second, what degree
of preparations can be maintained over decades? Third, what is
cost-effective compared to other means of saving lives? My guess is
that the preparation of a good book giving a doctrine on emergency
response would be worthwhile, and it would be worthwhile to distribute
it among public agencies and get policemen, firemen, utility people and
contractors to read it.
The present study seems just one more piece of general purpose agitation.
∂11-Jan-81 1138 JMC
To: SOL at SU-AI
How is Ithiel?
∂11-Jan-81 1157 JMC escape from fire
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
A 20 inch by 30 inch plastic bag is good for 5.5 minutes slow walking
before becoming very uncomfortable.
∂11-Jan-81 1510 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
On monopoly -
The cartoon ascribes the skepticism about solar energy, etc. to a
desire on the part of companies to retain monopolies. This kind of
argument is about what can be expected from cartoons, but it doesn't
answer substantive arguments about the high cost of most solar schemes
based on low duty cycle of capital intensive parts of the system. It is
also deceptive in that coal, oil and uranium are all competitively sold
(except for the OPEC monopoly). The monopolies in energy are local and
are caused by the fact that the facilities are so capital intensive.
Monopolies have their disadvantages, but I'd rather pay my Pacific
Gas and Electric bill than maintain my own solar system (were one
available) or go to block meetings about whose fault it was that the block
system broke down. When diesel fuel was cheap and diesel fueled electric
systems were common in isolated places, (I guess they still are), people
who owned them regarded them as a nuisance and switched to public utility
power as soon as possible.
Reducing the monopoly by separating generation of power, which
might not be a natural monopoly, from its distribution would do some good.
Namely, public utility commissions would then be forced to pass through
increased costs of power purchased from unregulated suppliers just as they
are now forced to pass through increases in the price of natural gas and
imported oil not subject to their regulation. However, maintaining a free
market in electricity would require a distribution system that could
readily handle the switch from one electric supplier to another, and it
isn't clear that this is cheap enough. Unlike natural gas which can be
left in the ground if unsold, solar or nuclear energy costs mostly
continue if the product is unsold. This makes a flexible market more
difficult.
It seems to me that the end of REM's speculations on SPS sunlight
claims obsoletes the beginning. There is too much sunlight to make one
SPS obscuring another's a problem. However, there is a shortage of
stationary orbit space for communication satellites. I guess it doesn't
apply to SPS satellites since they require extremely directional antennas
anyway. The ground facilities for SPS, rectenna fields and distribution
systems, are just as much natural monopolies as generating plants for the
same reason - they will be so expensive that they require assured sales
(i.e. monopoly) to justify the investment.
∂11-Jan-81 1520 JMC
To: REM
Plutonium is not more poisonous than many other substances in common use.
It can cause the same kind of chemical poisoning as other heavy metals
but only when ingested in certain forms. Professor Bernard Cohen of
the University of Pittsburgh, an expert in health physics, offered to
eat a gram of plutonium oxide or breathe a suspension of plutonium
particles that remain in air after one minute. (I forget the exact
terms of his offer, but I suppose plutonium is too expensive and
surrounded by security for anyone to take him up). He computed that
his risks were equivalent to moving to Colorado for six months. The
plutonium oxide is safe, because the body can't absorb it in that form.
However, the whole issue is merely responding to talking points of the
anti-nukes by other talking points. The anti-technologists are already
responsible for a decline in American productivity. Eventually, they
will be seen to have done enough harm, so that we'll get busy replacing
presently existing oil burning plants by nuclear plants.
∂12-Jan-81 1317 JMC
To: JPM
Ralph has the authority to act on this, not me, so I suggest you take
it up with him.
∂12-Jan-81 1608 JMC reports for Inkeles
To: FFL
Please have a copy of the most recent AI Lab general report
and the most recent HPP general report sent to Professor Alex Inkeles
at Hoover.
∂12-Jan-81 1626 JMC
To: FFL
nsf.1
∂12-Jan-81 2218 JMC speaker
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
Ray Reiter of the University of British Columbia is the person I wish to
invite to give a colloquium talk. Unfortunately, he won't be available
til February 15 but say that any date after that is ok. I would like to
invite him for the soonest opening after that.
∂12-Jan-81 2221 JMC Pat Hayes
To: csd.hill at SU-SCORE
I see that Pat Hayes (PJH) is now an unknown. I would like to revive
him, and his account may be charged to my ARPA contract.
∂13-Jan-81 0110 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
outrage
"Why should the academic community kowtow to the bullying of the NSA?"
Ron Newman's outrage would be proper if the defense of the country were
not involved. However, it may be that non-publication of some
cryptography research may reduce the need for people to serve in the army,
reduce defense costs, and reduce the probability of war. Unfortunately,
if a case can be made for these restraints, the evidence is probably
properly kept secret. It is also possible that all the important cats are
out of the bag, and NSA is proceeding merely on bureaucratic momentum.
The academic cryptographic community is unlikely to simply believe NSA's
statement that the country is likely to benefit from the restrictions
proposed, and most likely the Government will not use the means of
coercion available to it. It seems to me that the only way to proceed is
for a few members of the academic cryptographic community to acquire the
clearances needed to give the others a one bit answer. Yes, the
restrictions meet certain agreed criteria for activation, or no they
don't. Presumably, the people getting the clearances will have to agree
to stop publishing in the area.
Of course, if you believe that America is the enemy or that to "protect
scientists from government interference" takes precedence over every other
value, then Newman is right. Otherwise, some kind of compromise is called
for.
∂13-Jan-81 1320 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
I'll speak on Jan. 27. Title: Ordinary logic is better than temporal logic.
Reiter's title for March 3 is
Towards a logical reconstruction of database theory.
∂13-Jan-81 2110 JMC
To: csd.lenat at SU-SCORE
I guess I've spoken fairly recently, and I don't have a finishing
student who hasn't spoken.
∂14-Jan-81 0133 JMC
To: RWW, ZM
I'll speak on Jan. 27. Title: Ordinary logic is better than temporal logic.
Reiter's title for March 3 is
Towards a logical reconstruction of database theory.
∂14-Jan-81 1453 JMC conference acceptance
To: pourne at MIT-MC
I accept with thanks and invitation. I may have a short position statement.
I don't know the attendees, but my impression is that it it short of
people with new technical ideas and the ability to do engineering
computations in their heads very fast. As you know the shrinking
space program of the last 15 years has had to be unfriendly to new
ideas, even though a number of good ones have been proposed. The best
technical idea man I know is Lowell Wood, who has been particularly
active in developing mass driver ideas, laser powered spacecraft, etc.
He is also very articulate, and will hold his own in any company.
He can be reached at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
Wood, Lowell Livermore, (415) 422-7281, 422-4165 sec'y
∂AIL Dr. Lowell Wood↓P.O. Box 808-L-372↓Livermore CA 94550∞
∂14-Jan-81 1625 JMC
To: FFL
chandr.3
∂14-Jan-81 1644 JMC mailing list
To: doles at RUTGERS
This is to request the transfer of my name from your paper mailing
list for reports to your ARPAnet mailing list.
John McCarthy
Computer Science Department
Stanford, CA 94305
the ARPAnet address is JMC@SU-AI
∂14-Jan-81 1650 JMC
To: FFL
See letter from them in my OUT box.
They have evidently changed the name of their reports distributor
on their computer. Please write them a letter requesting that
the report announcements be sent by ARPAnet mail.
∂14-Jan-81 1646 MAILER failed mail returned
The following message was undeliverable to recipient(s)
doles at RUTGERS:
∂14-Jan-81 1644 JMC mailing list
To: doles at RUTGERS
This is to request the transfer of my name from your paper mailing
list for reports to your ARPAnet mailing list.
John McCarthy
Computer Science Department
Stanford, CA 94305
the ARPAnet address is JMC@SU-AI
The following message was received from the remote host:
No such mailbox at this site.
∂14-Jan-81 1702 JMC visitors
To: JEF at SU-AI
I have left a file concerning two requests for visitors neither of
whom is asking for space. I'm neutral on the Chinese, Mr. He, but
rather favor the German, Guenther Goerz.
∂14-Jan-81 1739 JMC my opinion
To: RJT at SU-AI
I was reading old BBOARD discussions, and came across a remark by you
"JMC is on the committee as well, so you hardly need worry about SAIL
being replaced by something better". I don't quite know what you had
in mind, but I'll tell you my position. SAIL has many good features,
but the major bad feature that it is non-standard. I would replace
SAIL and SCORE together by a 2080 running TOPS-20 if that were the
best alternative. While I would like to get some of SAIL's features
on such a replacement, I would give them all up if it would save
enough money on software maintenance.
∂15-Jan-81 0016 JMC
To: TOB
Can't I find out whether myy presence is likely to be decisive first?
Has he taken the exams yet?
∂15-Jan-81 1427 JMC
To: csd.lenat at SU-SCORE
I would be glad to chair if I am here. There is a possibility that
I will have to make a trip to France at that time. I had hoped to
know by now, but maybe I can make a phone call and find out.
∂15-Jan-81 2126 JMC
To: csd.hill at SU-SCORE
Michael Gordon, Computer Science Dept. U. of Edinburgh, Scotland
∂16-Jan-81 0244 JMC
To: konolige at SRI-KL
Try to express "John doesn't know that all men are mortal".
∂16-Jan-81 1518 JMC
To: csd.hill at SU-SCORE
Aren't you the Susan who asked for his address in a system message?
∂16-Jan-81 1526 JMC
To: AAM
Elliott Bloom is at 282469. This is SLAC.
∂16-Jan-81 1722 JMC friedl and disk
To: csd.feigenbaum at SU-SCORE
I have heard nothing from Friedl about possiblility of IBM
contributing disk system. Do you want to inquire or should I?
∂18-Jan-81 0050 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
THIS IS A REVISED VERSION OF A PREVIOUS MESAGE. PLEASE DON'T PUBLISH
BOTH, AND, BY THE WAY, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO OMIT ANY PARAGRAPHS MAKING
POINTS MADE BETTER BY OTHERS.
The public key methods introduced so far have not made earlier
methods obsolete for two reasons. First, their security is doubtful. The
Rivest method depends on factoring integers being difficult which may not
be true. Moreover, the constraints that public key systems must satisfy
make it difficult to make systems more secure by piling on complication.
Earlier methods are probably better in that respect. One-time-pad methods
are completely secure from cryptanalysis though not from theft of keys.
In fact, none of the public key systems published so far have been
shown to involve solving an NP-complete problem. Moreover, since the
concept of NP-completeness is only ten years old, it would be rash to bet
the security of (say) our submarine deterrent on the proposition that
P≠NP, when you can't even get computer scientists to bet $50 on it.
Second, the amount of computing required to implement the known
public key methods is larger than many methods in common use. Apparently
the possibility of public key methods was not known to NSA et. al., though
my informants aren't sure of that, and it was a major discovery. The
advantage of public key methods is precisely that a secure channel for
transmitting keys is not required. Sometimes this is an enormous
advantage.
While anyone who knows Maclisp can construct a public key system,
the method described in the original article of Rivest et. al. has a major
cryptographic weakness that requires a modification to cure. Quite apart
from the algorithms, there may be other facts about cryptographic systems
that NSA would like to keep secret. On the other hand, the Boyce case
suggests that there are major avoidable weaknesses in systems used by our
government, and public research may lead to their cure.
We can't know whether NSA is doing something that might be
jeopardized by cryptographic research whose failure would require that the
U.S. would need more soldiers. Their motives may be purely bureaucratic
and it would require at trusted person with the clearances to find out.
At the time of the invasion of Normandy, the Germans were induced to
believe in the existence of the First U.S. Army Group under the command of
General Patton preparing to invade at Calais. They kept troops in the
Calais area for six weeks after the invasion. This ruse depended on the
fact that U.S. soldiers in England were not allowed to say in letters
home where in England they were stationed or the names of their units,
which restriction was enforced by censorship of letters. Had the Germans
been able to locate our units, they would have been able realized that
FUSAG was fictitious, and we might have lost tens of thousands more men in
the invasion. Presumably the Israeli requirement that army men be
identified only by first name in news stories is in support of deceptions
that might be practiced sometime in the future. The point is that this
involved people keeping secret information for reasons that they could not
be told, and many thought the secrecy was pointless. Indeed, secrecy
about unit names and locations is standard in many armies without there
being a precise plan about how this secrecy may be used.
While I don't know that NSA is right in trying to restrict
publication, it is silly to say that unless everyone has a right to
publish in this area, we are no better than Russia. Ask anyone who has
lived there.
∂18-Jan-81 0117 JMC
To: HUMAN-NETS at MIT-AI
THIS IS A REVISED VERSION OF A PREVIOUS MESAGE. PLEASE DON'T PUBLISH
BOTH, AND, BY THE WAY, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO OMIT ANY PARAGRAPHS MAKING
POINTS MADE BETTER BY OTHERS.
The public key methods introduced so far have not made earlier
methods obsolete for two reasons. First, their security is doubtful. The
Rivest method depends on factoring integers being difficult which may not
be true. Moreover, the constraints that public key systems must satisfy
make it difficult to make systems more secure by piling on complication.
Earlier methods are probably better in that respect. One-time-pad methods
are completely secure from cryptanalysis though not from theft of keys.
In fact, none of the public key systems published so far have been
shown to involve solving an NP-complete problem. Moreover, since the
concept of NP-completeness is only ten years old, it would be rash to bet
the security of (say) our submarine deterrent on the proposition that
P≠NP, when you can't even get computer scientists to bet $50 on it.
Second, the amount of computing required to implement the known
public key methods is larger than many methods in common use. Apparently
the possibility of public key methods was not known to NSA et. al., though
my informants aren't sure of that, and it was a major discovery. The
advantage of public key methods is precisely that a secure channel for
transmitting keys is not required. Sometimes this is an enormous
advantage.
While anyone who knows Maclisp can construct a public key system,
the method described in the original article of Rivest et. al. has a major
cryptographic weakness that requires a modification to cure. Quite apart
from the algorithms, there may be other facts about cryptographic systems
that NSA would like to keep secret. On the other hand, the Boyce case
suggests that there are major avoidable weaknesses in systems used by our
government, and public research may lead to their cure.
We can't know whether NSA is doing something that might be
jeopardized by cryptographic research whose failure would require that the
U.S. would need more soldiers. Their motives may be purely bureaucratic
and it would require at trusted person with the clearances to find out.
At the time of the invasion of Normandy, the Germans were induced to
believe in the existence of the First U.S. Army Group under the command of
General Patton preparing to invade at Calais. They kept troops in the
Calais area for six weeks after the invasion. This ruse depended on the
fact that U.S. soldiers in England were not allowed to say in letters
home where in England they were stationed or the names of their units,
which restriction was enforced by censorship of letters. Had the Germans
been able to locate our units, they would have been able realized that
FUSAG was fictitious, and we might have lost tens of thousands more men in
the invasion. Presumably the Israeli requirement that army men be
identified only by first name in news stories is in support of deceptions
that might be practiced sometime in the future. The point is that this
involved people keeping secret information for reasons that they could not
be told, and many thought the secrecy was pointless. Indeed, secrecy
about unit names and locations is standard in many armies without there
being a precise plan about how this secrecy may be used.
While I don't know that NSA is right in trying to restrict
publication, it is silly to say that unless everyone has a right to
publish in this area, we are no better than Russia. Ask anyone who has
lived there.
∂18-Jan-81 0137 JMC passwords for equipment
To: RWF
The file PASSWO[W81,JMC] contains a writeup of the idea, more or less as
we left it. Shall we try to patent it? My idea is to try the Stanford
patent people. Stanford and the Department would then get 2/3 of any
money made, but we would get something if they succeeded in marketing
it. If you want to proceed, please look at the file and make revisions.
∂18-Jan-81 1822 JMC cv needs more
To: TOB
"Include
A. Identifying data
date and place of birth, nationality
B. Complete academic record
Colleges and universities attended,
degrees and dates,
scholarships and academic honors
fellowship and residency training
other study or research appointments
C. Complete employment record
LIst all academic and non-academic positions held. Account for all time
since graduation from secondary school.
D. Public service.
E. Post degree honors and awards
Include major invited papers and addressses, memberships in professional
associations and learned societies, etc.
∂18-Jan-81 1905 JMC
To: TOB
The part about " Graduates of the program are
leaders throughout academic and industrial research." needs the substantiation
of specific names and positions. One sentence for each of no more than
5 such graduates would suffice.
∂18-Jan-81 1906 JMC
To: TOB
Can you give recent enrollments in robotics course?
∂18-Jan-81 2137 JMC
To: TOB
I unprotected cv.6[pub,tob] in order to see it.
∂18-Jan-81 2140 JMC
To: TOB
cv.6[pub,tob] looks adequate. I need a paper copy.
∂19-Jan-81 0245 JMC please pick up letter
To: FFL
Professor Bernard Roth has or will write a letter about Tom Binford. Please
call him and talk to him or his secretary and offer to pick up the letter
when it is ready. I have finished the other material.
∂19-Jan-81 0934 JMC
To: krauss at MIT-MC
While I believe their present method doesn't have the weakness in question,
neither they nor anyone else has pointed out in print the weakness of the
original memo which also applies to the version described by Martin Gardner
in Scientific American.
∂19-Jan-81 1544 JMC office mate
To: LGC
I am being pressed to give some office space to Doug Hofstadter and
his student Gray Clossman. I see that you don't make much use of the
space you share with Tang. Would there be strong objections to letting
them share the office also?
∂19-Jan-81 1546 JMC office mate
To: TCS
If it is ok with you, Douglas Hofstadter and his student Gray Clossman
will also share the office.
∂20-Jan-81 0159 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Packet of conference material beyond letter and travel instructions?
∂20-Jan-81 0200 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
I think Rod Hyde is as good as Lowell says.
∂20-Jan-81 1657 JMC cs226
To: konolige at SRI-KL
Please work out a solution to the exercise. It would be good if
you could try it out on FOL, since you will have to be helping
them with FOL. I have a manual for you, and I'll be glad to help
you if needed.
∂20-Jan-81 2359 JMC
To: FFL
davis.xgp[let,jmc]
∂21-Jan-81 0924 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
When Minsky is undecided, he often can't bring himself to answer mail.
∂21-Jan-81 1113 JMC
To: KLC
No. I just repeated a news bulletin from NS. I should have something
by late this afternoon.
∂21-Jan-81 2244 JMC
To: KLC
The ai question is ready.
∂21-Jan-81 2311 JMC
To: LWE
I read it, but I've been too busy to do anything. I'll get to it.
∂22-Jan-81 0035 JMC
To: ZM
What were the examples you used in your talk on temporal logic?
∂22-Jan-81 1236 JMC
To: FFL
The "Some philosophical ..." were in the box with the FOL manuals.
∂22-Jan-81 1734 JMC
To: DHM
OK, good luck.
∂22-Jan-81 2052 JMC
To: ROY
It's Imlac time again. Mine is broken (maybe the modem). Richard's?
∂22-Jan-81 2111 JMC
To: TOB
The papers have gone to the dean.
∂23-Jan-81 0011 JMC The knowledge level
To: newell at CMU-10A
Could I have another copy to put on reserve for my class in
epistemological problems of AI. My copy is full of my own
opinions that I don't want to push on the students.
One more misprint: It's Bar-Hillel not Bar Hillel.
∂23-Jan-81 0016 JMC
To: LWE
Message should really be to REG with copy to JMC.
∂23-Jan-81 0016 JMC lwe
To: REG
Is he paying yet? He can and is willing to. I suggest you tell Susan
Hill how to get the file dumped either by doing it or having your
tape dumper do it and then have LWE and similar requests go directly
to her with a charge adequate to make it worth doing, e.g. $20 not
counting cost of tape if any.
∂23-Jan-81 1406 JMC
To: RPG
On the basis of my present knowledge, I can say that you do good
systems work and are helpful. I suspect that to do good I would
have to be in a position to praise your thesis work, and to do that
I would have to see a copy, which I haven't. I wouldn't be able
to look at it seriously for two weeks. Would that be soon enough,
and can you give me a copy?
∂23-Jan-81 1409 JMC
To: JRA
What are the dates of the CS institute?
∂23-Jan-81 1424 JMC
To: RPG
I go along with President Reagan's preference for shortened versions.
∂23-Jan-81 1639 JMC
To: nilsson at SRI-KL
I have no objections to your giving people copies of the CBCL memo.
I haven't seen Ed, and I suspect he will evade involvement until
he returns to being department head.
∂23-Jan-81 1705 JMC Kurt Konolige
To: BYY at SU-AI
CC: konolige at SRI-KL
I am sending you an SRI report by Kurt Konolige, who will be
my dissertation student. His thesis will be in the same area,
but we'll ask for more and better. Would you be interested in
being on his reading committee? I have also asked Terry
Winograd.
∂24-Jan-81 2213 JMC
To: FFL
caltec.1[let,jmc]
∂25-Jan-81 1448 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
I look forward to reading your new book in the Fall. When electronic
publication comes, the waits will be much shorter.
∂25-Jan-81 1452 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
I also remember our conversations with pleasure, and I will surely
be hungry the next time I come to Washington.
∂25-Jan-81 2339 JMC Pournelle meeting travel
To: LLW
When are you going to L.A.? It would be interesting to talk en route.
My present plan is to go from San Jose to Burbank Friday morning.
∂26-Jan-81 0015 JMC
To: FFL
Please send
"First Order Theories of Individual Concepts and Propositions",
to Professor Allen Newell
Computer Science Department
Carnegie-Mellon University
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
∂26-Jan-81 0023 JMC
To: LLW
Tentatively, I will join you. I assume there is a place I can leave my
car at the Lab. I might chicken out, but I think I won't. Thanks.
∂26-Jan-81 0030 JMC
To: LLW
One last question. How much time should I allow at that hour from Stanford?
I drive fairly fast.
∂26-Jan-81 1203 JMC
To: JRA
OVERLORD is Steve Russell's name; I don't know were he got it. Are the
dates right for that?
I have no conflicts with the dates. Did you mention a financial
arrangement?
∂26-Jan-81 1331 JMC
To: feigenbaum at SUMEX-AIM
Unfortunately, I have a conflicting meeting at that time
of the Mathematical Sciences committee. I would like to be present
at the ARPA funding consolidation meeting.
∂26-Jan-81 1348 JMC
To: FWH
I would be glad to give an Elephant talk towards the end of the quarter.
You would get quite different non-monotonic reasoning talks from me and
from Doyle.
∂26-Jan-81 1433 JMC
To: csd.jeanie at SU-SCORE
I teach at 11.
∂26-Jan-81 1435 JMC
To: csd.jeanie at SU-SCORE
Also I won't be here on Friday.
∂26-Jan-81 1622 JMC
To: ME
The one I got was for Jon Barwise, BYY on the machine.
∂27-Jan-81 0146 JMC
To: admin.mrc at SU-SCORE
DTN SCORE is still broken. Do you wat details?
∂27-Jan-81 1827 JMC
To: greep at RAND-AI
The TA is Kurt Konolige, and he is konolige%sri-kl. However, I'll
resuscitate GRP,SJT for now, but you should send him a message
anyway.
∂27-Jan-81 1829 JMC account
To: greep at RAND-AI
It is resuscitated, and its password is greeep. Note 3 e's.
∂27-Jan-81 2115 JMC
To: MRC at SU-AI
CC: REG at SU-AI
∂27-Jan-81 2039 Mark Crispin <Admin.MRC at SU-SCORE>
Date: 27 Jan 1981 2028-PST
From: Mark Crispin <Admin.MRC at SU-SCORE>
Postal-Address: 12155 Edgecliff Place; Los Altos Hills, CA 94022
Stanford-Phone: (415) 497-1407
To: JMC at SU-AI
In-Reply-To: Your message of 27-Jan-81 0146-PST
I haven't put any work into DTN, if that's what you mean.
-------
It seems unprofessional to me to put up programs and then not
fix gross bugs.
∂27-Jan-81 2151 JMC
To: MRC at SU-AI
CC: REG at SU-AI
1. The bug strikes when one is logged into SAIL on a Datamedia and
goes from there to SCORE, so it can be investigated without an Imlac.
2. The arguments you have offered for not looking at bugs in programs
you wrote reinforce my opinion regarding professionalism or lack thereof.
3. As you know I have given up control of SAIL, but I still take an
interest, and Ralph is the person to whom otherwise unresolved
complaints about CSD computer facilities must be directed.
∂28-Jan-81 0117 JMC King David's Space Ship
To: pourne at MIT-MC
I just read it and like it very much. The political part was the best I
have seen in such a book, but I'm afraid that isn't an overwhelming
compliment. Two remarks. First "buying drinks for anyone on Prince
Samual's world who would sit with them and laugh at their jokes" is
or should be like "buying drinks for anyone on earth who ..." and
reminds me of the first sentence of a book "It was raining on the
planet Mongo". Planets are bigger than villages.
Second, where copper is scarce, electrical conductors can be iron. 8It's
just that more of it is required. I usually find a lot more to pick
at than that. Getting back to the politics, the best part was getting
their way by taking advantage of the conflicts on the other side -
sometimes inadvertently.
If we knew more about the internal conflicts in the Soviet
Union, we might be able to use theirs - especially when the next
succession crisis comes around.
∂28-Jan-81 0923 JMC
To: TAW
Perhaps ordnance refers to explosive bolts used to separate stages.
∂28-Jan-81 1757 JMC
To: konolige at SRI-KL
I gave a date of Tuesday, Feb 11 and suggested copying AIRPO6.AX[W81,JMC].
∂28-Jan-81 1834 JMC changes to exer2
To: konolige at SRI-KL
There are some mistakes that I am fixing, and I am setting it up for
TEX compilation. EXER2.TXT[W81,JMC] will have the result.
∂28-Jan-81 2310 JMC handout
To: FFL at SU-AI, konolige at SRI-KL
Fran, please make 25 copies of the handout I have left on your desk
for the class this morning. Kurt, please bring them and the copies
of SHORT WAITS to class. Fran, please make 30 of the remaining
papers.
∂28-Jan-81 2313 JMC
To: FFL
Please print and make 10 copies of MATHSC.PRE[W81,JMC] for my noon meeting.
∂28-Jan-81 2338 JMC
To: CLT
It was Strong Reducibilities by Piergiorgio Odifreddi.
∂28-Jan-81 2358 JMC Non-monotonic issue of AI Journal
To: buchanan at SUMEX-AIM
I now regret not taking all the copies you offered me. If there are any
left, I would be glad to get them.
Please return the terminal to Martin Frost in the basement.
∂29-Jan-81 1420 JMC
To: jeanie at SU-SCORE
I approve both actions by the tenured faculty.
∂29-Jan-81 1426 JMC
To: FFL
Please pub and send GORDON.4 and also send him a copy of the book.
∂29-Jan-81 1924 JMC
To: LLW
See you tomorrow morning.
∂31-Jan-81 1941 JMC
To: BYY
You can mail them, but hardly anyone else can read them on their
terminals or print them. Only M.I.T. AI Lab, I think.
∂31-Jan-81 1947 JMC
To: CLT
Interesting meeting. See you tomorrow evening. - Love.
∂02-Feb-81 1323 JMC
To: ARK
!Lookup failed on file tmathx.TFM[TEX,SYS].
∂02-Feb-81 1849 JMC
To: FFL
armer.1[let,jmc]. The enclosure is obtained by pubbing von.2[f80,jmc].
∂02-Feb-81 2139 JMC
To: csd.lenat at SU-SCORE
When am I to show up at the forum?
∂02-Feb-81 2143 JMC
To: FFL
Pls TEX KEYBOA.TEX[W81,JMC] and send to Lowell Wood at Livermore.
∂02-Feb-81 2203 JMC
To: FFL
KEYBOA.PRE[W81 exists, so you can just DOVER it.
∂03-Feb-81 2021 CSD.MCCARTHY at SU-SCORE ARPAnet
Date: 3 Feb 1981 1921-PST
From: CSD.MCCARTHY at SU-SCORE
Subject: ARPAnet
To: pourne at MIT-MC, jmc at SU-AI
Harry Stine asked me about getting on the ARPAnet, and I told him
the general facts. Basically, the facts are that one needs to get
an account on some host. I was not able to offer him the guest
account at SAIL that I got for you. If you want to get ARPAnet
accounts for all the members of some advisory group, it is only
necessary to get the Defense Communication Agency to agree and for
someone to get some host or hosts to provide accounts. Any of
several sufficiently high places in the Government could do it.
I believe that BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman in Cambridge, Mass.)
and ISI (Information Sciences Institute in L.A.) and maybe RAND
have provided substantial groups of accounts for communication
purposes to groups accomplishing various Government purposes.
In particular, the ARPA Washington office uses the ISI facility
as an office computer.
-------
∂03-Feb-81 2214 JMC
To: FFL
I'll speak to Bannister.
∂03-Feb-81 2223 JMC
To: konolige at SRI-KL
Holding an office hour at MJH is a good idea. I think a seminar room
should be free at that time. Why not send Fran a message asking if she
can reserve 301 or some other? They're having problems with FOL syntax.
∂03-Feb-81 2231 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Jerry: This excerpt from HUMAN-NETS might be relevant to your
student. I forget whether you see it regularly anyway.
Date: 2 Feb 1981 2238-EST
From: JMCKENDREE at BBNB
I'm a User Consultant on the EIES System, and will look forward
to meeting Hank (DREIFU at WHARTON-10) there. You can message me
as JACK, or as 112 or as JOHN MCKENDREE, Hank.
You ask if the commercial messaging or conferencing systems may
evolve in a similar direction as EIES. There are many mansions
on that dedicated conferencing computer, so, in that sense, how
can they miss? For example, there is the menu of choices
(leading one to messaging, conferencing, notebooks, etc.), a
parallel menu of commands using mnemonics, and several simplified
smaller menus devised by groups for their use and kept in the
system repertoire when the groups disbanded. In fact, using one
particular command, any user can rename any menu choice to suit
his or her taste - so there's no limit in the design of an
interface. For example, INITIAL CHOICE? has been re-phrased by
one user as:
WHAT WOULD YOU ENJOY FROM TODAY'S MENU AT THE MOMENT, SIR?
Translation into French, German, or other languages is an obvious
possibility for this general purpose (and fun) command. The
freedom to structure group communications only begins here,
moreover.
A network of State Legislative research staffs (about 40 states I
believe have regular use of EIES) developed their LEGITECH menus
and separate text files for lightly formatting inquiries and
responses. A response from an expert on line saves time and
effort by the staffs at other State Houses. Inquiries and
responses are filtered by EIES so that only those of interest are
delivered to each participant. When there is pending legislation
(e.g. hazardous waste regulation) at one location, inquiries and
responses all in the same light format can be compiled and
retrieved for rapid analysis. This value-added service on EIES
has been in operation for over two years now. The separate menus
and formats have evolved several times until they are pretty
stable. That is a speed of evolution which commercial systems
are not likely to emulate, but the stable design could very
easily be adopted by other networks, it seems to me....
EIES also serves handicapped. Experimental terminals which favor
particular handicaps (foot operation, one-handed operation, giant
keyboards, etc.) have been employed by the New Jersey Institute
of Technology staff at their Computerized Conferencing and
Communications Center.
Graphics capabilities, interconnected minicomputers, and other
communications oriented hardware and software concepts are in
trials.
Numerous research reports of various group efforts, facilitated
by EIES, and their evaluated experience have been produced.
Subscribers to the network often are invited to browse through
drafts of such reports before they go to final publication. This
early access to research is a side benefit of networking on EIES
in which you might very well want to participate, Hank.
One of the fun things to do is co-author a paper with others you
meet there and whose face you may not see until after final
publication! There is a PAPER FAIR (Public Conference 1017) in
which authors not only grant access to their works but then get
involved in feedback and discussion about issues which their
papers raise. After all there are over 500 individuals from
U.S., Canada, Europe, and even Australia, and they represent
private industry, banking, university R&D, state and federal
government agencies - quite a likely source of feedback to any
author who wants to brainstorm ...
Just a few days ago, Robert Bezilla, an author and speaker, was
wined and dined in Cambridge by an admirer who read his paper on
the SOURCE! I had copied the paper from EIES' PAPER FAIR to the
SOURCE' FORUM. (with Bob's permission, to be sure) Now other
authors have asked me if I can do the same for them...
Why shouldn't EIES be a reflection of the future? Just a matter
of time for the word to get around to designers and their
management. After working out the bugs on the NJIT research
facility, transfer the concept and the easy to use interface to
your own environment!
John McKendree
∂04-Feb-81 0048 JMC
To: FFL
The review turns out to be on VON[F80,JMC] which must be pubbed and printed.
∂04-Feb-81 0123 JMC letter.tex[tex,ark]
To: ARK
r tex
\input letter.tex[tex,ark]
(letter.tex[tex,ark] 1 2 3
!Input page ended while scanning def of \letteroutput
p.3,l.0
??
∂04-Feb-81 1236 JMC
To: TOB
Friday at 8pm will be fine thanks.
∂04-Feb-81 1610 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
OK, I'll pay the balance of his expenses from ARPA money. I suggest you
phone him for the SS number. He is at U. British Columbia in Vancouver.
Reiter,Ray 604-228-4142.(office) 604 733 9185 (home)
∂04-Feb-81 2023 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
To Bil: Watching PBS is not a solution to avoiding commercials; I prefer
deodorant ads any day to the incessant, hectoring, moral bullying of the
self-praising commercials of the non-commercial stations.
∂04-Feb-81 2217 JMC
To: LGC
Fran should know proper form of acknowledgment, but otherwise Betty Scott
will know.
∂04-Feb-81 2300 JMC
To: feigenbaum at SUMEX-AIM
Did you talk to Friedl?
∂04-Feb-81 2338 JMC
To: FFL
Please rearrange iii[let,jmc] to single column; then FIND works right.
∂05-Feb-81 0852 JMC
To: FFL
Please dover know.pre[w81,jmc].
∂05-Feb-81 1455 JMC
To: CSD.TAJNAI at SU-SCORE
Reiter has Canadian SS number 711 207 688.
∂05-Feb-81 1526 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
I don't have home address.
∂05-Feb-81 1608 JMC
To: TOB
No. I don't have time to take part. If you are impressed, perhaps
we can then arrange something.
∂06-Feb-81 0927 JMC
To: JRA
Make it $400 and you have a deal. BIO[1,JMC] may be suitable for your
purposes.
∂06-Feb-81 0928 JMC
To: JRA
Ask Fran about a picture.
∂06-Feb-81 1150 JMC
To: FFL
Please print 5 copies of energy.pre[f80,jmc] which I'll pickup going to lunch.
∂06-Feb-81 1417 JMC
To: marimont at SRI-KL
CC: TOB at SU-AI
Congratulations on passing EE PhD qual.
∂06-Feb-81 1540 JMC
To: LES
Bill Osborn is your man there now. He has the computer stuff.
∂06-Feb-81 1618 JMC
To: RWW
∂27-Jan-81 1258 Feigenbaum@SUMEX-AIM Brian's message
Date: 27 Jan 1981 1249-PST
From: Feigenbaum@SUMEX-AIM
Subject: Brian's message
To: csl.bkr@SCORE, jmc@SAIL, fb@SAIL, zm@SAIL, dcl@SAIL,
To: buchanan@SUMEX-AIM, csd.ullman@SCORE, csl.lantz@SCORE
Thanks to Brian for his views, with "fresh eyes" of our situation.
However, let us not becloud the actual issue that
stands before us, to be discussed on Feb. 13. The issue for ARPA
is NOT (repeat definitely NOT) common purpose, but common paperwork.
ARPA wants to reduce the number of MROAs it sends upstairs
and the number of contracting actions that have to be taken each year
for stanford. If Brian's opinions are worthy ones, they
should be discussed in some other forum (like a faculty meeting).
In my view, we have more shared activity and purpose than Brian
thinks, but much less than CMU. The research eenvironment
here is DIVIDED(by choice) not DIVISIVE. Possibly we forego
some possible synergistic effect, but perhaps we get so much
work done because we stay out of
each others' hair.
Ed
-------
∂06-Feb-81 1622 JMC RWW at DARPA meeting
To: feigenbaum at SUMEX-AIM
I have asked RWW (Weyhrauch) to come along to DARPA meeting.
I now believe he can make useful managerial as well as technical
contributions, although I don't have a definite proposal yet.
∂06-Feb-81 1920 JMC
To: FFL
Why do I alway get fast beeping when I try to use the WATS line?
∂07-Feb-81 1015 JMC
To: ROD at SU-AI
CC: TOB at SU-AI, csd.lenat at SU-SCORE
Any afternoon that week is ok, though I have a slight preference that it
not be Tuesday.
∂08-Feb-81 0932 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
Solzhenitsyn (a Russian) says: "Russia is the patient; the Soviet Union
is the disease." This is but one aspect of the matter.
∂09-Feb-81 0127 JMC
To: LLW at SU-AI, RAH at SU-AI, pourne at MIT-MC
Comments on LLW draft on "Advanced Space Transportation"
Question for Jerry: To what extent is it important to reduce the amount
of technical knowledge and familiarity with space technology required
to understand the proposals?
1. I think a paragraph should be devoted to the importance of specific
impulse by giving its relation to mass ratio. This will make clear its
relation to costs.
2. We should soft-pedal the tower till the paper is published. We can
mention it, but perhaps make a soft-pedalling comment, such as that
the idea is new and hasn't received critical comment yet.
3. We should somehow mention that the political problems of NERVA are
less than those of ORION, since ORION was scuttled for frankly political
reasons and its revival will be opposed by the science establishment,
while NERVA is nominally ok with them.
4. We should mention that fusion torch propulsion is a follow-on to
laser fusion for energy.
5. The value of separating the problem of transporting materials to
orbit by a cheaper system than is used for transporting people should
be made explicit.
6. Question: Can we afford to recommend pursuing the development of
alternative space technologies in parallel possibly with the help
of allies?
If you agree with some of these proposed changes and you want
me to, I can prepare some paragraphs. Some prose follows:
The cost of getting material into orbit by rocket depends
critically on the specific impulse of the rockets. Present specific
impulses (450 seconds for the Shuttle engines which are almost the
best possible for chemically fueled rockets) require that
the mass leaving the Earth be at least 20 times that which reaches
low earth orbit. For various reasons, the mass ratio of the Shuttle
is actually about 100. The NERVA rocket would permit a mass ratio
of xxx, and the ORION a mass ratio of xxx. The numbers for longer
journeys are even more spectacular. The Apollo system takeoff mass
was 1000 times the mass delivered to te moon, whereas the mass ratio
for a NERVA system would be xxx and an ORION system xxx.
The large mass-ratios are the main reason for the high cost
of space transportation. The only way to reduce these costs is
to use high specific impulse rockets or to avoid rockets as much
as possible.
Until we can use resources from the moon or the asteroids,
space travel is a pyramid with its base the step from the Earth
to low earth orbit. Even when these resources become available,
moving people and material to Earth orbit will still be a major
cost. Therefore, it makes sense to consider every possible way
of reducing the costs of transportation to low earth orbit.
While people and delicate equipment must be transported
into Earth orbit, the bulk of what has to be transported is material,
and the single most important material is rocket fuel. What material
is used for rocket fuel depends on the kind of rocket, but all
materials can stand much higher accelerations than people can.
This is fortunate, because many of the possible systems for economical
transportation involve high accelerations. Thus we may envisage
using rockets to transport people and delicate equipment and
other systems for bulk material and less delicate equipment.
Many ideas for inexpensive space transportation are old
and have been laid aside by NASA's concentration on the project
of the moment. However, in spite of the lack of encouragement,
the last few years have seen the proposal of several promising
new ideas.
Many of the ideas mentioned above are in mutual competition,
and it will eventually be necessary to make choices. Also they are
available on different time scales. Nevertheless, it is prudent
to develop several technologies in parallel to be sure of having
the best choice available in the end. Perhaps the best way to
do this is to enlist our allies and divide the work of pursuing
promising possibilities. Today both the Europeans and the Japanese
have the technology to develop major systems.
∂09-Feb-81 1108 JMC
To: shortliffe at SUMEX-AIM
I can't see any problem with the existence of a medical subgroup.
∂09-Feb-81 1135 JMC
To: RWW
% to use say \useletterformat
% optionally \blockformat
% \myletter{name}{title}{phone}
% text of letter
% \startletter, text for each new letter
% \par\vfill\end
% use r arktex
\input macros.tex[tex,ark]
\usetenpoint
\useletterformat
\useblockstyle
\setdate{February 7, 1981}
\myletter{John McCarthy}{Professor of Computer Science}{4430}
\vskip 1cm
\vfill
\hbox to size{\hfill \date}
\halign{#\hfill\cr
Mr. Paul Armer\cr 134 Arthur Ave. S.E.\cr Minneapolis, MN 55414\cr
}
Dear Paul:
Many thanks for Dyson's magnificent review. I wish
I could write like that, even though I wouldn't always do so.
I diffidently enclose a copy of my own. I suppose the {\it Washington
Post} published it, since they paid me, but I don't know when.
As you see, I had a very severe space limitation.
\signed{Best Regards}{John}
\par\vfill\vfill\end
∂09-Feb-81 1212 JMC
To: AVB
Please put RWW on SUN list and send him message with ccst breakdown.
∂09-Feb-81 1437 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
Lunch with IBM fine, but my class ends at 12:15.
∂09-Feb-81 1439 JMC
To: FFL
She should write or phone Dr. Anthony Hearn, RAND Corporation,
1700 S. Main St., Santa Monica, CA
∂09-Feb-81 1725 JMC
To: RWW
It would be AVB, but I already asked and you're on it.
∂09-Feb-81 2103 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
How about dinner next Monday the 16th?
∂10-Feb-81 1021 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
I'll have a car. I don't know of a tutorial program for LISP. I'll send
you a copy my book with Carolyn on LISP. Winston's book is also usable.
I'll phone you later today or this evening. I don't know yet, but Tuesday
night might also be possible if more convenient. Take it easy and don't
have a relapse.
∂10-Feb-81 1550 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
Capital costs for energy projects
1. Capital costs have been a very large part of all means of
generating energy. Dams have been paid for in the U.S. often by
allocating parts of their costs to irrigation, flood control and
recreation as well as energy production. Nuclear energy is mainly
capital cost and will remain so even with much higher uranium
prices. Oil, gas and (I believe also) coal are mainly fuel cost, but
the capital costs are not negligible. Capital costs of transmission
and distribution are also important.
2. Low power density energy technologies require large structures,
and these dominate the capital cost if the power density is low enough.
Thus tidal power systems have always lost out on evaluation, because
no-one would bid low enough on the construction costs.
3. There is typically a substantial difference between
cost figures obtained by adding up the known requirements for labor
and materials and the costs actually experienced. When there is
experience, contractors take it into account. When there isn't
experience, smart contractors bid high. Those who don't often go
out of business, or confront the buyer with a choice between
paying for cost over-runs or losing the project.
4. The less the knowledge, the larger the chance that a priori
cost computations will have large optimistic errors. The least
knowledge at present concerns costs of construction in space or
on the moon. The ccst of maintaining large osmotic barriers or
the cost of keeping OTEC systems unfouled or the cost of fixing
windmills whose blades break also require experience to estimate.
The nuclear industry has had experience with unanticipated ocsts,
and the alternative technologies can expect it.
5. The tolerable ratio of capital cost to annual production
depends on whether you imagine a growing economy or a static
economy. Utopians often design static economies and therefore
are willing to contemplate large capital costs. The actual ratio
for industrial projects in the U.S. around 1968 (I didn't see more
recent figures) was around 1.6, i.e. 1.6 dollars in capital cost
led to a production of $1 per year. For less developed countries,
perhaps contrary to intuition, the ratio is larger. For the
Soviet Union, the ratio was 2.6 and for Iran 3.2. For utilities,
the ratio has been larger than for other industries, and therefore
they have financing problems, which are especially acute when
interest rates are high.
6. High inflation rates make it difficult to justify long
term projects if the returns are in nominal dollars. However,
many countries with persistent high inflation have nevertheless
managed high investments, e.g. Japan in the 50s and 60s.
It won't work, however, in regulated industries in which the
return allowed is on nominal dollars. One is a fool to sell
a house or gold and invest in utility stocks when the return on
the investment will buy less house or gold than one started with.
There have been such fools, e.g. institutional investors like
pension funds looking for "conservative investmenst", but the
supply is running low. Some kind of real dollar return after taxes on
investment is required. With such a proviso interest rates would
be quite low. A few years ago, some bonds in West German Marks
sold with interest rates of four percent in preference for the
same bonds in dollars at ten percent.
∂10-Feb-81 1641 JMC date and file macros for E
To: ME
Would it be possible to have built-in macros that give the date
and the name of the file being edited. They would be especially
useful to include in other macros.
∂10-Feb-81 2356 JMC
To: REM
I think you understood it correctly. The capital cost of a plant
producing 1 dollar per year is 1.6 dollars. This doesn't mean that
the investment is repaid in 1.6 years, because there are other costs
involved in production besides capital investment. When someone
says that a machine will pay for itself in n months, he usually means
something different - such as that the money saved compared to the
old production method will pay for the machine in n months.
∂11-Feb-81 0055 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
CC: minsky at MIT-AI
My opinion is that tele-operation on the scale envisaged in the
Ayres message will surely be possible in the long run. It is even
possible that it can make major contributions in the next ten years. A
major tele-operation test bed should be developed on Earth - for example,
in mines. In a rational world tele-operation in space would then follow.
In the existing less rational world, immediate experimentation with
tele-operation based on the Shuttle might be in order, since the
organization that should be developing terrestrial tele-operation seem to
be asleep. I think Ayres may be mistaken about the state of
tele-operation in the nuclear industry. It was vigorously developed
during World War II, but the indications are that the capability has been
allowed to decay somewhat. Ayres is right about the necessity of
mechanical engineering development as well as control developments. If
tele-operation were more vigorously developed, research in automatic or
semi-automatic operation would be advanced.
∂11-Feb-81 1358 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
Although I support the mass mailing, I fear that David is right that the
ARPAnet shouldn't be used to organize it.
∂11-Feb-81 1915 JMC
To: marimont at SRI-KL
SHORT WAITS will be out shortly. I have a few copies if you come by.
∂11-Feb-81 2246 JMC
To: csd.ullman at SU-SCORE
I can make either date, and the invite list seems appropriate. At some point
we may want to request a meeting with yet higher authority. I prefer the
Monday, since it's later and I don't teach on that day.
∂11-Feb-81 2354 JMC
To: rms at MIT-AI
Dear Mr. President:
∂12-Feb-81 0033 JMC
To: rms at MIT-AI
I don't think that matters, since there isn't much special about typing,
and the clerks mainly count them.
∂12-Feb-81 1241 JMC cold and trip
To: FFL
I have a cold and will be at home for the rest of today. I need reservations
to Washington on Monday arriving early evening, returning Wednesday
after 4pm.
∂12-Feb-81 1244 JMC
To: CLT
I indeed have a cold and am staying home for the rest of today.
∂12-Feb-81 2144 JMC
To: RPG
I'll send the letter.
∂12-Feb-81 2251 JMC
To: FFL
gabrie.xgp[let,jmc].
∂13-Feb-81 1007 JMC
To: FFL
∂13-Feb-81 0731 DISRAEL at BBND Paper request
Date: 13 Feb 1981 1029-EST
Sender: DISRAEL at BBND
Subject: Paper request
From: DISRAEL at BBND
To: JMC at SU-AI
Message-ID: <[BBND]13-Feb-81 10:29:33.DISRAEL>
Could you please send me a copy of "Representation of Recursive Programs
in First-Order Logic". Thank you
David Israel
Bolt Beranek and Newman
50 Moulton St.
Cambridge, Mass.
∂13-Feb-81 1527 JMC vile rumor
To: waldinger at SRI-KL
According to Mr. He, you told him I was in charge of allocating office
space. A: that isn't so, and B: I do not appreciate being sent random
would-be visitors. Avoiding them was a major reason for liquidating
the administration of the AI Lab, and it may drive me from Stanford.
Please don't refer people to me.
∂14-Feb-81 1301 JMC
To: waldinger at SRI-KL
I am, alas, incapable of a simple yes or no, which is why I don't like
having supplicants referred to me. Sorry for complaining though. I
had a bad cold and was regretting the appointment with He that I couldn't
call off.
∂14-Feb-81 1309 JMC
To: BYY
I didn't receive it in your message, but the message contained all the
clues needed to find and print the file. I'll have comments. - John
∂14-Feb-81 2007 JMC
To: JMC
Hotel Mayflower, 1127 Connecticut Ave. between M and N. 202 347-3000
11am, lunch
2 pm Science Comm. Don Fuqua
4 pm McClure
Ken Davis
∂15-Feb-81 0538 JMC
To: JPM
Don't forget the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, i.e.
the relevant technical society.
∂15-Feb-81 0545 JMC
To: JMC
Dixiana Moon by William Price Fox, Viking
∂18-Feb-81 2112 JMC
To: BKR at SU-AI
What is the SCRIBE manual situation?
∂18-Feb-81 2128 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
This may interest you, Jerry or your student. - John
∂16-Feb-81 1113 REM via SU-TIP
The brochure/booklet on EIES (a computerized conferencing system developed
at NJIT and available thru TELENET) has a nice bibliography on papers about
EIES and computerized-conferencing in general. Have you seen it yet?
If not, would you like to sometime? JMCKENDREE@BBNB sent it to me.
-- REM Information Service
∂18-Feb-81 2137 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
Barbara Huberman is now Prof. Barbara Liskov of M.I.T.
∂18-Feb-81 2138 JMC
To: TOB
I'm back, so either is ok with me.
∂19-Feb-81 1006 JMC
To: REG
CC: FFL
∂19-Feb-81 0926 FFL
To: JMC, FFL
Manning of the Math Library called to ask if SUDS is a memo or operating note.
He would like to spool a copy if it is on line and permissible. Somehow he
needs one for the library. Do you know where it is available?
∂19-Feb-81 1039 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
The issue of featherbedding in newspapers has a history that
long precedes computers. For example, by the 1930s or perhaps earlier,
the plates for advertisements that appear in many newspaprs were
prepared by the advertising agencies. The unions demanded that
each advertisement be set in type at the newspaper in question even
if this type was immediately broken up, because the plates from the
agencies were used. The newspapers acceded to these and other
featherbedding demands. However, in the 1950s, cost rises and competition
with other media began to actually bankrupt large numbers of newspapers.
It wasn't until then that the newspapers began to fight back and
take long strikes in order to reverse the entrenched featherbedding.
Computers played an important role in the New York Times ability to
take a strike on automation issues, because it meant that they could
get around the need for the specific linotype skill. Therefore, when
the other unions (whose skills they could not do without) were willing
to settle to preserve their jobs, the typographical union had to settle
for what it could get, which included extremely generous job buy-outs.
The London Times attempted the same strategy as the New York
Times had successfully carried out, but gave in after a year-long
strike. The losses mounted to the point where it became clear that
they really would carry out their threat to close the newspaper
permanently. This has resulted in a labor settlement associated with
the purchase of the Times by Rupert Murdoch, who operates many other
papers. The level of featherbedding in Britain was and is far worse
than it ever was in the U.S.
The above is a gross oversimplification of a book length history,
but it's almost all that I remember. Anyway it isn't a history of
some specific management blunder. Everything imaginable has been
tried by some management at some time. It is only when the demise
of the industry is imminent that something can be done - maybe.
It isn't that workers lack some virtue that others possess.
White collar featherbedding - e.g. legal requirements that some
monopoly service be used - is far worse. Real estate brokers, stock
brokers, lawyers, undertakers and medical doctors all have monopolistic
featherbedding practices. The attempt to license computer personnel
is a start on extending featherbedding to the computer field. The sellers
call it professional ethics. The buyers call it an illegal conspiracy
in restraint of trade.
∂19-Feb-81 1727 JMC
To: FFL
Scott.re1
∂19-Feb-81 1824 JMC possible error in vol. 2
To: DEK
Reference to Hardy and Wright on p. 369should have been to 5th
edition of 1979.
∂21-Feb-81 0025 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
I like the word "gneerously" with its overtone of "sneer".
∂21-Feb-81 0034 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Got it today.
∂22-Feb-81 1245 JMC
To: BYY
mail *
House on Stanford campus for sale. Details in HOUSE[1,BYY].
∂22-Feb-81 1909 JMC
To: *
Whoever wanted Science Year with Ron Graham picture should see jmc or ffl.
∂22-Feb-81 2122 JMC
To: FFL
The Science Yearbook someone wants is in bookcase near desk near top.
∂23-Feb-81 0114 JMC
To: JPM
The file is ENERGY.PRE[F80,JMC].
∂23-Feb-81 0316 JMC
To: FFL
vancou.pre[f80,jmc]
∂23-Feb-81 1848 JMC mtc syllabus
To: ZM
HOw about including Boyer and Moore book?
∂23-Feb-81 1905 JMC
To: FFL
∂12-Feb-81 1518 FFL
To: JMC, FFL
Ray Reiter called to say, with reference to the philosophy conference
in Vancouver that the funding agency needs two things before it will
act: your Curriculum Vita and an abstract of your talk. These things
should be sent to Guy Parent, Social Sciences and Humanties Research
Council of Canada, 255 Albert St., PO Box l6l0, Ottawa, Canada, K1P6G4.
For it to be meaningful we must indicate the file reference;
443810062
Fran: The abstract is VANCOU.PRE[F80,JMC]. Please print a new copy,
since I've changed it. The C.V. is BIOJMC[JMC,PAT]. It needs pubbing.
∂23-Feb-81 1906 JMC reservations
To: FFL
I need reservations and tickets to LAX from San Jose and back tomorrow -
Wednesday. Best departure 8:30 and return about 5pm.
∂23-Feb-81 2346 JMC
To: BYY
I hope slling your house doesn't mean you're leaving Stanford.
∂24-Feb-81 0036 JMC
To: FFL
Please print goldst.pre[let,jmc]. It replaces the letter I signed.
∂24-Feb-81 1727 JMC
To: csd.hill at SU-SCORE
How much does Solomon use amount to?
∂25-Feb-81 0728 JMC note to Elliott Bloom
To: FFL
Please send him a note asking him to put Jim McGrath, Computer Science Dept.
on the mailing list for SE2.
∂25-Feb-81 2110 JMC
To: DPB at SU-AI, DBL at SU-AI, buchanan at SUMEX-AIM,
genesereth at SUMEX-AIM, TW at SU-AI,
csd.feigenbaum at SU-SCORE
When the Nova film was being made, Ed Feigenbaum advocated
boycotting the activity, and I didn't agree. Now I think he was right,
and I just refused co-operation with a film-maker who was hoping to make a
filem on AI for Nova. I was not especially put out by the fact that they
used the footage they took of me only in a trivial way, because I can
count and measure the ratio between what they took and what they could
include in the final film. The letter of thanks was what set me off.
Paula Apsell, the producer wrote that while they didn't use much, it was
what she needed for "a point she wanted to make". Who are we to serve as
props for points Paula Apsell wants to make? The matter was rubbed in by
the example of database i~which it was retrieved that Nova is the only
science documentary. If there is to be one, then the scientific community
should co-operate only as part of an agreement on the content. Anyway I
don't advocate that the Department buy the film, and it's a bit obsequious
of you Terry to rent it. Isn't your participation enough to get you a
free rental.
Also I don't understand the point about the film being balanced -
balanced between what and what?
∂25-Feb-81 2112 JMC
To: FFL
24 hours is ok.
∂26-Feb-81 1451 JMC
To: csd.tajnai at SU-SCORE
CS226 is indeed given in alternate years.
∂26-Feb-81 1746 JMC
To: TW
As for buying the film, I have no more to offer. My original impression
of Paula Apsell was like yours, but it changed. As for balance, I don't
think that a discussion of a technology should be balanced between the
view that regards technology as beneficial and that which regards
technology as harmful. I think there is more of a societal consensus than
that.
As for this issue of control, consider the fact that Nova has a monopoly
as a regularly appearing and government supported documentary on science.
Its monopoly character gives it greater responsibilities than if it were
in a written medium where there is more free competition. If Paula Apsell
were writing for (say) the New York Times, then I would not have been
offended by her remark "it helped make a point I wanted to make".
Finally, anyone is free to co-operate or not with a given attempt to make
films, and my opinion is that AI can get better treatment by bargaining
with information monopolies like Nova than by unconditional
co-operation.
∂27-Feb-81 1625 JMC
To: RPG
A few paragraphs will suffice most likely. The title of research associate
is probably quite possible. While we can include you in a proposal that
will contain some of your ideas, the privilege of making proposals
independently to government agencies is available only to titles with
the word "professor", i.e. regular faculty or adjunct professor.
∂27-Feb-81 1702 JMC
To: TOB at SU-AI
CC: csd.floyd at SU-SCORE, csl.lantz at SU-SCORE,
csd.golub at SU-SCORE, TW at SU-AI
ok for Vistnes to use machine language provided writeup is good.
∂27-Feb-81 1709 JMC
CC: RWF
OK for Vistnes to use machine language if writeup is good.
∂28-Feb-81 1728 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
Notice that this rather ill-informed article about hydrogen doesn't
mention the most plausible source of the energy required to get it from
water - nuclear. It also doesn't mention its main disadvantage - low
density (.07 for the liquid) or anything else about liquid hydrogen. It
is a plausible fuel for cars if we can learn to handle the bulky cryogenic
liquid - once we have nuclear or solar electricity in such quantity that
we are not burning oil or gas for electricity. It doesn't make sense to
use electrically produced hydrogen or hydrogen from natural gas to replace
oil or gas as long as any oil or gas is being burned in the country to
make electricity.
∂01-Mar-81 1345 JMC
To: TOB
I think your perceptions about editing being slowed more than (say) ten
percent ar are mistaken, but you are not alone in having such perceptions.
I propose that an actual test be made of how fast people edit under
different load conditions. We have an excellent chance of getting a
2080 (5 times faster) in about 2 years (or an S-1, much faster than that),
but I think we'll be making a mistake to go after additional computer
facilities now. We will dissipate our resources for purchasing, housing
and operating computer facilities.
∂01-Mar-81 1419 JMC
To: TOB
I agree that editing large mail files is slow. The actual computer time
used is substantial, but not for any good reason that I have been able
to fathom. I have talked to Marty about it, but he seems defensive and
even evasive and suggests using monthly rather than quarterly mail files,
which I may be driven to do. It should not take 2 seconds of actual
computer time to delete a page from a file even if there are 400 pages.
∂01-Mar-81 2333 JMC
To: RWW
I haven't thought about how circumscription would interact with the
sort mechanism. One alternative is to ask the user to give the
required variables.
∂01-Mar-81 2334 JMC
To: FFL
∂01-Mar-81 1831 Keith A. Lantz <CSL.LANTZ at SU-SCORE> owicki
Date: 1 Mar 1981 1830-PST
From: Keith A. Lantz <CSL.LANTZ at SU-SCORE>
Subject: owicki
To: jmc at SU-AI
Please add Susan Owicki to the Comp mailing list; she will be representing
CSL this quarter (with me in the background.) -- CSL.SSO.OWICKI
Keith
-------
∂02-Mar-81 0022 JMC no guests
To: SOL at SU-AI
CC: csd.hill at SU-SCORE
Now, on this machine everything has to be paid for by someone at retail.
However, it is possible for you to reduce the costs you incur by
reducing your disk usage. Susan Hill can give you details.
∂02-Mar-81 0043 JMC
To: LLW
what is the afore-mentioned LLW plaint?
∂02-Mar-81 0055 JMC late
To: JPM at SU-AI
CC: pourne at MIT-MC
It would seem you are late. Namely,
1. There was a committee of "experts" appointed a few years ago and
on it there were some experts.
2. The White House is alleged to have a MULTICS working.
3. The experts have for years been hung up on the problem of having
info of different levels of security classification and different
access privileges in the same computer.
4. There is some possibility that they have been demanding levels of
security not realized in non-computer systems. There is some possibility
that they have dropped the ball completely. There was some rumor that
part of the White House system was owned by the Democratic National
Committee, which suggests that it was mainly used by the political
people.
5. I suppose that eventually Jerry will discover or be told what the
situation actually is, and then it will become clear whether
they can use and want actual help.
6. What you mention in your message was proposed, and it still
isn't clear whether it is pertinent to the present state of their
problems.
∂02-Mar-81 0057 JMC helping the boss
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Should you discover that it would be useful, I'd be glad to help.
However, it would first be necessary to know what their present situation
is. I have given much thought to what facilities are usable by people
with different levels of frequency of use of computers.
∂02-Mar-81 0247 JMC helping
To: JPM at SU-AI
CC: pourne at MIT-MC
Your ideas seem plausible, and you're fast off the mark, but don't waste
your energy until Jerry finds out what if any problem is acknowledged to
exist.
∂02-Mar-81 0258 JMC
To: BYY
How about lunch Thursday or Friday - Faculty Club or elsewhere?
∂02-Mar-81 1129 JMC
To: BYY
Alas, that's too tight a squeeze. I teach till 12:15 Tuesday and
Thursday. How about Friday or the following Monday or Wednesday?
∂02-Mar-81 1142 JMC
To: RPG
What do you presently use for spindling and crunching?
∂02-Mar-81 2243 JMC
To: lisptiming at SU-AI
Please put me on it.
∂03-Mar-81 0030 JMC
To: energy at MIT-MC
Separation of hydrogen
Splitting water simply by heating requires much higher temperatures
than are attained in nuclear reactors. In the early seventies, I read
articles about more complex sequences of chemical reactions that were
calculated to run at temperatures reached in present reactors. One
such sequence invoved iodine and HI. My impression is that the thermodynamics
of these reactions encountered some difficulties in getting adequate
reaction rates. Moreover, until we are close to getting all our
electricity from non-petroleum sources, there isn't much incentive
to find other uses for nuclear reactors. Try early 1970s issues of
IEEE Spectrum.
∂03-Mar-81 0035 JMC
To: RPG
Sorry I misunderstood your instructions in haste and mailed my request
to the list.
∂03-Mar-81 1404 JMC
To: DEK at SU-AI, EAF at SU-AI, FFL at SU-AI
I will send Ershov a telegram inviting him for weekend visit unless
there are very strong objections.
∂03-Mar-81 1520 JMC
To: RPG
I would like to proceed. I will phone Bob Engelmore, who is now out
of town, on Thursday, and I can mention it then. However, if you want to
talk to him yourself, that's also fine. Let me know what you decide.
Ikuo Takeuchi of the Japanese National Telecommunications Laboratory
did a similar study (probably less extensive) a few years ago, and
you should find out what he did.
∂03-Mar-81 2306 JMC telegram to Ershov
To: FFL at SU-AI
CC: DEK at SU-AI
CC: EAF at SU-AI
A.P. Ershov
Computation Center
Novosibirsk 630090
USSR
You are welcome to visit Stanford. Please phone when you are
in USA. Regards. John McCarthy
[I assume DEK and EAF will also want to spend some time with Ershov].
∂03-Mar-81 2337 JMC
To: DEK
Why don't we get him to pay his own travel expenses? I am broke and
really have only personal reasons for wanting to see him. If you have
a justifiable reason and we can't get him to pay his own, it would seem
that you should pay the full expenses.
∂04-Mar-81 1549 JMC
To: CLT
03-17 Tuesday, Suppes birthday party 7pm
∂05-Mar-81 0107 JMC
To: JMC
1p Doyle money
∂05-Mar-81 1233 JMC
To: csd.adams at SU-SCORE
I'll be here till 2:45 today and tomorrow afternoon.
∂05-Mar-81 2249 JMC
To: BIS
Barry:
Enjoy the trip. Sure, do it.
∂06-Mar-81 2054 JMC
To: JMM
Yes, it would be good if you could start then.
∂07-Mar-81 0139 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
CC: minsky at MIT-AI, LLW at SU-AI
I think you are mistaken in supposing it could be done for 40 billion
dollars. Anyway the conventional wisdom has always been that it is
cheaper to shoot from one place on the earth to another than to keep
the missiles in space or on the moon. Perhaps for this reason, it has
been possible to come to an agreement internationally that "weapons of
mass destruction" would not be kept in space or on the moon or other
bodies in the solar system. I believe that this treaty was what carried
along with it all the genuinely bad stuff about all activity in space
being under government control.
Perhaps the computations "showing" that it was cheaper to shoot from
one place on the earth to another were part of the wishful thinking
of the arms controllers or perhaps they are no longer valid. My guess
is that they are still valid and will remain so for some years.
∂07-Mar-81 0140 JMC science advice
To: pourne at MIT-MC
CC: LLW at SU-AI
There is a long established collection of advisers to all administrations
on science policy. This establishment, in my opinion, has greatly damaged
its pull by allowing itself to be co-opted by the liberals. Appointing
Electing Frank Press, Carter's Scientific Adviser, President of the National
Academy of Sciences, would have been dumb even if Carter had been re-elected,
since NAS is supposed to give non-partisan advice when this is requested.
Now it will be disastrous for the "scientific advice establishment", because
it seems to make the NAS a part of the Democratic "government in exile".
Even if the present Administration didn't already distrust scientists perhaps
even more that the Nixon Administration did, they would have good reason to
fear that if they asked for advice on any but the most purely technical issues,
what they got in return might be a part of the next or last Democratic platform.
During the campaign and the transition, there apparently arose a Republican
advisory establishment with people like Teller and Ramo. However, even
this group seems to no longer have any inside track. Perhaps the suspicion
of scientists was too deep or perhaps the group used up its credibility
in order to save some programs or whatever. Perhaps I'm mistaken in my
belief that this group was shunted aside, but one of its prominent members
told me that "It doesn't seem to have amounted to much".
In spite of all this, issues with a large scientific component will continue
to arise in the Government, and the Government will need scientific advice.
If your contacts will facilitate their getting it, this will be good. It might
be best to start after the budget cuts have been made effective. My own opinion
is that most of the NSF cuts are in the right areas, but social science should
not be quite so heavily cut. Anyway it might be best for some group to stay
away from budgetary issues.
∂07-Mar-81 0200 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
CC: minsky at MIT-AI, LLW at SU-AI
No, I have no objections to the draft report,
though I have a feeling that if only I thought
about it long enough, it would gel differently. However, I don't have
any real intuition about what your addressees respond to.
Pushing tele-operators is worthwhile, but it needs to be done tactfully.
∂07-Mar-81 0202 JMC conversation
To: LLW
When convenient I would like to talk with you about 1) the application I
sent you, 2) whether you think Jerry Pournelle can do good things or is
likely to merely spin wheels.
∂07-Mar-81 0205 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Can I phone you or vice-versa 415 857-0672?
∂07-Mar-81 0451 JMC
To: OTA
Please take my name off the space list. Alas, I haven't the time.
∂07-Mar-81 1311 JMC GRADE
To: CSD.GRIFFITHS at SU-SCORE
Carolyn tells me that you asked about an N grade. I evidently forgot the
arrangement that had been made, and faced with the grade sheet, didn't
remember work done earlier. She says it should be an A, so if you will
send me a message saying the exact quarter, I'll change the grade.
∂07-Mar-81 1454 JMC
To: QCC
Best is MAIL KONOLIGE%SRI, although he's KGK here. FING
∂08-Mar-81 0009 JMC Washington trip
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
There is no royal road to LISP, but ... I will be in Washington on
Saturday March 21 and Sunday. I will be coming from France, and probably
I will be good for only non strenuous activities on Saturday. Monday I
visit ARPA, and retuurn home. Will you be in Washington and interested
in getting together sometime? If you have questions about LISP, I'll be
glad to help, and if you have a terminal, I'll be glad to demonstrate.
Did I send you a copy of our book? - Regards, - John
∂08-Mar-81 1806 JMC datamedia
To: DEK
I promised the one I know is available to Feferman. If he doesn't need it,
which I will take as probable if he hasn't yet picked it up, you can have
it. If there's another, you can have it. I was waiting to see if my and
Richard Weyhrauch's Imlacs could be revived one more time, and they were,
so that problem is dormant for the time being.
∂08-Mar-81 2003 JMC
To: LLW at SU-AI, pourne at MIT-MC, minsky at MIT-ML
While the political climate is quite unfavorable to nuclear applications,
a turn-about is possible - e.g. in connection with crash energy programs
caused by an oil cut-off or even through the development of the climate of
opinion, possibly helped by white hat propaganda. Our time will come.
∂08-Mar-81 2120 JMC
To: QBK
If you include names of relevant files in message to RWW, he is more
likely to be able to fix it.
∂09-Mar-81 1030 JMC
To: FFL
Yes, please.
∂09-Mar-81 1334 JMC
To: LGC
I can talk for about 15 min at 4:30.
∂09-Mar-81 1534 JMC
To: JMM
∂09-Mar-81 1327 RWW
COMMENT |
The syntax for this command is:
CIRCUMSCRIBE NAME < ... <predsym> <predpar> <varlist> ... > IN <vl>;
The result is to produce an axiom
Below is a working example
This is now on the system.
PS THIS MESSAGE CAN BE FETCHED THE PREVIOUS ONE CAN'T!!! |
DECLARE INDVAR x;
DECLARE INDCONST a b;
DECLARE PREDCONST B 1;
DECLARE PREDPAR P 1;
ASSUME B(a)∧B(b);
CIRCUMSCRIBE AX B P x IN ↑;
∧I AX[P←λx.(x=a∨x=b)];
∂09-Mar-81 1600 JMC
To: csd.ullman at SU-SCORE
That is Professor Ljung.
∂09-Mar-81 1625 JMC
To: RWW
Many thanks Richard. Circumscription does what's wanted.
∂09-Mar-81 2101 JMC
To: minsky at MIT-ML, LLW at SU-AI, pourne at MIT-MC
Well I don't think you'll have too much trouble about tele-operators
from the workers. I think the miners will like the idea of operating
the mine from the outside.
There are a lot of military applications of tele-operators and other
forms of telepresence.
∂09-Mar-81 2312 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
I will bet that the current state of the art of interfacing brains to
computers is not up to storing even one bit in the brain for an hour
and retrieving it later other than by some gross form of cheating
that doesn't use the brain's own memory storage mechanisms - like
putting high currents between pairs of electrodes and using the
bit of brain in between as a fuse. While I am not up on the neurophysiology
literature, I read Science and Science News, and anyone who had
done even that much would excite a lot of interest.
∂10-Mar-81 1033 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
C'est un tres bon plan. Je pense que je serai a l'hotel Mayflower.
∂10-Mar-81 1654 JMC
To: FFL
Please get me this.
∂10-Mar-81 1259 SJF Reference on Lispki's work on nulls
"On Semantic Issues Connected with Incomplete Information" by Witold Lipski,
in the September 1979 issues of ACM Transactions on Database Systems
(Volume 4, Number 3), pages 262-297.
Using modal logic as a basis, Lipski deals with a generalization of nulls,
allowing specification of incomplete information--that is, specification
that values come from particular subsets of their domains. External and
internal interpretations are provided, as is an axiom system for
transformations of queries. Answers to queries are defined in this
framework.
Shel
∂10-Mar-81 1700 JMC
To: SJF
Thanks for the Lipski reference.
∂11-Mar-81 0128 JMC
To: FFL
Please make reservation for two at noon at Faculty Club.
∂11-Mar-81 0152 JMC
To: FFL
analog.xgp
∂11-Mar-81 0951 JMC
To: FFL
New version of analog.xgp
∂11-Mar-81 1114 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
C'est le dimanche 22 mars. Je regarderai des terminals francais, et
je vous informerai.
∂11-Mar-81 2233 JMC
To: LLW
"The Road to Wigan Pier" is the one with the description of coal mining.
∂11-Mar-81 2313 JMC
To: FFL
I need my schedule to France so I can phone Colmerauer.
∂12-Mar-81 0955 JMC seminar notice
To: konolige at SRI-KL
I thought I told Fran to send out notices. I also thought I announced it
at the Reiter circumscription seminar last week. She has gone to a class
and won't be back till 1 pm. Sample another person at SRI, and if they
don't expect a seminar, we'd better postpone it.
∂12-Mar-81 1224 JMC
To: oaf at MIT-MC
By all means package the energy mailings.
∂12-Mar-81 1412 JMC
To: QCC
Yes, I'll give you the an incomplete.
∂12-Mar-81 1507 JMC
To: FFL
scott.re1[let,jmc]
∂12-Mar-81 2115 JMC
To: csd.sonkowsky at SU-SCORE
I am not in a position to take students for directed reading who merely
want to pass an exam.
∂12-Mar-81 2117 JMC
To: TOB
When are you going? I have no special suggestions at present.
∂12-Mar-81 2159 JMC
To: "@FRLIST.[1,JMC]"
meeting 2pm Monday Mar 16 to discuss ARPA proposal
∂12-Mar-81 2246 JMC
To: CLT
OK, thanks. Maybe there'll be something.
∂13-Mar-81 0015 JMC
To: LGC
Only Stanford people. We will discuss informally what might be proposed
to ARPA in the formal reasoning and basic AI area.
∂13-Mar-81 0028 JMC SE2 meeting
To: JPM
In case you didn't get on the mailing, there will be a meeting
on Mar 24 at 8pm at the home of Professor Thomas Connolly,
855 Lathrop Drive. Publicizing the statement will be discussed.
∂13-Mar-81 1036 JMC
To: FFL
A proposal to continue 514 was submitted in the Fall, and continuing
755 is in the works too.
∂13-Mar-81 1653 JMC
To: DEK
Two Datamedia terminals are temporarily available.
∂14-Mar-81 0731 JMC
To: FFL
Please call Prof. Ljung 7-2873 and tell him that I will be
unable to meet with the Swedish radio people March 23, because
I will be in Washington.
∂14-Mar-81 0733 JMC Andrei Ershov
To: CG
He would like to meet you and also Kreisel. He is staying at the Tiki
and will be here till Monday night. Manna (morning) and Knuth are
taking him today, and I'm in L.A. today.
∂14-Mar-81 0735 JMC Andrei Ershov
To: csd.feigenbaum at SU-SCORE
He is staying at the Tiki, and Manna and then Knuth have him today. I'll
be back from L.A. this evening.
∂15-Mar-81 1157 JMC
To: RPG
I will be away from Wednesday thru the following Monday. Let's talk
between today and Tuesday, because I will be talking to ARPA in
Washington next Monday.
∂15-Mar-81 1203 JMC
To: RPG
In that case, please come to my office at 1pm tomorrow.
∂15-Mar-81 1543 JMC
To: TOB
I suggest you talk to Engelmore and Druffel about this and make a trip
to Washington if necessary. I guess I can talk about it with them
on March 23 if necessary.
∂16-Mar-81 0010 JMC expenses to Les Dugan
To: FFL
My expenses for the Orange County trip consisted of $6.00 parking and
a round trip to San Jose Airport from Stanford.
The air ticket is enclosed.
∂16-Mar-81 0012 JMC
To: FFL
Les Dugan of SE2 supplied the air ticket, so its cost isn't included.
∂16-Mar-81 1149 JMC IBM grant for proving
To: csd.ullman at SU-SCORE
I now have a student, Jitendra Malik, who wants to work on
adapting a proof-checker for student use. I would like to
use IBM money to support him for Spring (half time), Summer (full time),
and I would like to use him for CS206 TA in the Fall.
∂16-Mar-81 2232 JMC
To: FFL
Please make reservation for two at Faculty Club for 12.
∂16-Mar-81 2332 JMC
To: FFL
That was for two people at 12 noon.
∂17-Mar-81 1420 JMC
To: DCL
No, we won't meet it. I am seeing Engelmore next Monday to discuss
what work he can support, and our part will be ready shortly thereafter.
∂17-Mar-81 1423 JMC
To: stan at SRI-KL
CC: nilsson at SRI-KL
Naturally, I am interested and even in getting formally (financially)
involved. I will be away till next Tuesday, so let's arrange a time
for after that.
∂17-Mar-81 1623 JMC
To: RPG
I can't react to this immediately, probably not till I return
next Tuesday. I didn't think at all about the possibility that your
thesis work was connected with the Advice Taker.
∂17-Mar-81 1626 JMC
To: csd.ullman at SU-SCORE
Done. Malik's RA will be charged to the IBM grant for Spring and Summer. Fran
will arrange it with Betty or whomever.
∂17-Mar-81 1641 JMC
To: ZM
I'll be away, but I would like a written version of Nachum's talk
if there is one.
∂17-Mar-81 2326 JMC →14224 (24-Mar-81)
To: "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"
I'll be in France till Saturday and in Washington till Monday night when
I'll return to Stanford. Fran can reach me.
∂17-Mar-81 2328 JMC
To: FFL
If need be I can be reached c/o Colmerauer - see PHON.
∂17-Mar-81 2329 JMC →14224 (24-Mar-81)
To: "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"
I'll be in France till Saturday and Washington till Monday night
when I'll return to Stanford. CS226 grades will be assigned Monday
night, so everything needs to be in before then, including homework
grades from Kurt. Fran can reach me.
∂23-Mar-81 2143 JMC
To: boyer at SRI-CSL
Yes, I still plan to attend.
∂23-Mar-81 2152 JMC
To: ZM
CC: FFL
lunch and conversation with Bob Grafton ok
∂23-Mar-81 2156 JMC
To: ML
ok about incomplete in cS226
∂23-Mar-81 2259 JMC
To: csd.feigenbaum at SU-SCORE, csd.ullman at SU-SCORE
Here's an ill wind that might blow some good.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Stanford University and Catholic University
are suing Father Flanagan's Boys Town to retain contracts that funnel
$600,000 annually to each school for youth development research.
Boys Town lawyers told the universities in December that contracts
set up with the schools in 1973 and 1974 were beyond the scope of
activity permitted to the non-profit Nebraska organization.
On March 18 the schools, which have built Boys Town facilities on
their campuses, sued in Santa Clara County Superior Court seeking to
uphold the legality of the contracts, which were to last through 1998.
Boys Town stopped payments to the two schools on March 1.
---
∂24-Mar-81 1531 JMC
To: LGC
I'll be in. The news isn't good but isn't complete.
∂24-Mar-81 1650 JMC
To: FFL
It seems that Reiter as more money coming to him.
∂24-Mar-81 1650 JMC
To: FFL
It seems that Reiter has more money coming to him.
∂24-Mar-81 1757 JMC
To: LGC
Tomorrow will do.
∂25-Mar-81 1502 JMC self proposed visitor
To: DEK
Seiichi Nishihara of Tskuba University wants to visit free of charge
for up to 8 months. He has papers "Performing set operations using
hash techniques", "A full table quadratic search method eliminating
secondary clustering", and "An open hash method using predictors"
in English and "Residue hash" in Japanese. If you are interested,
I'll forward the papers and his c.v.
∂25-Mar-81 1754 JMC Distinguished Lecturer
To: habermann at CMU-10A
I will be glad to do it and even in the Immigration Course.
There may be some problem with dates, so can you tell me the
dates of the course?
∂25-Mar-81 1808 JMC EOP
To: feinler at SRI-KL
CC: pourne at MIT-MC
The ARPAnet directory lists a Richard Harden at the Executive Office
of the President, but that was November 1980. Your on-line directory
still has him. Is there a way of finding out if there is a successor?
∂26-Mar-81 1409 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
When there are words to communicate that have emotional content, then
electronic mail is probably as good as any other written medium for
communicating them.
∂26-Mar-81 1509 JMC
To: FFL
I suspect I don't want to talk to him, but please find out what
he wants.
∂27-Mar-81 0151 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Was that Jerry E. Gregory who sent last HUMAN-NETS in your name?
∂27-Mar-81 1409 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
Many thanks for the dinner. Had I known that xxx (What's the
name of that very smart fellow) was being coerced, I'd have volunteered
much sooner. Perhaps my manners would have recovered sooner had I been
less tired. Sorry about the plastic bags.
The memo you mention wasn't published, but I recently had it
entered into the computer, and a note to FFL@SU-AI referring to
AIM1.PUB[W79,JMC] PREDICATE CALCULUS WITH "UNDEFINED" AS A TRUTH VALUE
will induce my secretary to print a copy and send it to whatever
address you say.
It looks like I'll be in Washington again April 21 to 23 at
a meeting at NBS on proving properties of programs. How about dinner
on the evening of the 20th?
∂28-Mar-81 1408 JMC
To: FFL
That's AIM1.PUB[W79,JMC], and it needs to be PUBbed first.
∂28-Mar-81 1414 JMC
To: darden at SUMEX-AIM
I'll check, but I think that planes from the West Coast don't get in
on time to make the seminar. It's a beautiful day here too.
∂28-Mar-81 2116 JMC
To: RPG
How about getting together tomorrow, i.e. Sunday? 3pm at my office would
be convenient, but any other time not too early is also possible.
∂29-Mar-81 1433 JMC
To: RPG
4pm is better Monday.
∂29-Mar-81 1517 JMC
To: kdo at SU-SCORE
Since I have no present intention of doing anything, it doesn't much
matter if I am misinformed. However, REM said she was in continuous
pain to which I replied that in that case she should go into the hospital
right away rather than wait for an appointment for an operation. I
decided against offering this advice directly, because I suspected
that REM might not be well informed. What got me involved is that
REM was again emitting suicidal ARPAnet messages, and I wanted to
do my bit to reduce the probability that he would commit suicide.
While almost all suicide threats are false alarms, people who make
them often eventually do commit suicide. Of course, if there is any
way in which I can actually be helpful I would be glad to.
∂29-Mar-81 1754 JMC dental plan
To: FFL
I notice that charges for the dental plan are being deducted from
my paycheck, although the brochure says that Stanford pays. Perhaps
the system thinks I'm still on leave, which I haven't been since Sept. 1.
∂29-Mar-81 2121 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
Before the word "timesharing" was used for computer systems,
the term was used for describing some communication systems - perhaps as
a contrast to "frequency sharing".
Fowler may be right that sentences can be emphasized without italics by
good writers, but suppose one of us hackers admits to being a not-so-good
writer. For such a modest person, what Fowler would consider over-use
of italics might be justified.
∂30-Mar-81 1113 JMC
To: pourne at MIT-MC
Most likely that was an isolated individual sampling ARPAnet.
∂30-Mar-81 1355 JMC
To: RPG
If you print me a copy, I will try to decide whether to subsidize the
printing of more copies. Howver, I don't have a lot of money.
∂30-Mar-81 1357 JMC
To: neumann at SRI-KL
I will definitely come to the Verkshop.
∂30-Mar-81 1515 JMC
To: levinthal at USC-ISI
ARPA brochure
∂30-Mar-81 2118 JMC
To: human-nets at MIT-AI
Janofsky is overoptimistic in taking the lack of hecklers at Asimov's
lecture as a symptom of a return to rationality. During the battle
over the anti-nuclear initiative in California, a lecture by Edward
Teller on why nuclear energy is good attracted no hecklers. Except
when heckling is specifically organized, it is a rare person who goes
to lectures by people with whom he expects to disagree. Almost no
anti-nuclear people go to pro-nuclear lectures, and when I would go
to anti-nuclear lectures, I would usually be the only pro-nuclear person.
The one debate was very poorly attended. Perhaps my experience was
not indicative, but it seems that people prefer attending rallies to
attending debates.
I think Janofsky's wife is right in being skeptical about the uses of
home computers. The basic problem is that the application must either
have automatic input or it must be worth the cost of manual input.
For this reason communication and access to public information and
word processing are the main applications likely to be worth using
(let alone worth buying) in the near future.
The law requiring banks to microfilm checks was, I believe, called (shades
of "1984") "The Bank Secrecy Act". While it seems unlikely that bank
secrecy can be achieved by court action, there is no reason why a law
making a person's checks his own property can't be passed if there is
enough sentiment in its favor.
∂31-Mar-81 1147 JMC
I will be glad to be nominated to continue on the AAAI Council.
∂31-Mar-81 1148 JMC
To: FFL
I won't be at the CIS Executive meeting tomorrow, since I have another
appointment.
∂31-Mar-81 1148 JMC
To: buchanan at SUMEX-AIM
I will be glad to be nominated to continue on the AAAI Council.
∂31-Mar-81 1351 JMC meeting
To: RPG
I see I need more time to read your thesis. Let's postpone meeting
for a couple days.
∂31-Mar-81 1429 JMC meeting of Comprehenive committee
To: FFL
Please arrange it trying for Friday or Monday. It will be
necessary to ask members about their class schedules in order
to avoid permanent conflicts.
∂31-Mar-81 1444 JMC LISP conference
To: engelmore at USC-ISI
I hear you're having one at SRI on April 8. Can I come?
∂31-Mar-81 1446 JMC grade change
To: FFL
I need to change the grade for John Craig from B or B+ to A- in
CS206 and change the grade of Colleen Crangle in Phil 326 from INC
to A.
∂31-Mar-81 1556 JMC
To: stan at SRI-AI, nilsson at SRI-KL
How about Thursday morning at 11 here?
∂31-Mar-81 1557 JMC
To: stan at SRI-AI, nilsson at SRI-KL
On second thought, it might be better at SRI.
∂31-Mar-81 1619 JMC send book
To: FFL
Please send a copy of the LISP book to
Peter Renz
W.H. Freeman Co.
660 Market St.
San Francisco 94104
∂31-Mar-81 1626 JMC
To: stan at SRI-AI
Please phone 497-4430.
∂31-Mar-81 2301 JMC
To: FFL
Please send a copy of vancou.pre[f80,jmc] to Reiter if I haven't.
∂01-Apr-81 0349 JMC
To: csd.genesereth at SU-SCORE
I told Engelmore I wanted to come to the meeting. Thanks for the
reports.
∂01-Apr-81 0356 JMC
To: rwg at MIT-MC
No. I don't know that theorem.
∂01-Apr-81 1349 JMC
To: DCL
I would be interested in seeing Robinson's combination of PROLOG
and LISP in that connection.