perm filename W87.OUT[LET,JMC] blob
sn#837507 filedate 1987-03-27 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
COMMENT ⊗ VALID 00370 PAGES
C REC PAGE DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00033 00002
C00034 00003 ∂04-Jan-87 2117 JMC re: Russian and American governments
C00036 00004 ∂05-Jan-87 1000 JMC re: you
C00037 00005 ∂05-Jan-87 1014 JMC re: lectures
C00038 00006 ∂05-Jan-87 1156 JMC re: Howard Boyer
C00039 00007 ∂05-Jan-87 1600 JMC conversation with Saul
C00041 00008 ∂05-Jan-87 1600 JMC
C00042 00009 ∂05-Jan-87 1633 JMC re: Video lectures for new Xerox President
C00043 00010 ∂07-Jan-87 2232 JMC re: question
C00044 00011 ∂08-Jan-87 0039 JMC re: Support request for TICIP Workshop
C00045 00012 ∂08-Jan-87 0051 JMC re: CS326 Grade Change
C00046 00013 ∂08-Jan-87 1156 JMC re: Call to Amarel
C00047 00014 ∂08-Jan-87 1442 JMC re: meeting in D.C. 1/21
C00048 00015 ∂08-Jan-87 1444 JMC re: TA for 326?
C00049 00016 ∂08-Jan-87 1453 JMC
C00050 00017 ∂08-Jan-87 1649 JMC re: McDermott and the endgame problem
C00051 00018 ∂08-Jan-87 1655 JMC phone
C00052 00019 ∂08-Jan-87 1738 JMC re: SERC probation report!
C00053 00020 ∂08-Jan-87 1741 JMC
C00054 00021 ∂08-Jan-87 2104 JMC re: I wish I would quit misspelling "Religious"
C00055 00022 ∂09-Jan-87 1024 JMC re: meetings 1/21/87
C00056 00023 ∂09-Jan-87 1234 JMC re: WICS
C00057 00024 ∂09-Jan-87 1637 JMC re: MS Committee meeting
C00058 00025 ∂09-Jan-87 1758 JMC Approximate Theories
C00060 00026 ∂09-Jan-87 2324 JMC reports
C00061 00027 ∂10-Jan-87 0049 JMC Gosper
C00062 00028 ∂10-Jan-87 0112 JMC re: address book/week-at-a-glance 1985 found
C00063 00029 ∂10-Jan-87 1004 JMC re: The Way Birds Do ...
C00064 00030 ∂10-Jan-87 1359 JMC re: Libertarian
C00065 00031 ∂11-Jan-87 1244 JMC reply to message
C00066 00032 ∂11-Jan-87 1603 JMC Piggott Professorship party
C00067 00033 ∂11-Jan-87 1800 JMC private offices for Senior Research Associates
C00070 00034 ∂11-Jan-87 2352 JMC Sakharov on peace
C00071 00035 ∂12-Jan-87 1218 JMC re: wics
C00072 00036 ∂12-Jan-87 1236 JMC
C00073 00037 ∂12-Jan-87 1317 JMC re: My degree plan
C00074 00038 ∂12-Jan-87 1500 JMC
C00075 00039 ∂12-Jan-87 1650 JMC petition from Bruno Gaudinet
C00078 00040 ∂12-Jan-87 1823 JMC
C00079 00041 ∂13-Jan-87 0048 JMC
C00080 00042 ∂13-Jan-87 0125 JMC dumped files
C00081 00043 ∂13-Jan-87 0131 JMC
C00082 00044 ∂13-Jan-87 1045 JMC
C00083 00045 ∂13-Jan-87 1048 JMC
C00084 00046 ∂13-Jan-87 1054 JMC
C00085 00047 ∂13-Jan-87 1108 JMC
C00086 00048 ∂13-Jan-87 1230 JMC
C00087 00049 ∂13-Jan-87 1230 JMC Rivin form
C00089 00050 ∂13-Jan-87 1246 JMC qlisp news
C00090 00051 ∂13-Jan-87 2103 JMC re: My degree plan
C00092 00052 ∂13-Jan-87 2105 JMC re: video interview Wed 14th
C00093 00053 ∂13-Jan-87 2339 JMC re: old files being restored
C00094 00054 ∂14-Jan-87 1008 JMC retreat
C00095 00055 ∂14-Jan-87 1010 JMC re: video this morning
C00096 00056 ∂14-Jan-87 1138 JMC re: AI Planning Retreat
C00097 00057 ∂14-Jan-87 1227 JMC
C00098 00058 ∂14-Jan-87 1640 JMC re: trip to Washington
C00099 00059 ∂14-Jan-87 1659 JMC re: thanks
C00103 00060 ∂14-Jan-87 2228 JMC re: MSCS Program Committee Meetiing
C00104 00061 ∂15-Jan-87 0042 JMC re: Timesharing Memo
C00105 00062 ∂15-Jan-87 1109 JMC
C00106 00063 ∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC re: your interview
C00107 00064 ∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC re: Provost invitation
C00108 00065 ∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC reply to message
C00109 00066 ∂15-Jan-87 1218 JMC re: Stallman Course
C00110 00067 ∂15-Jan-87 1220 JMC papers to Wortham
C00111 00068 ∂15-Jan-87 1445 JMC re: Interface Lists
C00112 00069 ∂15-Jan-87 1448 JMC re: Stallman Course
C00113 00070 ∂15-Jan-87 1448 JMC Stallman Course
C00125 00071 ∂15-Jan-87 2044 JMC
C00126 00072 ∂16-Jan-87 1728 JMC re: Phone
C00127 00073 ∂17-Jan-87 1101 JMC re: Multilisp papers
C00128 00074 ∂18-Jan-87 0125 JMC
C00129 00075 ∂18-Jan-87 2042 JMC [Diana Wood <WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>: Siglunch: January 23]
C00134 00076 ∂18-Jan-87 2043 JMC
C00135 00077 ∂18-Jan-87 2241 JMC arrival time?
C00136 00078 ∂19-Jan-87 0032 JMC re: SCHEMER Talk
C00137 00079 ∂21-Jan-87 2120 JMC re: Piggott Professorship party
C00138 00080 ∂21-Jan-87 2123 JMC re: LOTS 10th Birthday Celebration
C00139 00081 ∂21-Jan-87 2126 JMC re: Binford
C00140 00082 ∂21-Jan-87 2129 JMC reply to message
C00141 00083 ∂21-Jan-87 2130 JMC re: industrial visitors
C00142 00084 ∂22-Jan-87 1038 JMC Professorship in environmental engineering
C00143 00085 ∂22-Jan-87 1052 JMC mail abstract
C00145 00086 ∂22-Jan-87 1103 JMC re: NSF
C00146 00087 ∂22-Jan-87 1123 JMC reviving Dialnet
C00147 00088 ∂22-Jan-87 1140 JMC Fighting chance: ten feet to survival.
C00150 00089 ∂22-Jan-87 1202 JMC dinner invitees
C00151 00090 ∂22-Jan-87 1501 JMC re: Fighting chance: ten feet to survival.
C00152 00091 ∂22-Jan-87 2210 JMC reservation
C00153 00092 ∂22-Jan-87 2234 JMC re: Industrial lectureship for fall quarter, 1987
C00154 00093 ∂23-Jan-87 1059 JMC re: telephones
C00155 00094 ∂23-Jan-87 1106 JMC corrected number
C00156 00095 ∂23-Jan-87 1720 JMC
C00157 00096 ∂23-Jan-87 1809 JMC American trade deficit
C00167 00097 ∂23-Jan-87 2330 JMC
C00168 00098 ∂24-Jan-87 2232 JMC Don't nuke anybody.
C00174 00099 ∂25-Jan-87 2112 JMC re: Pool machine etiquette reminder
C00175 00100 ∂25-Jan-87 2339 JMC re: Apologies to dear bboard readers.
C00177 00101 ∂26-Jan-87 0913 JMC re: Binford
C00178 00102 ∂26-Jan-87 1152 JMC
C00179 00103 ∂26-Jan-87 1405 JMC re: AI Planning Retreat
C00180 00104 ∂26-Jan-87 1656 JMC The Punic wars and the physics of clouds
C00182 00105 ∂26-Jan-87 2138 JMC
C00183 00106 ∂27-Jan-87 1122 JMC re: 91 function
C00184 00107 ∂27-Jan-87 1238 JMC
C00185 00108 ∂27-Jan-87 1240 JMC
C00186 00109 ∂27-Jan-87 1257 JMC
C00187 00110 ∂27-Jan-87 1302 JMC
C00188 00111 ∂27-Jan-87 1303 JMC
C00196 00112 ∂27-Jan-87 1910 JMC re: 91 function
C00197 00113 ∂28-Jan-87 0953 JMC re: Barton Bernstein
C00198 00114 ∂28-Jan-87 1015 JMC re: hoter.xgp (again)
C00200 00115 ∂28-Jan-87 1120 JMC re: New phone
C00201 00116 ∂28-Jan-87 1147 JMC English
C00205 00117 ∂28-Jan-87 1503 JMC
C00206 00118 ∂28-Jan-87 2119 JMC re: Jacket
C00207 00119 ∂29-Jan-87 0943 JMC unprotect
C00208 00120 ∂29-Jan-87 1146 JMC re: unprotect
C00209 00121 ∂29-Jan-87 1214 JMC Moscow abstract
C00210 00122 ∂29-Jan-87 1507 JMC
C00211 00123 ∂29-Jan-87 1510 JMC form to be sent to Moscow
C00212 00124 ∂29-Jan-87 1511 JMC
C00213 00125 ∂29-Jan-87 2201 JMC very close veins
C00214 00126 ∂30-Jan-87 1232 JMC folks@csli
C00215 00127 ∂30-Jan-87 1254 JMC unix emacs manual
C00216 00128 ∂30-Jan-87 1320 JMC on line airline
C00217 00129 ∂30-Jan-87 1418 JMC
C00218 00130 ∂30-Jan-87 1438 JMC
C00219 00131 ∂30-Jan-87 1518 JMC re: Emacs
C00220 00132 ∂30-Jan-87 1519 JMC re: Hertz renewal
C00221 00133 ∂30-Jan-87 1519 JMC reply to message
C00222 00134 ∂30-Jan-87 1524 JMC re: Software theme house
C00223 00135 ∂30-Jan-87 1525 JMC re: Saul Amarel
C00224 00136 ∂30-Jan-87 1628 JMC
C00225 00137 ∂30-Jan-87 1712 JMC re: Important Message
C00226 00138 ∂30-Jan-87 1719 JMC re: Rutie
C00227 00139 ∂30-Jan-87 1808 JMC re: Important Message
C00228 00140 ∂31-Jan-87 1014 JMC re: Diversion
C00229 00141 ∂31-Jan-87 1446 JMC re: Important Message
C00230 00142 ∂01-Feb-87 1224 JMC re: diversion
C00231 00143 ∂01-Feb-87 1240 JMC re: Important Message
C00232 00144 ∂01-Feb-87 1524 JMC re: learning
C00234 00145 ∂01-Feb-87 1855 JMC Reagan Library
C00235 00146 ∂02-Feb-87 1216 JMC
C00236 00147 ∂02-Feb-87 1415 JMC One doesn't have to agree (and I don't) with the general opinions of
C00238 00148 ∂02-Feb-87 1422 JMC proposal
C00239 00149 ∂02-Feb-87 1733 JMC re: robotics
C00240 00150 ∂03-Feb-87 1000 JMC re: cs520
C00241 00151 ∂03-Feb-87 1003 JMC Accuracy in Academia
C00243 00152 ∂04-Feb-87 0109 JMC America's Cup
C00245 00153 ∂04-Feb-87 2205 JMC reply to message
C00246 00154 ∂05-Feb-87 0955 JMC re: Qlisp meeting tomorrow
C00247 00155 ∂05-Feb-87 1204 JMC lecturers
C00248 00156 ∂05-Feb-87 1459 JMC re: [<IRA@uwafrodo.bitnet>: AIM Workshop 1987]
C00249 00157 ∂05-Feb-87 1511 JMC Visit from Los Alamos
C00255 00158 ∂05-Feb-87 1511 JMC
C00256 00159 ∂05-Feb-87 1842 JMC reply to message
C00257 00160 ∂05-Feb-87 2054 JMC visit
C00258 00161 ∂06-Feb-87 1300 JMC taxing religious organizations
C00259 00162 ∂06-Feb-87 1556 JMC
C00260 00163 ∂07-Feb-87 1322 JMC
C00261 00164 ∂07-Feb-87 1347 JMC proposal
C00262 00165 ∂07-Feb-87 2110 JMC
C00263 00166 ∂08-Feb-87 1123 JMC re: History Question
C00265 00167 ∂08-Feb-87 1437 JMC autopsies
C00269 00168 ∂08-Feb-87 1441 JMC
C00270 00169 ∂08-Feb-87 1859 JMC Doctors with AIDS
C00272 00170 ∂08-Feb-87 2242 JMC
C00273 00171 ∂08-Feb-87 2339 JMC bans
C00277 00172 ∂08-Feb-87 2351 JMC HP-28C
C00279 00173 ∂09-Feb-87 0039 JMC visit
C00280 00174 ∂09-Feb-87 1315 Mailer failed mail returned
C00282 00175 ∂10-Feb-87 0741 JMC Trustees meeting
C00284 00176 ∂10-Feb-87 1550 JMC re: Trustees meeting
C00287 00177 ∂10-Feb-87 1556 JMC
C00288 00178 ∂10-Feb-87 1609 JMC reply to message
C00289 00179 ∂10-Feb-87 1733 JMC grade change
C00290 00180 ∂10-Feb-87 2343 JMC Trustees meeting
C00300 00181 ∂11-Feb-87 0857 JMC South Africa
C00307 00182 ∂11-Feb-87 1352 JMC re: Los Alamos visit
C00308 00183 ∂11-Feb-87 1413 JMC re: Subst
C00309 00184 ∂11-Feb-87 1508 JMC
C00310 00185 ∂11-Feb-87 1705 JMC Platoon
C00312 00186 ∂11-Feb-87 1740 JMC South Africa
C00316 00187 ∂11-Feb-87 2249 JMC reply to message
C00317 00188 ∂12-Feb-87 1116 JMC re: [Reply to message recvd: 11 Feb 87 15:08 Pacific Time]
C00318 00189 ∂12-Feb-87 1652 JMC re: SCHEMER Paper
C00319 00190 ∂12-Feb-87 1748 JMC re: possibly wayward posting ?
C00320 00191 ∂12-Feb-87 1800 JMC South Africa
C00322 00192 ∂14-Feb-87 1226 JMC wrong bboard
C00323 00193 ∂14-Feb-87 1858 JMC re: wrong bboard
C00324 00194 ∂14-Feb-87 1908 JMC reply to message
C00325 00195 ∂14-Feb-87 1915 JMC reply to message
C00326 00196 ∂14-Feb-87 2047 JMC South Africa
C00327 00197 ∂15-Feb-87 0104 JMC South Africa
C00329 00198 ∂15-Feb-87 1134 JMC South Africa
C00334 00199 ∂15-Feb-87 1134 JMC su-etc
C00335 00200 ∂15-Feb-87 1153 JMC answering machine
C00336 00201 ∂15-Feb-87 1816 JMC re: SAIL and Score accounts
C00337 00202 ∂15-Feb-87 2300 JMC Community service
C00338 00203 ∂15-Feb-87 2310 JMC Agreeing with Chomsky's politics
C00339 00204 ∂16-Feb-87 1305 JMC re: infomation
C00340 00205 ∂16-Feb-87 1613 JMC re: Necklacing
C00342 00206 ∂16-Feb-87 1721 JMC
C00343 00207 ∂16-Feb-87 1731 JMC proposal
C00345 00208 ∂16-Feb-87 1910 JMC
C00346 00209 ∂16-Feb-87 1935 JMC Shankar
C00347 00210 ∂16-Feb-87 2018 JMC
C00348 00211 ∂18-Feb-87 2012 JMC email addresses
C00350 00212 ∂18-Feb-87 2055 JMC re: ROC
C00351 00213 ∂18-Feb-87 2056 JMC re: flying
C00352 00214 ∂19-Feb-87 0412 JMC re: SU-ETC census
C00353 00215 ∂19-Feb-87 1121 JMC reply to message
C00354 00216 ∂19-Feb-87 1459 JMC re: bag
C00355 00217 ∂19-Feb-87 1736 JMC library keys
C00356 00218 ∂20-Feb-87 1344 JMC stationery
C00357 00219 ∂20-Feb-87 1346 JMC re: Vacation
C00358 00220 ∂20-Feb-87 1416 JMC proposal
C00359 00221 ∂20-Feb-87 1442 JMC
C00360 00222 ∂20-Feb-87 1459 JMC missionary position
C00362 00223 ∂20-Feb-87 2210 JMC re: AAAI workshop on Foundations
C00363 00224 ∂22-Feb-87 1028 JMC re: library keys
C00364 00225 ∂22-Feb-87 1150 JMC consciousness
C00372 00226 ∂22-Feb-87 2226 JMC reply to message
C00373 00227 ∂23-Feb-87 0109 JMC
C00376 00228 ∂23-Feb-87 1211 JMC re: home terminal essay
C00378 00229 ∂23-Feb-87 1249 JMC
C00379 00230 ∂23-Feb-87 1532 JMC re: Trip to Anchorage and Japan
C00380 00231 ∂23-Feb-87 1532 JMC Network Connection Charges
C00382 00232 ∂23-Feb-87 1626 JMC NAE election
C00383 00233 ∂23-Feb-87 1628 JMC re: workshop on the frame problem
C00384 00234 ∂23-Feb-87 2128 JMC ad hominem
C00385 00235 ∂24-Feb-87 1235 JMC decisions
C00386 00236 ∂24-Feb-87 1253 JMC cs326 next year
C00387 00237 ∂24-Feb-87 1255 JMC algebraic computation
C00388 00238 ∂24-Feb-87 1454 JMC re: ok for AX charges
C00389 00239 ∂24-Feb-87 1611 JMC re: CS258
C00390 00240 ∂24-Feb-87 1747 JMC re: Diagramming: An Educational Anachronism?
C00391 00241 ∂24-Feb-87 1754 JMC re: what is the word
C00392 00242 ∂25-Feb-87 0205 JMC Tokyo visits
C00393 00243 ∂25-Feb-87 1543 JMC re: CC of letter I sent to Spanish professor
C00394 00244 ∂25-Feb-87 1602 JMC re: ut
C00395 00245 ∂25-Feb-87 1737 JMC re: contesting parking tickets
C00396 00246 ∂25-Feb-87 1740 JMC tickets
C00398 00247 ∂25-Feb-87 1745 JMC Please phone
C00399 00248 ∂25-Feb-87 1755 JMC Please send
C00400 00249 ∂25-Feb-87 1946 JMC re: parking tickets
C00401 00250 ∂25-Feb-87 2317 JMC re: biblio. ref.
C00403 00251 ∂25-Feb-87 2322 JMC re: Go programs
C00404 00252 ∂25-Feb-87 2351 JMC statistical inference
C00405 00253 ∂26-Feb-87 0032 JMC re: Go programs
C00406 00254 ∂26-Feb-87 0054 JMC AIDS
C00407 00255 ∂26-Feb-87 1859 JMC lunch
C00408 00256 ∂26-Feb-87 1913 JMC SJSU
C00410 00257 ∂26-Feb-87 1943 JMC aids
C00413 00258 ∂26-Feb-87 2224 JMC liberal biases
C00417 00259 ∂27-Feb-87 1050 JMC re: lunch
C00418 00260 ∂27-Feb-87 1753 JMC re: Jimmy Carter: What's the scoop?
C00420 00261 ∂27-Feb-87 1800 JMC re: Another ARPANet question
C00421 00262 ∂27-Feb-87 1808 JMC
C00422 00263 ∂27-Feb-87 1829 JMC re: elephant
C00423 00264 ∂27-Feb-87 2312 JMC Your visit to Japan
C00425 00265 ∂28-Feb-87 1420 JMC proposal
C00426 00266 ∂28-Feb-87 1934 JMC sex differences and public policy
C00428 00267 ∂01-Mar-87 1339 JMC re: Log of breakin on ibmrtpc1
C00429 00268 ∂01-Mar-87 1402 JMC re: Breakin to your account on ibmrtpc1.
C00430 00269 ∂01-Mar-87 1443 JMC re: proposal
C00431 00270 ∂01-Mar-87 1657 JMC re: Benbow and (Simon?)
C00432 00271 ∂01-Mar-87 2229 JMC re: reply to message
C00433 00272 ∂02-Mar-87 1018 JMC whois database
C00434 00273 ∂02-Mar-87 1130 JMC ibm
C00435 00274 ∂02-Mar-87 1132 JMC visit
C00436 00275 ∂02-Mar-87 1407 JMC
C00437 00276 ∂02-Mar-87 1520 JMC nic database
C00439 00277 ∂03-Mar-87 1109 JMC re: Binford
C00440 00278 ∂03-Mar-87 1143 JMC
C00441 00279 ∂03-Mar-87 1808 JMC re: Virginia Mann
C00442 00280 ∂03-Mar-87 1810 JMC
C00443 00281 ∂03-Mar-87 1858 JMC note
C00444 00282 ∂03-Mar-87 2135 JMC re: Removing Reagan
C00445 00283 ∂04-Mar-87 0000 JMC AIDS
C00450 00284 ∂04-Mar-87 0012 JMC double-crossing the "peace movement"
C00452 00285 ∂04-Mar-87 1129 JMC re: Faculty AIDS Cases
C00453 00286 ∂04-Mar-87 1446 JMC rams, etc
C00454 00287 ∂04-Mar-87 1649 JMC re: Procedure for volunteering to organize a workshop
C00458 00288 ∂04-Mar-87 1651 JMC Sowa
C00459 00289 ∂04-Mar-87 1654 JMC re: Sowa
C00460 00290 ∂04-Mar-87 2059 JMC
C00461 00291 ∂04-Mar-87 2155 JMC AIDS
C00476 00292 ∂04-Mar-87 2208 JMC re: Scoundrels
C00477 00293 ∂04-Mar-87 2334 JMC re: AIDS
C00480 00294 ∂05-Mar-87 0200 JMC re: Does JMC speak on behalf of the John Birch Society?
C00483 00295 ∂05-Mar-87 1113 JMC re: Book bannings
C00486 00296 ∂05-Mar-87 1232 JMC
C00487 00297 ∂05-Mar-87 1256 JMC tex fix
C00488 00298 ∂05-Mar-87 1556 JMC re: CS326
C00489 00299 ∂05-Mar-87 1913 JMC re: Inference Corp.
C00490 00300 ∂05-Mar-87 2120 JMC re: "ROC flag"-continue
C00492 00301 ∂05-Mar-87 2142 JMC re: AIDS and contact tracing
C00494 00302 ∂05-Mar-87 2204 JMC reply to message
C00495 00303 ∂06-Mar-87 0923 JMC re: The gay community and AIDS
C00499 00304 ∂06-Mar-87 1252 JMC
C00500 00305 ∂06-Mar-87 1318 JMC
C00501 00306 ∂06-Mar-87 1508 JMC
C00502 00307 ∂07-Mar-87 1522 JMC re: Two questions
C00504 00308 ∂07-Mar-87 1524 JMC re: Why it's not Eurasia
C00505 00309 ∂07-Mar-87 1533 JMC re: AIDS & opportunistic infections
C00507 00310 ∂07-Mar-87 1633 JMC trip
C00509 00311 ∂08-Mar-87 1601 JMC re: proposal
C00510 00312 ∂08-Mar-87 1602 JMC
C00512 00313 ∂09-Mar-87 1111 JMC re: proposal
C00513 00314 ∂09-Mar-87 1111 JMC re: proposal
C00514 00315 ∂09-Mar-87 1129 JMC re: proposal
C00515 00316 ∂09-Mar-87 1540 JMC re: new course: Topics in Algebraic Computation
C00517 00317 ∂09-Mar-87 1604 JMC
C00518 00318 ∂09-Mar-87 1923 JMC re: new course: Topics in Algebraic Computation
C00519 00319 ∂10-Mar-87 0034 JMC China
C00525 00320 ∂10-Mar-87 0055 JMC Asia
C00527 00321 ∂10-Mar-87 0424 JMC industrial lecturers
C00529 00322 ∂10-Mar-87 0424 JMC correction
C00531 00323 ∂10-Mar-87 0518 JMC China
C00532 00324 ∂10-Mar-87 1113 JMC re: Proposal
C00533 00325 ∂10-Mar-87 1304 JMC re: thursday
C00534 00326 ∂10-Mar-87 1307 JMC
C00535 00327 ∂10-Mar-87 1501 JMC Re: trip
C00540 00328 ∂10-Mar-87 1614 JMC re: EBOS
C00541 00329 ∂10-Mar-87 1707 JMC re:
C00543 00330 ∂10-Mar-87 1753 JMC re: The ROC.PRC debate
C00544 00331 ∂10-Mar-87 1709 JMC AIDS patients as reservoirs of infection
C00546 00332 ∂10-Mar-87 1952 JMC re: That is...
C00548 00333 ∂11-Mar-87 0105 JMC
C00549 00334 ∂11-Mar-87 0107 JMC re: K2
C00550 00335 ∂11-Mar-87 1500 JMC Another Macsyma-like situation.
C00552 00336 ∂11-Mar-87 1514 JMC
C00553 00337 ∂11-Mar-87 1548 JMC re: Course Proposal
C00554 00338 ∂11-Mar-87 1551 JMC re: Eurisko...
C00555 00339 ∂11-Mar-87 1831 JMC re: Poverty In America
C00556 00340 ∂11-Mar-87 1843 JMC religion and science
C00559 00341 ∂11-Mar-87 2104 JMC re: want to help name my sister's child?
C00560 00342 ∂11-Mar-87 2328 JMC Common LISP mail litht
C00562 00343 ∂12-Mar-87 0957 JMC re: CS326 final
C00563 00344 ∂13-Mar-87 1119 JMC re: Take Home final and unintended typos
C00564 00345 ∂13-Mar-87 1409 JMC
C00565 00346 ∂13-Mar-87 1513 JMC re: Immune System Article
C00567 00347 ∂13-Mar-87 1532 JMC lending Moravec's book to Les
C00568 00348 ∂13-Mar-87 1736 JMC re: Performance Evaluations
C00569 00349 ∂13-Mar-87 2014 JMC re: Law *requiring* firearms!
C00570 00350 ∂13-Mar-87 2053 JMC re: Job offer
C00571 00351 ∂13-Mar-87 2149 JMC expert on women's gymnastic
C00573 00352 ∂13-Mar-87 2230 JMC
C00574 00353 ∂13-Mar-87 2259 JMC
C00575 00354 ∂14-Mar-87 1308 JMC
C00576 00355 ∂14-Mar-87 1322 JMC negotiations with Gibbons
C00577 00356 ∂14-Mar-87 1840 JMC re: Spring financing
C00578 00357 ∂14-Mar-87 2131 JMC 2 things
C00579 00358 ∂15-Mar-87 0931 JMC re: 326 final
C00580 00359 ∂15-Mar-87 1337 JMC re: final
C00581 00360 ∂15-Mar-87 1423 JMC re: typo? on final
C00582 00361 ∂16-Mar-87 0939 JMC
C00583 00362 ∂16-Mar-87 0942 JMC re: hi
C00584 00363 ∂16-Mar-87 1045 JMC banana slug
C00586 00364 ∂16-Mar-87 1048 JMC AIDS
C00597 00365 ∂16-Mar-87 1242 JMC
C00598 00366 ∂16-Mar-87 1609 JMC re: please verify
C00599 00367 ∂16-Mar-87 1639 JMC re: course on interactive proof checkers etc
C00601 00368 ∂16-Mar-87 1649 JMC
C00602 00369 ∂16-Mar-87 1720 JMC
C00603 00370 ∂16-Mar-87 1803 JMC re: ``We present you now Professor Twist...''
C00604 ENDMK
C⊗;
∂04-Jan-87 2117 JMC re: Russian and American governments
To: STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA sent Sun 4 Jan 87 15:47:24-PST.]
I agree with most of Steinberger's message, but there's one implication I
don't agree with. Suppose someone cites a poll that states that a majority
of citizens oppose a certain decision of the Government. This will make
the leaders of the Government think about the wisdom of the decision or
at least its expediency, because they hope to be re-elected. However,
such a poll should not be sufficient reason for reversing the decision.
A coherent policy is needed, and Government by poll would not be coherent.
For example, the public might support appropriations very far beyond the
taxes they support. The public might say that communist governments in
the Western Hemisphere are intolerable and simultaneously oppose support
for the contras. Governments, including the Reagan Administration, are
too poll driven as it is. The public's recourse to repeated decisions
that are opposed by public opinion is to vote the rascals out at the
next opportunity.
∂05-Jan-87 1000 JMC re: you
To: yoav%wisdom.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon, 5 Jan 87 10:50:54 -0200.]
We are beginning to discuss the proposal with DARPA. Can you be
reached reliably if modifications need to be made to your part?
∂05-Jan-87 1014 JMC re: lectures
To: AIR
[In reply to message rcvd 05-Jan-87 10:05-PT.]
Neither has direct relevance to what we have hired you for. Therefore,
it depends on the development of your own interests. If I understand
your interests correctly, you will find both worthwhile, and you
are certainly welcome.
∂05-Jan-87 1156 JMC re: Howard Boyer
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 05-Jan-87 11:44-PT.]
Page 2 of morave.rev[f86,jmc] is the review. Please decorate it with
TEXisms, ending at the end of page 2 so that the notes on page 3 won't
be TEXed but will remain in the file. There should also be a reference
to the file in LETTER[LET,JMC].
∂05-Jan-87 1600 JMC conversation with Saul
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Things don't look as bad as they did. Saul denies that he has any plan to
leave before Sept. He said there were some things he didn't want to
discuss on the phone; I imagine he didn't want to discuss his relations
with his bosses in front of his secretary. We are now meeting on the
20th. He again raised the possibility of you and I merging our proposals.
Let's discuss it. He also said that money wasn't the main problem, and I
got the idea that if the proposal(s) could be made more attractive even at
greater cost, it would be a plus. This led me to mention CBCL, and
possible collaboration with SRI. My major problem with complicating the
proposal is keeping everything straight (so that we don't unexpectedly run
out of money). In so far as you or Vladimir or Les are willing to keep
track of complications, I have no objection.
On another matter Carolyn reminded me to mention to you, if I hadn't
already, that Keith Clark is interested in a visiting appointment.
∂05-Jan-87 1600 JMC
To: LES
I didn't order the ships' bells.
∂05-Jan-87 1633 JMC re: Video lectures for new Xerox President
To: oshea.pa@XEROX.COM
[In reply to message sent Mon, 5 Jan 87 15:35:52 PST.]
That will be ok.
∂07-Jan-87 2232 JMC re: question
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 07-Jan-87 16:49-PT.]
Apparently not, but I'm not the expert, and I don't know who is.
∂08-Jan-87 0039 JMC re: Support request for TICIP Workshop
To: Chandra%OSU-20@OHIO-STATE.ARPA
CC: AAAI-OFFICE@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 2 Jan 87 13:56:34-EST.]
AAAI will support this workshop to the tune of $5K. Please
arrange the matter with Claudia.
∂08-Jan-87 0051 JMC re: CS326 Grade Change
To: YOUNG@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 7 Jan 87 14:54:50-PST.]
Please verify for yourself that this is possible if I agree according
to the Department and Stanford. Also come to enough classes to know
about the current subject matter.
∂08-Jan-87 1156 JMC re: Call to Amarel
To: LES
[In reply to message rcvd 08-Jan-87 11:51-PT.]
That will be from Jacks, and perhaps you should be on the line also,
since you will probably have to merge the proposals if it turns out
that way.
∂08-Jan-87 1442 JMC re: meeting in D.C. 1/21
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 08-Jan-87 13:27-PT.]
separate
∂08-Jan-87 1444 JMC re: TA for 326?
To: REGES@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 8 Jan 87 12:17:11-PST.]
Unless these students are quite interested and interesting to me,
∂08-Jan-87 1453 JMC
To: reges@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Michael Ginn came by and convinced me to take him has TA.
∂08-Jan-87 1649 JMC re: McDermott and the endgame problem
To: GUNNING@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 8 Jan 87 15:28:52-PST.]
Thanks for the reference to McDermott.
∂08-Jan-87 1655 JMC phone
To: RA
If there is going to be a delay in getting the new phone, then they
should change my phone back to its previous arrangement.
∂08-Jan-87 1738 JMC re: SERC probation report!
To: ROBERTS@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 8 Jan 87 17:12:02-PST.]
I think I did send it, but I'll check.
∂08-Jan-87 1741 JMC
To: RA
Did you send a "probation report form" to Paul Roberts?
∂08-Jan-87 2104 JMC re: I wish I would quit misspelling "Religious"
To: J.JBRENNER@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 8 Jan 87 20:34:16-PST.]
From: Joe Brenner <J.JBRENNER@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: I wish I would quit misspelling "Religious"
Alright, but then to be fair people should also stop
misspelling "atheist".
∂09-Jan-87 1024 JMC re: meetings 1/21/87
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 09-Jan-87 10:22-PT.]
Anything convenient with them is ok.
∂09-Jan-87 1234 JMC re: WICS
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 09-Jan-87 10:43-PT.]
It looks good. Since the word Journal is not part of the title
of Artificial Intelligence, the last phrase should be "is an editor
of the journal Artificial Intelligence".
∂09-Jan-87 1637 JMC re: MS Committee meeting
To: JUTTA@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 9 Jan 87 15:35:37-PST.]
I'll miss it. Are either of the advisees mine?
∂09-Jan-87 1758 JMC Approximate Theories
To: RA
∂09-Jan-87 1645 ortiz@spam.istc.sri.com Approximate Theories
Received: from SPAM.ISTC.SRI.COM by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 9 Jan 87 16:45:28 PST
Received: by spam.istc.sri.com (5.51/4.16)
id AA10307 for jmc@sail; Fri, 9 Jan 87 16:45:42 PST
Message-Id: <8701100045.AA10307@spam.istc.sri.com>
To: jmc@sail
Cc: ortiz@spam.istc.sri.com
Subject: Approximate Theories
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 87 16:45:40 -0800
From: Charlie Ortiz <ortiz@spam.istc.sri.com>
I attended your last talk on context at teh non-monotonic reasoning
seminar in which you referenced your paper "Ascribing Mental Qualities
to Machines." I haven't been able to acquire a copy of it. Could you
send me one in the mail? Here is my postal address:
Charles Ortiz
SRI International
Room Ek335
333 Ravenswood Ave
Menlo Park, Ca 94025
Thank you very much.
∂09-Jan-87 2324 JMC reports
To: RA
Please send copies of the Szeredi letter to Professor Takayasu Ito
in Japan and to Dr. Okuno at KSL, and send a copy the report
Map Coloring and the Kowalski doctrine to Okuno. We need more copies
of the report, and each should be accompanied by a copy of the Szeredi
letter.
∂10-Jan-87 0049 JMC Gosper
To: LES
He is agreeable to having the account flushed. If it isn't difficult,
he would like to have mail to it forwarded, and he will send ME a
message with the forwarding address.
∂10-Jan-87 0112 JMC re: address book/week-at-a-glance 1985 found
To: MACMILK@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 7 Jan 87 10:10:06-PST.]
Try scholz@sushi.
∂10-Jan-87 1004 JMC re: The Way Birds Do ...
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 5 Jan 87 12:58:33-PST.]
A free fall from 12,500 feet lasts one minute before you must open
your chute at 2,000 feet.
∂10-Jan-87 1359 JMC re: Libertarian
To: ANDY@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
CC: SU-ETC@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from ANDY@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Sat 10 Jan 87 13:30:25-PST.]
I'm curious about "Many groups claim that libertarians are inherently
oppressive because" they don't allow groups to coerce others to support
them. I would like to see the arguments or citations to them. It would
be interesting to see how frank they are. Are they in connection with
libertarian object to taxing students to support Nader's Public Interest
Research Group, a lobbying organization.
∂11-Jan-87 1244 JMC reply to message
To: GLB
[In reply to message rcvd 11-Jan-87 01:53-PT.]
Many thanks for the Leibniz quotations, references and explanations.
∂11-Jan-87 1603 JMC Piggott Professorship party
To: GHG@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
As I think I mentioned to you, I am (if the Trustees approve) to
become the Charles M. Piggott Professor of Computer Science. There
is to be a dinner at the Provost's house with the donor of the
chair. Would you like to come? I remember that you started the
campaign to get a chair for me.
∂11-Jan-87 1800 JMC private offices for Senior Research Associates
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
This is something I have meant to advocate as a space goal for the
Near West Campus. In principle, Stanford can compete with industry
in salary for the people we want to hire and keep in research
associate positions. However, the last time I heard about it, there
was a rule that research staff who didn't have "professor" in their
titles could not have private offices. Note that secretaries often
do. My opinion is that we should base our space requests on
associating a private office with the promotion to Senior Research
Associate. In industry, even people corresponding to Research
Associates usually have private offices, and I think it permits
them to do more work. We should not require that this privilege
be connected to promotion to Professor (research), because the
main intent of that rank is that the person be a principal
investigator. Some people will go through their entire careers
helping a project rather than running their own. There's no
special reason for my mentioning this now, but I keep forgetting.
By the way I might be wrong about the formal existence of the rule,
but I think I heard it from Les or Betty Scott.
∂11-Jan-87 2352 JMC Sakharov on peace
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
From a recent interview with Sakharov by the London Observer
reported by the Associated Press.
''The West should insist on improvements. I mean as a first step a
full amnesty for all prisoners of conscience and the repeal of those
laws ... that make it an offense to criticize the authorities,'' he
continued. ''Reforms of this type, not arms reduction, would be the
best guarantee of peace.''
I think Sakharov is correct in putting freedom ahead of arms reduction as
a way of securing peace.
∂12-Jan-87 1218 JMC re: wics
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 12-Jan-87 11:05-PT.]
It's usual to have a rather fat collection of readings. Therefore, I
want to include "Some philosophical questions ..." and "First order
theories of individual concepts and propositions".
∂12-Jan-87 1236 JMC
To: RA
hilpin.1
∂12-Jan-87 1317 JMC re: My degree plan
To: TEICH@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 12 Jan 87 12:39:26-PST.]
Since I'm not familiar with either 242 or 237, I suggest you talk to the
professors in charge of them.
∂12-Jan-87 1500 JMC
To: VAL
common.tex[e80,jmc] should be used, but reTEXed first.
∂12-Jan-87 1650 JMC petition from Bruno Gaudinet
To: oliger@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: jutta@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
I support his petition to substitute cs356 (reasoning about knowledge)
for cs257b (deductive systems) in his master's program. He has a schedule
conflict involving final exams that this will relieve.
∂12-Jan-87 1823 JMC
To: RA
Please get me a current Courses and Degrees bulletin.
∂13-Jan-87 0048 JMC
To: RA
todoro.11
∂13-Jan-87 0125 JMC dumped files
To: RA
Please try to retrieve the following files from dump tapes.
shed[r,wd]
books[r,wd]
Joe can tell you how to do it.
∂13-Jan-87 0131 JMC
To: RA
Put the files in 1,jmc.
∂13-Jan-87 1045 JMC
To: RA
∂13-Jan-87 1006 SJG George Gratzer
... is a mathematician at Waterloo, who has taken an interest
in AI, but has been disappointed at the lack of formal material
available. I met him at a lattice theory workshop last week,
and told him that I'd try to get him some better stuff. Could
you send him a copy of the new circumscription paper? His whole
address is:
George Gratzer
U. of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Canada R3T 2N2
Hmm. Looking at it, I guess he's from Winnipeg instead of
Waterloo ...
Thanks.
Matt
∂13-Jan-87 1048 JMC
To: VAL
Please try again. I have unprotected jmcmac, but I'm not certain it's enough.
∂13-Jan-87 1054 JMC
To: VAL
When it makes that complaint, just hit carriage return.
∂13-Jan-87 1108 JMC
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Suggest inviting VAL to March 7 AI retreat.
∂13-Jan-87 1230 JMC
To: RA
See msg.msg[1,jmc]/86p.
∂13-Jan-87 1230 JMC Rivin form
To: RA
Rivin is being hired for the QLISP project to make a memory-sharing
parallel version of the LISP programming language. His role will be
to program algebraic computations in the new language.
The search was for someone with specific experience in algebraic computation
and with mathematical ability at the PhD level. The search started in
July 1986 as soon as the Qlisp contract with DARPA was activated. It
was conducted by Carolyn Talcott mainly by posting on computer bulletin
boards and inquiries at locations where a person with the required
abilities might be found. The proposal was entitled xxx and was submitted
in late 1984 or early 1985. The search was effective mainly because it
was already known where qualified people might be found.
∂13-Jan-87 1246 JMC qlisp news
To: squires@A.ISI.EDU
Igor Rivin, a recent Princeton mathematics PhD and with experience at
Symbolics working on MACSYMA has started work on the Qlisp project.
He will take charge of the main work of doing algebra in Qlisp. The
sooner there's a Qlisp, the better for his work.
A propos of that, I am somewhat concerned that the effort by Lucid
may be diverted by making the communicating version of Common Lisp
from the prompt completion of Qlisp. Let's discuss it when I come
to Washington next Tuesday.
∂13-Jan-87 2103 JMC re: My degree plan
To: TEICH@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 13 Jan 87 17:35:32-PST.]
As to personal history, I was brought up as an atheist. However, my reason
for calling myself an atheist rather than an agnostic is not that I
have any special evidence for the non-existence of a god. I likewise
have no evidence for the non-existence at the present moment of an
elephant in the basement of MJH. I am nevertheless a disbeliever
in an elephant in the basement. It is a question of what kind of
evidence or lack of it is required for disbelief. My opinion is that
there are good explanations for widespread belief in God and these
aren't evidence for His existence.
∂13-Jan-87 2105 JMC re: video interview Wed 14th
To: oshea.pa@XEROX.COM
[In reply to message sent Tue, 13 Jan 87 14:02:45 PST.]
I have no office in Jordan Hall, but I will be at my office in 356
Margaret Jacks Hall at 10:30am tomorrow. Please acknowledge the
correction.
∂13-Jan-87 2339 JMC re: old files being restored
To: ME
[In reply to message rcvd 13-Jan-87 23:17-PT.]
They only have to human readable, so we'll see how bad they are.
∂14-Jan-87 1008 JMC retreat
To: gsmith@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
March 8 is also ok with me.
∂14-Jan-87 1010 JMC re: video this morning
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 14-Jan-87 09:03-PT.]
No problem. I'll bring a parka.
∂14-Jan-87 1138 JMC re: AI Planning Retreat
To: GSMITH@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 14 Jan 87 11:20:04-PST.]
I was planning to leave for Japan on April 4 but could probably postpone
it a day.
∂14-Jan-87 1227 JMC
To: RA
Do we have the Binford vita yet?
∂14-Jan-87 1640 JMC re: trip to Washington
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 14-Jan-87 15:23-PT.]
Take the same hotel.
∂14-Jan-87 1659 JMC re: thanks
To: ucscc!ucscd.beeson@UCBVAX.Berkeley.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed, 14 Jan 87 15:50:15 PST.]
Indeed it is hard to put together a coherent view, because the people
doing the research actually want to explore all possibilities, but
such a sensible view doesn't sit well with many Congressmen for whom
some possibilities are politically attackable. For example, if they
mention nuclear explosions in space, then the anti-nukes gain additional
weapons. For this reason, one can't reason conclusively from what
Weinberger, Nunn, Major Worden or Lowell Wood have said publically.
In addition to their external battles, they are certainly competing
technically. On the one hand, the internal battles generate rather
vigorous statements about how the other guys' systems won't work, but
they also fear that if their mutual criticism gets out, the antis
will use them to kill all approaches. For example, have you heard
about the battle between the advocates of infra-red and ultra-violet
lasers?
On another topic. I haven't time to look for it now, but you advocated
collaboration with the Soviets on a variety of projects aiding the
Third World as promoting mutual confidence. There is no problem about
the ability of Americans and Russians to collaborate on projects that
are supported by both governments and by the individuals who have to
do the work. Projects to aid the Third World, however, often face
the communist ideological view of what the Third World's problem is.
From that point of view, the Third World's problem is to defeat
imperialism, specifically American imperialism. If this involves,
as it sometimes did in Vietnam, the assassination of rural nurses trained
by American sponsored projects, so be it. Visible collaboration in
the Third World with American imperialism is a no-no in anything
that will meliorate "class contradictions".
I am not familiar with it, but if you want to explore the matter you
should find a history of UN sponsored projects in the Third World,
especially a history of their negotiation in New York and of their
implementation in countries on which the communists have designs.
∂14-Jan-87 2228 JMC re: MSCS Program Committee Meetiing
To: JUTTA@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 14 Jan 87 16:57:17-PST.]
I teach Tuesday and Thursday at 1:15. On the other hand, I don't mind
not attending.
∂15-Jan-87 0042 JMC re: Timesharing Memo
To: LES
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Jan-87 00:36-PT.]
The memo itself turns out to be TIME.HIS[S80,JMC].
∂15-Jan-87 1109 JMC
To: CLT
01-22 Thurs. 6:30pm, dinner at Provost's house
∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC re: your interview
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Jan-87 12:01-PT.]
Make it sra[w87,jmc].
∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC re: Provost invitation
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Jan-87 10:08-PT.]
I phoned her.
∂15-Jan-87 1215 JMC reply to message
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Jan-87 09:20-PT.]
Thanks for retrieving the file.
∂15-Jan-87 1218 JMC re: Stallman Course
To: AI.BOYER@MCC.COM
[In reply to message sent Thu, 15 Jan 1987 10:49 CST.]
Would it be possible for Arkady Rabinov, a research associate in my
group, to attend instead of me? He has the job of implementing the
EBOS.
∂15-Jan-87 1220 JMC papers to Wortham
To: RA
Please send Anne Wortham "The little thoughts ... " and "Some
Expert Systems Need ...".
∂15-Jan-87 1445 JMC re: Interface Lists
To: XB.XGK@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu, 15 Jan 87 13:04:35 PST.]
While John McCarthy and JMC@SAIL, I'm not the Jack your message is
intended for.
∂15-Jan-87 1448 JMC re: Stallman Course
To: AI.BOYER@MCC.COM
[In reply to message sent Thu, 15 Jan 1987 15:16 CST.]
Thanks, and I'll forward the message to Arkady. He is AIR@SAIL for
future messages.
∂15-Jan-87 1448 JMC Stallman Course
To: AIR
∂15-Jan-87 1316 AI.BOYER@MCC.COM Stallman Course
Received: from MCC.COM by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 15 Jan 87 13:16:41 PST
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1987 15:16 CST
Message-ID: <AI.BOYER.12271193056.BABYL@MCC.COM>
From: AI.BOYER@MCC.COM
To: John McCarthy <JMC@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Stallman Course
In-reply-to: Msg of 15 Jan 1987 14:18-CST from John McCarthy <JMC at SAIL.STANFORD.EDU>
Sure. Here is a message for Rabinov and you to read.
This message is being sent to all those who responded to my
query about interest in the course Stallman is going to give
on Gnu Emacs in February to MCC people. There are about 36
of you, listed in mcc:<ai.boyer>gnu-emacs-course.list.
It still looks like the Gnu Emacs course is going to happen.
The course will take up all of the week of February 2 -
February 6. It will take place in my house, 614 W. 32nd, in
Austin, just northwest of UT, where I have a seminar room
with blackboard, overhead projector, Sun-3, and laser
printer. We've managed to seat 25, though it's most
comfortable with about 15. After you finish reading this
message, I doubt that more than 15 of you will come. If you
tell anyone that you are going to be at my house that week,
please tell them not to call except in case of a family
emergency. I want to have the benefit of a fairly isolated
and interrupt free atmosphere without the major expense and
family disruption of holding the course out of town.
I do not have any idea what the agenda will be, beyond the
list that I got from Stallman and circulated to you. I
would like us to begin around 9am each day. I myself find
it hard to listen to more than a couple of hours of lectures
at a stretch. But I hope we can have a good bit of
interaction and maybe even some experimentation between the
lectures. Personally, I hope that the sessions are largely
driven by whatever the audience is most interested in
talking about.
This will be a course for people who want to use Gnu Emacs
in a serious way in system development. It is NOT for
novices who just want to learn to use the ordinary set of
EMACS commands a little better. If you are not a competent
Lisp programmer, you probably shouldn't attend. If you are
not already using Gnu Emacs and making minor extensions to
it (or wishing you could), you probably shouldn't attend.
(That's Gnu Emacs, not just Emacs, as it exists for example
on Dec 2060s and Lisp Machines. I along with many other
people at MCC use Gnu Emacs on Suns, but it runs on many
other machines, too.) If you can't afford to devote most of
a week to this class, you probably shouldn't attend.
I do not intend to impose any restrictions on which of you
may attend. However, I do make the following requests of
you. (You don't have to comply with any request but the
first.)
0. MOST IMPORTANTLY, understand that Stallman is NOT
signing any sort of nondisclosure agreement or intellectual
property agreement. It is entirely your responsibility to
keep MCC confidential and proprietary information to yourself
during this course.
1. Make sure that your supervisor knows that this is a week
long event.
2. Ask your supervisor for a contribution, say $500
tuition. We're paying Stallman $10,000 plus expenses out of
the AI/ISA budget, but I wouldn't mind getting some of that
reimbursed from other projects. If your supervisor says no,
you can still come. But I suspect that if your supervisor
can spare you for a week, he can spare $500, too.
3. Ask yourself whether you'd be interested in putting
Stallman up. He'd prefer to stay in someone's house to
staying in a hotel, not only to avoid the expenditure of MCC
money but also because he doesn't care much for hotels.
4. Ask yourself whether you can contribute a tape recorder.
Stallman may get his lectures transcribed for the benefit
of others.
5. Finally, prepare yourself mentally for Richard Stallman
by reading the rest of this message. If it offends you,
you probably don't want to come to the course.
*******************************************************************
The rest of this message is Stallman speaking in the first
person, not Bob Boyer!!!!
*******************************************************************
I have to warn you that Texans have been known to have an adverse reaction
to my bizarre opinions.
A few years ago I went to TI to teach courses on how the Lisp machine
system internals work. At lunch on the second day, the boss of the
group came to me, chatted for a while in a way that seemed strangely
aimless, and then told me that a design review of the entire project
had been scheduled for the following day. "No one will be able to
come to your classes."
"Well, I had better work out now which topics are the most important
to cover this afternoon."
"It's worse than that. No one will be available to take you to the
airport either, so we have to switch your flight to this afternoon."
I said ok, especially since he then gave me a check for more than I
had expected for the time originally planned.
The next week I phoned and asked about arrangements future visits for
more lectures. Before my trip, they expected to want more than one.
Having missed part of the first series, they would naturally want them
sooner than planned. But the the boss said, "As things stand now,
I'm not sure when we would have time for you."
I thought about this, and the unexpected size of the check. Was he
ashamed? "I think you aren't telling me the real reason. I think you
found something you didn't like and you don't want to do business with
me. I'd rather you told me what it is. Were my lectures
unsatisfactory?"
"Yes, you're right, but it wasn't your lectures. It was the people
who had dinner with you. Both evenings they were very uncomfortable
with you. They said they didn't want to have you around any more."
"Uncomfortable? But they didn't say so. Did they say why?"
"One of them said he was upset when you talked about nasal sex with
plants." I had actually demonstrated this perverse act with
the bouquet on the table, at dinner the night before.
That was the end of the conversation, but I never forgot that the
worst bunch of cowards I ever met were Texans. I can just imagine them:
"Chief, you gotta get that guy away from here! All his crazy
ideas are making my head feel strange. Is he a hippy?"
I have a suspicion that I didn't put them any more at ease when I
started the first lecture by leading everyone in a Bulgarian folk
dance. Perhaps this raised questions in their minds about my
affiliation with foreign powers.
I have another suspicion. It's hard for me to believe even a Texan
would be that worried about preserving the innocence of plants.
Perhaps his pious concern was yet another front. But for what?
Was it because I told the Symbolics repairman to tell Noftsker
that I was Noftsker's nemesis and I would put him out of business?
Alas, in the study of alien civilizations, we find many clues and
few answers.
∂15-Jan-87 2044 JMC
To: CLT
Provost dinner, Jan 22, 6:30pm
∂16-Jan-87 1728 JMC re: Phone
To: EPPLEY@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 16 Jan 87 16:50:56-PST.]
Hang on; we need to look before we leap again.
∂17-Jan-87 1101 JMC re: Multilisp papers
To: JJW
[In reply to message rcvd 17-Jan-87 08:56-PT.]
Yes, please. Rutie can do all the copying for you.
∂18-Jan-87 0125 JMC
To: TOB@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I can't send the letters till Rutie gets your bio.
∂18-Jan-87 2042 JMC [Diana Wood <WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>: Siglunch: January 23]
To: VAL
∂18-Jan-87 2012 FEIGENBAUM@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU [Diana Wood <WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>: Siglunch: January 23]
Received: from SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 18 Jan 87 20:12:45 PST
Date: Sun 18 Jan 87 20:10:46-PST
From: Edward Feigenbaum <FEIGENBAUM@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: [Diana Wood <WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>: Siglunch: January 23]
To: jmc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Message-ID: <12272054867.17.FEIGENBAUM@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
I THOUGHT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN THIS......ED
---------------
Mail-From: WOOD created at 16-Jan-87 16:35:34
Date: Fri 16 Jan 87 16:35:32-PST
From: Diana Wood <WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Siglunch: January 23
To: siglunch@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Message-ID: <12271491398.86.WOOD@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
Siglunch
Title: Knowledge Engineering Implications of the Correspondence Between
Decision Theory and Non-Monotonic Reasoning
Time: Friday, January 23, 12:05-1:05 p.m.
Place: Chemistry Gazebo
Speaker: Curt Langlotz
From: Medical Information Sciences, Stanford University
Abstract:
Classical decision theory cannot be used in isolation to provide
expert consultation. It does, however, provide practical insights
that impact the knowledge engineering process. Previously, I have
presented a decision-theoretic analysis of situation-action heuristics
that helps answer several questions consequential to system-builders.
This approach has been extended by considering situation-action
problem solving as a special case of non-monotonic reasoning. By
establishing a simple logical correspondence between decision theory
and non-monotonic logic, it can be shown that non-monotonic inference
is a compilation of two decision-theoretic concepts: likelihoods and
utilities. An intuitive study of these two notions demonstrates that
likelihood knowledge has several problem-independent characteristics,
whereas utility information is problem-specific.
This talk will present and discuss examples of the following practical
lessons from this decision-theoretic view of non-monotonic reasoning:
(1) Non-monotonic logic does not retain the same domain-independent
characteristics of classical (monotonic) logic. This conclusion may
undermine one frequent justification for the use of non-monotonic
logic to implement planning systems. (2) Because certain knowledge
representations (e.g. situation-action rules, non-monotonic logic)
inherently contain problem-specific components, they may be
inappropriate to employ in the construction of "very large"
problem-independent knowledge bases. (3) Many problems require an
explicit separation of likelihood knowledge and utility information.
Through judicious combinations of artificial intelligence techniques
and decision theory, system-building methodologies can be developed to
facilitate solutions for this class of problems.
-------
-------
∂18-Jan-87 2043 JMC
To: CLT
Please retrieve my Boise output, CAL[1,jmc](4) and PHON[1,JMC].
∂18-Jan-87 2241 JMC arrival time?
To: simpson@A.ISI.EDU
CC: amarel@A.ISI.EDU, scherlis@A.ISI.EDU
Vladimir Lifschitz and I will appear at 9 on Tuesday unless we hear
otherwise, but any time that day is ok. I'll be leaving my office at
noon on Monday and I'll be staying at the Marriott Key-Bridge in
Rosslyn.
∂19-Jan-87 0032 JMC re: SCHEMER Talk
To: ZABIH@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun, 18 Jan 1987 23:31 PST.]
I'm sorry I'll miss it.
∂21-Jan-87 2120 JMC re: Piggott Professorship party
To: GOLUB@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 19 Jan 87 13:21:21-PST.]
Thanks for coming. Sorry for forgetting the date. It is Friday, Feb 20
at the Provost's house. You'll get an official invitation.
∂21-Jan-87 2123 JMC re: LOTS 10th Birthday Celebration
To: M.MRIZEK@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 20 Jan 87 16:36:33-PST.]
I shall be there and will be glad to say a few words.
∂21-Jan-87 2126 JMC re: Binford
To: RICHARDSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 21 Jan 87 13:09:49-PST.]
The letter about Binford has been ready to go for more than a month
and is held up waiting for a biography from Binford. He has been
nagged.
∂21-Jan-87 2129 JMC reply to message
To: busalacc@UMN-CS.ARPA
[In reply to message sent Wed, 21 Jan 87 16:40:21 CST.]
What you propose won't work for two reasons. First, our LISP will be
Qlisp as described in a paper by Gabriel and me in the 1984 Lisp
conference. This lisp presumes shared memory which the n-cube ain't
got. Second, we don't have Qlisp yet. In six months to a year, we'll
have it. It will then be reasonably portable to shared memory multi-processors
in which the basic processor is the 68020.
∂21-Jan-87 2130 JMC re: industrial visitors
To: WIEDERHOLD@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 21 Jan 87 16:49:27-PST.]
I don't think I have the course description. Give me his phone
number, and I'll call him about it.
∂22-Jan-87 1038 JMC Professorship in environmental engineering
To: roberts@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
CC: RA@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Aren't you the Paul Roberts who is Professor of Environmental Engineering?
Rutie sent the probation report to that address, but it came back today.
It's probably that gloomy poem by Philip Larkin that confused her, especially
the part about "humting pig".
∂22-Jan-87 1052 JMC mail abstract
To: RA
The following should be U.S. mailed to Joleen Barnhill.
Which Expert Systems Need Common Sense?
Abstract: An %2expert system%1 is a computer program intended to embody the
knowledge and ability of an expert in a certain domain. The ideas behind
them and several examples have been described in other lectures in this
course. Their performance in their specialized domains are often
very impressive. Nevertheless, hardly any of them have certain
%2common sense%1 knowledge and ability possessed by any non-feeble-minded
human. This lack makes them "brittle". By this is meant that they are
difficult to extend beyond the scope originally contemplated by their
designers, and they usually don't recognize their own limitations.
Many important applications will require common sense abilities. The object
of this lecture is to describe some common sense
abilities and to delineate the problems that require them from those that don't.
∂22-Jan-87 1103 JMC re: NSF
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 22-Jan-87 10:51-PT.]
Let's try again on NSF tomorrow and/or Monday.
∂22-Jan-87 1123 JMC reviving Dialnet
To: LES
There is a brochure from US West Advanced Technologies about supporting
research. I suppose U.S. West is one of the Baby Bell's. It occurs to
me that they might support Dialnet. The key point would be to hire someone
who is knowledgable, competent, can write a paper about the result and
reasonably easy to get along with.
Also I would like to discuss the DARPA budget with you and VAL when
you come in.
∂22-Jan-87 1140 JMC Fighting chance: ten feet to survival.
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I have left a book with the above title in the lounge and also an
endorsement by Petr Beckmann, the publisher and writer of Access to
Energy - "A Pro-Science, Pro-Technology, Pro-Free Enterprise Monthly
Newsletter". The book makes the case that nuclear war is survivable
and that the number who survive depends strongly on civil defense.
It also makes the case is that the best way to avoid nuclear war is
to be prepared to survive it.
One of the things that "everyone knows" is that nuclear war is not
survivable by American society, i.e. it's a cliche of the intellectual
establishment. My opinion, based on other books and articles I have read
and by thinking about the problem, is that this is wrong and the authors
of this work are correct in their main contentions, though I gather from
Beckmann's comments that some of their motivations and possibly arguments
are religious - with which he - and I - wouldn't agree. I haven't read
the book beyond the introductory material, because I am familiar with the
arguments from other sources. Also their assurance about understanding
what the Soviet Union is likely to do seems unjustified to me, but I do
think that their view is one of the major possibilities that should be
provided for.
∂22-Jan-87 1202 JMC dinner invitees
To: RA
Please tell Deborah Stewart 5-4344 that my invitees to the Professorship
dinner will be the Lifschitzes and Gene Golub.
∂22-Jan-87 1501 JMC re: Fighting chance: ten feet to survival.
To: Crispin@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 22 Jan 87 14:53:31-PST.]
I have been a subscriber to his newsletter for more than ten years, and
it never mentioned them. Also the subject never came up on the two
visits I made to him. I could imagine that they might mention him
favorably, but I'm quite certain that Beckmann, having escaped from one
set of maximal leaders, is not about to endorse another.
∂22-Jan-87 2210 JMC reservation
To: RA
Please reserve a table for five at the Faculty Club for Monday at noon.
∂22-Jan-87 2234 JMC re: Industrial lectureship for fall quarter, 1987
To: SOWA@IBM.COM
[In reply to message sent 22 January 1987, 21:13:22 EST.]
Your course description is quite satisfactory.
∂23-Jan-87 1059 JMC re: telephones
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 23-Jan-87 10:58-PT.]
I'll try.
∂23-Jan-87 1106 JMC corrected number
To: RA
Y.T. Chien (202) 357-9572
∂23-Jan-87 1720 JMC
To: RA
That address for Acero looks like a home address. Is there another?
∂23-Jan-87 1809 JMC American trade deficit
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
America takes more man hours to produce many goods than Japan does today
and maybe even as many as some of the newly industrialized countries. The
price of the dollar in their currency doesn't reflect this ratio.
Therefore, we are running an enormous deficit. We Americans are getting
TV sets for less man hours than it would take us to produce them. That's
fine for most of us, but unfortunate for those who until recently were
making TV sets. They are much fewer but have experienced shocks much
larger than our benefits. The most interesting question is why the dollar
took so long to start declining in value relative to the yen. In my
opinion, one major reason is that America is still regarded as a safe
country. Therefore, foreigners are using the dollars they get from us in
trade to invest in American Government bonds, American businesses and
American land. This may be foolish of many of them, but if I lived in
Hong Kong, as one example, and had spare money, I'd certainly think of
sending one of my sons to start a Chinese restaurant in the U.S., and, on
a larger scale, many foreign companies are investing heavily in the U.S.
This process cannot continue indefinitely, so if foreign countries
continue to gain in productivity relative to the U.S., eventually the
dollar will go down enough, and foreign goods will be expensive enough to
balance our trade.
For the above reasons, we free traders think that the government
should do nothing about the trade deficit directly.
However, doing something for the workers being displaced by
foreign low prices is another matter. That depends on your view of how
effective Government programs are or can be. Again the conservative view
is to do little or nothing, but they will usually compromise on retraining
programs and other temporary and self-limiting measures. Doing something
to restrict imports is another matter. Many who support free trade in
general support import restrictions in one form or another for themselves
or for groups for whom they feel sorry.
True free traders also oppose coercing foreign governments to buy
American, but there are few free traders in politics whose principles are
as strong as that.
Many more people and politicians will support measures to increase
our own productivity. This is justified whether other countries have
better productivities or not. However, if foreign countries have higher
productivity, this is certainly evidence that we can do better. Also if
we can increase productivity in threatened industries, this avoids the
turmoil of displaced workers and ghost towns. We cannot expect to be
uniformly successful, because of the workings of the "doctrine of
comparative economic advantage", even if the number of man hours we
require is as low as anyone else's. For example, our superior
agricultural productivity will make many countries sell us manufactured
goods costing them two man hours for one man hour of American agricultural
labor.
Remember, however, that certain powerful groups in our society
oppose increasing productivity, either in general or in particular cases.
The former is true of the Ehrliches who refer to the GNP as "gross
national pollution" and to economic theorists who imagine that there is a
fixed amount of work to be done and therefore advocate "labor intensive
methods" in order to spread the work. Actually no-one can point to any
general correlation between productivity and unemployment. The
environmentalists and safety advocates have also decreased American
productivity in many industries for a wide variety of reasons. Perhaps
more important are the people who say, "by all means increase other
people's productivity but not mine". The American Association of Trial
Lawyers who have helped give the U.S. 20 times as many lawyers per capita
are an example. Professors and teachers are another example. Printers
and type-setters are a profession who succeeded in preventing increases in
productivity in their industries in Britain for much longer than in the
U.S.
America had the highest productivity in the world in most
industries for many years after World War II, and it is natural for us to
think that this is natural and should be maintained with no special effort
on our part. The extreme of idiocy in this direction is to regard Japan's
industrial success as a new Pearl Harbor calling for retaliation. Very
probably no matter what we do we cannot re-establish the relative
superiority we had after World War II, which was a consequence of
circumstances we hope will not be repeated, i.e. war. Nevertheless, we
can increase our productivity and increase our absolute standard of
living.
Maybe this won't be enough for some people. There are those whose
satisfaction depends not on their own prosperity or achievement but on
comparing their prosperity or achievement with that of others. Since not
everyone can be first, these people can be dangerous if failure makes them
violent. While this "Nuke Japan now" slogan represents a bubbling up of
such sentiment, it is very unlikely to reach dangerous proportions. I
think most people congratulate other people on their successes assuming
they aren't too arrogant about them.
Finally, I think the most important area in which America can
increase its productivity is in white collar occupations, and the tool is
effective use of computers. It may force some people who today sneer at
manual workers for featherbedding to recognize their own featherbedding.
Unfortunately, I don't presently see how Stanford University's tendency to
expand its administrative structure can be resisted. Visiting the whole
floor of LOTS administrative offices convinced me that "low overhead" has
finally been lost, although perhaps not as much as in some other parts of
Stanford.
∂23-Jan-87 2330 JMC
To: RA
Please cancel my Los Alamos reservations.
∂24-Jan-87 2232 JMC Don't nuke anybody.
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Lyn Bowman's recent anti-Japanese remarks require refutation, even if they
are just meant to stir things up, because they have potential to cause
considerable harm. For example, they might be quoted in a Japanese
newspaper and help excite some of the sense of persecution that was one
component of the pre-war Japanese nationalism that caused so much harm to
Asia, Japan and the U.S.
Indeed the Japanese have groups that are politically strong enough to get
protection from import competition just as certain U.S. groups have at
various times gotten such protection. In both cases their protection
from competition has been to the detriment of the country with the
protectionist policies. In the case of Japan, the political fact is
that the farmers are very high cost producers but have been political
followers of the Liberal-Democratic Party and have often provided the
margin of votes that keeps it in power. The price of agricultural
products in Japan is amazingly high relative to prices of industrial
goods. Unfortunately for the Common Market, the French farmers are
also both high cost producers and politically powerful.
Lyn's scenario of American decline lacks a quantitative dimension.
The price of foreign manufactured goods are still too low in view
of our costs of production. The dollar is still too high. How much
too high? Maybe 20 or 30 percent. Once the foreigners don't want
dollars any more, then the dollar will decline by that amount. By
making foreign goods more expensive, this will reduce our standard
of living somewhat. How much? By less than ten percent, more likely
five percent, because foreign made goods are only a part of what
Americans buy. This will be unpleasant and will affect some people
more than others. Perhaps we will become more efficient then, perhaps
not. This relative decline is only slowly making England more efficient.
I don't want to take time to discuss the effects of increased foreign
investment, but I don't think they will be large. Lyn should take
comfort in the fact that foreign investment creates hostages, and
subjects the foreigners to discriminatory taxation and even
confiscations of the kind that have affected U.S. investments abroad.
He should wait 20 years when his anti-foreign sentiments can find
a vulnerable target.
Like the Europeans, the Japanese have depended on the U.S. for
defense. My opinion is that we should withdraw some forces from
both Japan and Europe. The Japanese will remember that while
they remained neutral in the war between Germany and the Soviet
Union, the Soviet Union attacked them at the end of the war, kept
several hundred thousand prisoners as slave laborers
for seven years, many of whom died. They will also remember that
the largest country in the world took some islands from them and
won't negotiate giving them back, whereas the U.S. gave back everything
we took. They may also remember that in 1905 they beat the Russians
in the one war they had with them. All these things give me some
confidence that we can afford to do a lot less for the defense of
Japan.
∂25-Jan-87 2112 JMC re: Pool machine etiquette reminder
To: Acuff@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent 25-Jan-87 20:41:05.]
Please remove jmc-lists@sail from the mailing list ksl-explorer and
other lists concerned with the operation of Lisp machines.
∂25-Jan-87 2339 JMC re: Apologies to dear bboard readers.
To: PASTERNACK@SRI-KL.ARPA, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from PASTERNACK@SRI-KL.ARPA sent Sun 25 Jan 87 23:08:12-PST.]
My opinion is that Pasternack's "My last girlfriend" was well within the
taste limits of modern literature. I shouldn't like to see it made into
a movie, however.
While we're on the subject of movies, I'd like to know what the actual
arguments are for protesting the showing of the TV movie Amerika.
There is a tendency for some on the left to assume that since all good
people agree with them, the only thing worth putting on BBOARD is
a call to mobilize the troops. More experienced left wing BBOARD users
know better.
∂26-Jan-87 0913 JMC re: Binford
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 26-Jan-87 08:25-PT.]
Please do them over.
∂26-Jan-87 1152 JMC
To: RA
I have something in my out box to go soon.
∂26-Jan-87 1405 JMC re: AI Planning Retreat
To: GSMITH@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 26 Jan 87 09:21:00-PST.]
I have to admit I've forgotten where Hidden Villa is, so it's still hidden,
and I'll need a map anyway.
∂26-Jan-87 1656 JMC The Punic wars and the physics of clouds
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
It is interesting that there seems to be better information in the
BBOARD community about the Punic wars than about the physics of
clouds. Who says we're all narrow technologists?
My guess about clouds is this. Sometimes the drops are
sustained by an updraft, but obviously there can't be an updraft
everywhere in a large region, and there is sometimes a widespread
overcast. Another possibility is that the drops fall (slowly because
they're small) and evaporate at the bottom of the cloud layer. This
speculation is also innocent of consulting a meteorology text or
even an encyclopedia.
Alas, the red light opus isn't as outstanding as "My last girlfriend".
I admire its spirit of self sacrifice, however. Come to think of it,
I wish to protest in the name of Future Geezers of Amerika.
∂26-Jan-87 2138 JMC
To: CLT
The imbedding was complete at 9:23 starting at 8:31; mostly a chase.
∂27-Jan-87 1122 JMC re: 91 function
To: Restivo@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 27 Jan 87 09:52:49-PST.]
I'm responsible for the 91 function written as Lisp recursive function, i.e.
(defun f91 (n) (if (> n 100) (- n 10) (f91 (f91 (+ n 11))))).
I believe that Burstall may have converted it to an assignment program and
proved something about it in that form. The initial intent was to
make an exotic recursion. The fact that the function could be expressed
in a simpler form was a surprise discovered by computation.
∂27-Jan-87 1238 JMC
To: LES
xpart should issue a maple command instead of espool.
∂27-Jan-87 1240 JMC
To: RA
please decorate bernst.1 and the memo hoter[w87,jmc].
∂27-Jan-87 1257 JMC
To: CLT
I plan to attend a lecture at 7:30 tonight if it isn't inconvenient for you.
∂27-Jan-87 1302 JMC
To: VAL
logic[f86,jmc] Mathematical logic and artificial intelligence
for Daedalus
logic.2[f86,jmc] Another try at logic for Daedalus
∂27-Jan-87 1303 JMC
To: VAL
∂11-Jan-87 0153 GLB
According to prof. Stuart Hampshire, who is the expert
on Leibniz here in Stanford, it is a widely accepted view, that
the use of logic in Artificial Intelligence can indeed be related to
Leibniz's proposal of a symbolic language (Characteristica Universalis)
and of a formal calculus using it. The notion of a robot performing
intelligent operations, on the other hand, is not traceable to Leibniz,
but Turing's views fit well, according to prof. Hampshire, in Leibniz's
line of thought. I conclude that the assertion in your paper should not
encounter objections.
A paper by Jonathan Cohen ("On the Project of a Universal Character", Mind 63,
pp. 49-63, 1954) documents that "... it is only this conception of a logical
calculus as an ancillary to his universal character which distinguishes
Leibniz's thought from that of some of his contemporaries and predecessors.
Several of these projected, and some completed, a universal character
which they hoped would fill the same three roles as Leibniz had in mind,
consituting at once a medium of international communication, a simplified
notation for science, and a method of discovery and demonstration." (pp. 50-51)
Related projects for simplified or symbolic languages and their discussions
can be found in writings by Francis Bacon (1605), Descartes (1629),
Mersenne (1636), Lodwick (1647, 1652), Cave Beck (1657), Athanasius Kircher (1661),
George Dalgarno (1661), and John Wilkins (1668).
Leibniz conceived his project at the age of eighteen (1664) and thought
about it throughout his life: references occur often in his correspondence.
Here is a reference from which you may extract a quotation:
"Children, who have only a little experience, are nevertheless able
to understand a great deal that a skilled instructor explains to them,
even if he doesn't show them anything but only describes. Therefore
it is necessary that concepts of all those many things are latent
in them and arise from the few with which they are already acquainted.
Thus an intelligent and attentive child, however inexperienced, can
understand an instructor discoursing about mathematics, morals,
jurisprudence, and matters metaphisical - he will understand, I say,
at least at the time when they are presented to him, even though,
because of lack of experience, he is unable to retain them or put
them to practical use.
It follows irrefutably that if somebody entered in a catalog all the
primitive concepts which that child has, with a letter or character
assigned to each, together with all the concepts composed of these
(i.e., all the concepts which could be explained to that child without
putting anything new before his eyes), he would be able to designate
[all of these] with combinations of those letters or characters...
This designation of concepts will have the virtue that the same
relation will obtain among the characters as among the concepts,
which is not the case in ordinary speach...
Thus I assert that all truths that can be demostrated about things
expressible in this language with the addition of new concepts
not yet expressed in it - all such truths, I say, can be demonstrated
`solo calculo', or solely by manipulation of characters according to
a certain form, without any labor ot the imagination or effort of the
mind, just as occurs in arithmetic and algebra".
(translated in Benson Mates, The Philosophy of Leibniz, Metaphisics
and Language, Oxford University Press, 1986, pp.184-5, footnote)
Apparently, "Leibniz ... assumed ... that if all valid inferences in a
language were formally valid, there would necessarily be an algorithmic
decision procedure for determining whether or not given inferences
were correct" (ibidem, p.184).
On his copy of Dalgarno's book, Leibniz wrote about Dalgarno and Wilkins:
"...these distinguished men do not seem to have grasped the magnitude
or the true use of the project. For their language or notation only
accomplishes the facilitation of communication between people who
speak different languages; but the true Characteristica Realis, as
I conceive it, ought to be accounted one of the most effective
instruments of the human mind, having immense potential for [aiding the]
discovery, retention, and evaluation [of knowledge]. For it does in all
subject matter what is done in mathematics by arithmetic and algebraic
notation, the great power and admirable uses of which are well known
to the experts" (ididem, p. 188).
Let me know if you are not satisfied with these quotations.
∂27-Jan-87 1910 JMC re: 91 function
To: Restivo@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 27 Jan 87 17:59:07-PST.]
That's ok, but I don't know for a fact what Burstall did. Most likely
he ascribed the 91 function to me. I suppose that if you want to include
something you should actually track down the reference in Manna to
a Burstall paper.
∂28-Jan-87 0953 JMC re: Barton Bernstein
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 28-Jan-87 08:35-PT.]
Most likely they're the same, but I know he's in History.
∂28-Jan-87 1015 JMC re: hoter.xgp (again)
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 28-Jan-87 10:06-PT.]
The paper is hoter.ess[w76,jmc]. Les suggests the following way to fix
it in PUB. It has all the pub decorations in the file, and he suggests
removing the pub commands at the beginning and replacing them by
the single line
.require "memo.pub[let,jmc]" source
PUB commands are lines beginning with a dot.
This is equivalent to a \input command in tex. It will make it use
a file that Les has fixed for me. I suggest making a copy before doing
it. Undoubtedly there will still be some bugs which I (or Les) will
be able to fix.
∂28-Jan-87 1120 JMC re: New phone
To: EPPLEY@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 28 Jan 87 11:05:17-PST.]
10:30 would be good.
∂28-Jan-87 1147 JMC English
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Why can't the BBOARD contributors using varian English come up with
something more interesting?
a208 1048 28 Jan 87
AM-Excuses, Bjt,0349
Parents Write The Darndest Things!
Eds: Note contents.
LaserGraphic Upcoming
LEESVILLE, La. (AP) - ''My son is under the doctor's care and should
not take P.E. today,'' one parent wrote. ''Please execute him.''
That death sentence was inadvertently recommended in a note which a
parent who was in a hurry or possessed of an uncertain vocabulary
wrote to excuse a child's absence from school in Vernon Parish.
Duplicated copies of some of the parish's more astonishing excuse
notes were given out at a School Board meeting this month.
''Some of them were obviously made up by students,'' Richard Carter,
assistant principal of Leesville High School, said Wednesday. But
most, he said, were probably legitimate excuses written by parents in
the rural northwest Louisiana parish.
In these samples, names were replaced with either Fred or Mary to
protect innocent and guilty alike.
One parent appeared to have taken drastic action: ''Please excuse
Mary for being absent. She was sick and I had her shot.''
Another had a more comprehensive request: ''Please excuse Fred for
being. It was his father's fault.''
''Please ackuse Fred being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and
33,'' wrote a parent who lives by an unusual calendar.
''Mary was absent from school yesterday as she was having a
gangover,'' wrote one who apparently expected the school to be
tolerant of social follies.
''Mary could not come to school today because she was bother by very
close veins,'' wrote one parent.
''Fred has an acre in his side,'' said another.
And in an extreme case of people losing things, ''Please excuse Fred
from P.E. for a few days. He fell yesterday out of a tree and
misplaced his hip.''
In a confusion of office work and medical terms, one parent wrote:
''Please excuse Mary from Jim yesterday. She is administrating.''
And several had a racier tone:
''Please excuse Fred for being absent. He had a cold and could not
breed well.''
''Please excuse Mary. She has been sick and under the doctor.''
''Please excuse Mary from being absent yesterday. She was in bed
with gramps.''
AP-NY-01-28-87 1347EST
***************
∂28-Jan-87 1503 JMC
To: justeson@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
Thanks for the misprints. I have corrected them.
∂28-Jan-87 2119 JMC re: Jacket
To: RICHARDSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 28 Jan 87 16:16:46-PST.]
I was wondering where it had gone. I'll get it.
∂29-Jan-87 0943 JMC unprotect
To: RA
The file was protected, because you created it in one of your
protected areas. When you renamed it (or copied it) to w76,jmc,
a normally unprotected area, it retained the protection, but now
you couldn't get to it - only me. However, the UNPROTECT command
works to unprotect it.
∂29-Jan-87 1146 JMC re: unprotect
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 29-Jan-87 10:34-PT.]
I don't quite agree with it, but the rationale was something like this.
The system originally had protection, but gradually ways of defeating
it were discovered. The system wizards then decided to admit that
protection was defeatable, claiming that it was infeasible to modify
the system to get effective protection at reasonable cost, but to make
it clear to anyone that used unprotect without the permission of the
file owner that he was doing something wrong.
∂29-Jan-87 1214 JMC Moscow abstract
To: VAL
I think the first paragraph should have an additional sentence referring
to non-monotonic reasoning as an extension of valid logical reasoning.
There should also be a reference to circumscription as constrained
minimization in a logical setting. Perhaps there should even be a statement
that circumscription formalizes some of the ideas of Ockham's razor.
∂29-Jan-87 1507 JMC
To: RA
Professor I. T. Frolov, Volkhonka 14, Moscow 119842, USSR. The
deadline for submission of abstracts is November 1, 1986; for
∂29-Jan-87 1510 JMC form to be sent to Moscow
To: RA
Please include a cover letter with the form saying
The paper referred to on the form is joint with Dr. Vladimir Lifschitz
who has sent it under separate cover.
∂29-Jan-87 1511 JMC
To: RA
Check with Vladimir that the Moscow address hasn't changed.
∂29-Jan-87 2201 JMC very close veins
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
If it's from Tom Sawyer, the probably Mark Twain made it up. I suspect
many of the others are made up too.
∂30-Jan-87 1232 JMC folks@csli
To: betsy@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
I want to be removed from the folks@csli mailing list and, if possible,
remain on a list for the weekly newsletter. Too much of it concerns
very local matters such as the recent three messages about the missing
cable. The name to be removed - and possibly put on a different list -
is jmc-lists@su-ai. I realize you probably aren't the right person for
this request, and I would be grateful for your forwarding it to whoever
is.
∂30-Jan-87 1254 JMC unix emacs manual
To: q.queenie@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU
It turns out I didn't copy enough from the unix emacs manual by Gosling.
Can you find out how I can acquire a copy. Are they for sale either
at LOTS or at the bookstore?
∂30-Jan-87 1320 JMC on line airline
To: richardson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Could you send me the information, electronically or on paper,
on how to use the electronic OAG?
∂30-Jan-87 1418 JMC
To: VAL
02-10 Tues. 3pm, Amarel, Nils's office
∂30-Jan-87 1438 JMC
To: LES
I observed a satisfied user take output from Rover.
∂30-Jan-87 1518 JMC re: Emacs
To: HEGARTY@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 13:37:19-PST.]
Thanks. I printed it.
∂30-Jan-87 1519 JMC re: Hertz renewal
To: JJW
[In reply to message rcvd 30-Jan-87 14:58-PT.]
It's on your desk now.
∂30-Jan-87 1519 JMC reply to message
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 30-Jan-87 14:03-PT.]
The first and second items seem to overlap.
∂30-Jan-87 1524 JMC re: Software theme house
To: REGES@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 14:49:39-PST.]
Your project seems over elaborate. Even with your organizing energy, it's
unlikely to work out as you plan. I suggest you drastically simplify the
plan. Good luck.
∂30-Jan-87 1525 JMC re: Saul Amarel
To: RICHARDSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 13:34:09-PST.]
Yes.
∂30-Jan-87 1628 JMC
To: VAL
Perhaps we should choose a subject matter for the database.
∂30-Jan-87 1712 JMC re: Important Message
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 16:26:20-PST.]
I'm not a forum speaker. Am I?
∂30-Jan-87 1719 JMC re: Rutie
To: BSCOTT@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 16:46:17-PST.]
July 31 would be ok with me if it's ok with Zohar.
∂30-Jan-87 1808 JMC re: Important Message
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 30 Jan 87 17:17:43-PST.]
When am I introducing Joe?
∂31-Jan-87 1014 JMC re: Diversion
To: RPG
[In reply to message rcvd 31-Jan-87 09:27-PT.]
That's right - unless he puts on lots of pressure. Do you have an
estimate of when a Qlisp might be working? Also how much after that
could it have a version of the message-passing features?
∂31-Jan-87 1446 JMC re: Important Message
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: winograd@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sat 31 Jan 87 14:11:57-PST.]
Unfortunately, the time Joe speaks is during my class. Unless it turns out
that Vladimir will be teaching that class, I wonder if Terry could introduce
him.
∂01-Feb-87 1224 JMC re: diversion
To: RPG
[In reply to message rcvd 01-Feb-87 12:12-PT.]
At the rate Squires has time to pay attention to the Qlisp project,
he will scarcely notice if the two weeks comes after the few months.
∂01-Feb-87 1240 JMC re: Important Message
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: winograd@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from TAJNAI@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Sun 1 Feb 87 12:33:47-PST.]
Dick Gabriel would be better if he is available.
∂01-Feb-87 1524 JMC re: learning
To: RLG
[In reply to message rcvd 01-Feb-87 15:13-PT.]
As it happens, I have been thinking about this matter today in connection
with reacting to a recent opus by McDermott entitled "AI, Logic and
the Frame Problem". The ultimate goal is still the same, but a preliminary
goal is "what kinds of things can and must be learned and how can this
information be expressed". I have specialized in this subproblem,
still work on it and may do so for the rest of my working life. You
will also see the subproblem put forth in the Advice Taker paper.
Of course, other people can usefully work on the learning problem
directly, accepting current limitations of what is learned and how
it is represented. It would be worthwhle for someone to try to
summarize what can be represented in today's formalisms, compare it
on the one hand with what humans can learn, and on the other hand
with what current learning programs learn.
∂01-Feb-87 1855 JMC Reagan Library
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I find the land use arguments against putting the Reagan Library close
in rather convincing. I find the anti-Hoover arguments merely partisan
politics. When I was on the Senate I didn't hear Siegman or anyone else
counter or object to the political attacks. If he found them unconvincing,
he was too intimidated by the partisan atmosphere to say so.
∂02-Feb-87 1216 JMC
To: RA
The Eighth International Congress of Logic, Methodology and
Philosophy of Science will be held in Moscow, August 17-22, 1987.
The chairman of the Program Committee is Professor J. E. Fenstad,
of Norway; the chairman of the Soviet Organizing Committee is
Professor I. T. Frolov, Volkhonka 14, Moscow 119842, USSR. The
deadline for submission of abstracts is November 1, 1986; for
details on the required format of abstracts, and for any other
information on the Congress, please write to Professor Frolov
at the above address.
∂02-Feb-87 1415 JMC One doesn't have to agree (and I don't) with the general opinions of
To: RLG
Winograd and Flores to find some problems for AI in them. I don't
remember the details, but I found that their example of the axe
presented some problems for formalization that I wanted
to think about further (but didn't). My point is that their
efforts to find unsolvable difficulties sometimes suggest interesting
problems that I believe are solvable. If I were taking Terry's
course, I think I could find something that he would agree
extends the line of his thought without having to say anything
I disagree with. Whether it would be worth the trouble is uncertain.
∂02-Feb-87 1422 JMC proposal
To: VAL
Let's discuss the proposal tomorrow morning, say at 11. I have some
new stuff on the frame problem based on reading McDermott's paper.
Specifically, it seems worthwhile to consider when we can show
metamathematically that the proof that something is unchanged even
after a large number of events is short - even has constant time.
I'll be here this afternoon if you feel like phoning, but don't if
you have a sore throat or are otherwise not up to it. Did you see
that Sakharov has been invited to take part in a conference on
peace to be held in Moscow?
∂02-Feb-87 1733 JMC re: robotics
To: NILSSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 2 Feb 87 16:32:36-PST.]
It's ok with me.
∂03-Feb-87 1000 JMC re: cs520
To: NILSSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 3 Feb 87 07:26:34-PST.]
Sure but, of course I'd maintain a logicist point of view. Could we
import McDermott?
∂03-Feb-87 1003 JMC Accuracy in Academia
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I have just received a solicitation of membership from Accuracy in Academia,
an outfit that criticizes what it regards as anti-American bias in
classroom presentations by professors in American universities. The outfit
has been criticized as a threat to academic freedom, but I am unconvinced
by that criticism, because it claims only to publish its criticisms, and
says that freedom of speech means that anyone can criticize anyone else.
On the other hand, Sidney Hook, a man for whom I have great respect
disapproves of it. Assuming I agree with them on the specific criticisms
they include in their brochure, why shouldn't I send them $30? Needless
to say, I'll answer arguments on the subject.
∂04-Feb-87 0109 JMC America's Cup
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
a025 0058 04 Feb 87
PM-America's Cup-Newspage,0180
Stars & Stripes Recaptures America's Cup
FREMANTLE, Australia (AP) - Dennis Conner, the only U.S. skipper to
lose the America's Cup, reclaimed it today as he guided Stars &
Stripes to victory with a 4-0 sweep against the Australian defender,
Kookaburra III.
The effort by the San Diego Yacht Club skipper, who lost in 1983,
was the first sweep by an America's Cup skipper since Ted Turner
steered Courageous past Australia in 1977. The sweep was the 18th in
26 America's Cup finals.
Stars & Stripes was among four boats to reach the challenger's
semifinals from an original field of 13. Since then, it won 12 of 13
races, losing only to New Zealand in the third race of the challenger
finals.
Wednesday's one-minute, 59-second margin was the largest of the four
races.
Through six of the eight legs, it was the closest race of the final
series, but at no point did Peter Gilmour's Kookaburra III threaten
to go in front. Stars & Stripes led at every mark throughout the four
races.
AP-NY-02-04-87 0356EST
***************
∂04-Feb-87 2205 JMC reply to message
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 04-Feb-87 10:55-PT.]
The very one.
∂05-Feb-87 0955 JMC re: Qlisp meeting tomorrow
To: RPG, JMC
CC: LES
[In reply to message from RPG rcvd 05-Feb-87 09:35-PT.]
Perhaps we should get you an X sticker, since Qlisp counts as construction.
Alas, even the A lots fill up on rainy days by 11. I hope it works out.
∂05-Feb-87 1204 JMC lecturers
To: RA
When you get the lectureship information it should be on page 8
of indust[1,jmc]. Sowa is SOWA@IBM.COM and you can try DWORK@IBM.COM.
Dwork is at IBM Almaden. Haley must be telephoned at 213 417-7997.
I need Stanford style catalog course descriptions, i.e. a list of
topics - not complete sentences. Up to 75 words. I also need a
one sentence description of each lecturer, e.g. Joe Smith,
of Foo Corp. in Santa Clara, works on distributed theorem proving
for parallel ai.
∂05-Feb-87 1459 JMC re: [<IRA@uwafrodo.bitnet>: AIM Workshop 1987]
To: AAAI-OFFICE@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 5 Feb 87 08:36:39-PST.]
Let's support the AIM Workshop. They don't ask for a specific sum, so let's
offer $5K, unless we gave them more last time. Please go ahead.
∂05-Feb-87 1511 JMC Visit from Los Alamos
To: IGS
∂02-Feb-87 1020 TAJNAI@Score.Stanford.EDU Visit from Los Alamos
Received: from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 2 Feb 87 10:20:04 PST
Date: Mon 2 Feb 87 10:04:48-PST
From: Carolyn Tajnai <TAJNAI@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Visit from Los Alamos
To: Nilsson@Score.Stanford.EDU, Jlh@Sonoma.Stanford.EDU,
Ullman@Score.Stanford.EDU, Ganapathi@Sierra.Stanford.EDU,
JMC@Sail.Stanford.EDU, LES@Sail.Stanford.EDU, CLT@Sail.Stanford.EDU,
Cheriton@Pescadero.Stanford.EDU, lantz@Gregorio.Stanford.EDU,
linton@Amadeus.Stanford.EDU, DCL@Sail.Stanford.EDU
cc: rowland@Sonoma.Stanford.EDU, RFN@Sail.Stanford.EDU,
Ross@Pescadero.Stanford.EDU, RBA@Sail.Stanford.EDU,
diaz@Score.Stanford.EDU, tajnai@Score.Stanford.EDU
Message-ID: <12275876713.19.TAJNAI@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Joan Prommel, Joe Fasel and Dennis Brockway want to visit Feb. 9-11.
They are interested in joining the Computer Forum. Because it is
Forum Week, my staff and I are unable to coordinate the visit,
therefore, Joan Prommel will contact you individually. I regret
that we are not able to "roll out the red carpet".
The times are: Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday, and Wed. morning.
Her email address is "jmp%Teton"@lanl.arpa. It would be helpful if
you could send her a suggested time, otherwise, she will contact you.
Incidentally, if one of you wishes to act as host and coordinate the
visit, then you will share in the finder's fee if they join.
The following is her message:
Date: Thu, 29 Jan 87 15:56:41 MST
From: jmp%teton@LANL.ARPA (Joan Prommel)
To: tajnai@score.stanford.edu
Subject: VISIT
Given the problem with the fact that we are not yet part of
the Affiliate program, we have decided that it would be
best to come to visit the following week, that is the
week of February 9. It appears this is also better timing
to meet with some of the professors we would like to contact.
(Those planning to visit are Dennis Brockway, Joe Fasel and
Joan Prommel. We work in the programming environments
group in the Computing Division. At Los Alamos, we develop
software and conduct research on machines ranging from
Suns to Symbolics machines to CRI X-MP 4/16s to experimental
machines. We are interested in both distributed computing
and parallel processing. Dennis and I are technical supervisors.
Joe Fasel is one of our language researchers.)
During our visit, we would like to learn more about the
affiliate program, discuss research activities for potential
collaborate activities, and to meet with graduates students, (NOTE: I told
Joan that we do not schedule meetings with students for non-Forum
companies)
especially those in the area of compiler construction.
Los Alamos has committed to a new project . . . that of becoming
a center of excellence in compiler design and language research.
We would like to discuss our plans and opportunities during
our trip.
We would like to meet with the following people, if possible.
We are not sure if contacting them directly is appropriate,
or if you prefer that we go through your office. They include:
o Professor Nilsson
o Professor Hennessy
o Professor Ullman
o Professor Ganapathi
o Professors McCarthy, Earnest, Talcott (QLISP)
o Professors Cheriton, Lantz, Linton, Luckham
It appears that Monday afternoon, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning,
Feb. 9-11 are best for us.
Joan Prommel
(505) 667-6961
Carolyn
-------
∂05-Feb-87 1511 JMC
To: IGS
∂03-Feb-87 1448 gana@sonoma.stanford.edu
Received: from SONOMA.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 3 Feb 87 14:48:13 PST
Received: by sonoma.stanford.edu; Tue, 3 Feb 87 14:48:46 PST
Date: Tue, 3 Feb 87 14:48:46 PST
From: Mahadevan Ganapathi <gana@sonoma.stanford.edu>
To: jmc@sail.stanford.edu
re: coordinating Joan Prommel (from Los Alamos) visit 9-11 Feb.
please let me know your preferred time-slots so that I can determine and
schedule conflicts.
The following slots are taken:
Mon: 2 p.m.
Tue: 2.45, 4.
thank you.
∂05-Feb-87 1842 JMC reply to message
To: RPG, LES, RPG
[In reply to message from RPG rcvd 05-Feb-87 14:19-PT.]
While a ticket is not chargeable to a contract, a taxi is.
∂05-Feb-87 2054 JMC visit
To: Sato@RUSSELL.STANFORD.EDU
I don't know if this will reach you now. Anyway Carolyn and I are
thinking of visiting Japan between March 28 and April 13. Our present
plan is to visit Kyoto, Tokyo and Sendai in that order. We would like
your advice about where there are common interests. I have tried to
phone you at 22 227-6200 x2628, but so far the extension hasn't answered.
I'll try some more. If you get this please supply best phone numbers
and times.
∂06-Feb-87 1300 JMC taxing religious organizations
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Does the tax exemption of churches differ from that of schools
and other non-profit institutions? Although an atheist, I cannot
help seeing an aggressive spirit of overkill in the present attacks
on churches. Admittedly some of this is encouraged by some of the
fundamentalist propagandists. However, the amount of religious
coercion in the U.S. and other non-Islamic countries is minimal
today and doesn't compare with the anti-religious coercion in
communist ruled countries.
∂06-Feb-87 1556 JMC
To: VAL
second[w87,jmc]
∂07-Feb-87 1322 JMC
To: VAL
Often non-monotonic reasoning compounds itself. You hear that I have
a car and reason that it is appropriate to ask me for a ride. You
then hear that he car is being fixed and withdraw that conclusion.
The conclusion is reinstated when you hear that the car is due out
soon and withdrawn again when you hear that I have already promised
a ride to five people. Circumscription permits expressing
general knowledge in such a way as warrants such successive
inferences.
∂07-Feb-87 1347 JMC proposal
To: VAL
Another text that might be worth incorporating or excerpting is in
the second section of "Applications ... " giving the various uses
of non-monotonic reasoning.
∂07-Feb-87 2110 JMC
To: VAL
circum.tex[f83,jmc]
∂08-Feb-87 1123 JMC re: History Question
To: RPG
[In reply to message rcvd 08-Feb-87 11:14-PT.]
The first work of this kind was done at Lincoln Laboratories, and the
people who did it were Ivan Sutherland and Larry Roberts. One did
something called Sketchpad. Both used a computer called TX-2. I've
forgotten who did what. Both are presumably locatable from the ACM
directory and both were subsequently heads of ARPA IPTO. Roberts started
the ARPAnet. If IBM did something like that it was later and smaller. A
person who would know about it is Herbert Baskin, somewhat of a loser in
my opinion, who is now on the faculty at UCB. Baskin was in charge of a
project that developed the IBM 2250 display, which, for $100K, could do a
subset of what was done here on the III's and datadisks. It was not a
success as a product.
∂08-Feb-87 1437 JMC autopsies
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I have read articles recently about doctors' complaining that the percentage
of autopsies is declining. Autopsies are very important in determining
whether doctors are diagnosing correctly. The same articles said that a
large fraction of listed causes of death are not confirmed on autopsy.
Correlating diseases with damage to organs that is visible on autopsy was
a major way in which the different diseases were identified.
I believe that the medical profession takes the view that ideally all
deaths should result in autopsies.
As to Liberace, the coroner referred to a rule, probably a California law,
that requires an autopsy when someone dies of a contagious disease.
The extent to which the rule applies when someone dies of what is suspected
of being a contagious disease, I don't know. I believe that coroners have
traditionally had a lot of discretion in deciding when to order an
autopsy. As to AIDS, the question is whether it should be classified
as a contagious disease. Previous venereal diseases, except for the
tertiary syphilis, which is readily diagnosed by symptoms, are rarely
fatal. Webster's Collegiate includes "contagious" in its characterization
of syphilus. My opinion is that traditional practice would classify
AIDS as contagious, taking into account, however, its specific means
of transmission. Hence it is entirely appropriate for coroners to
demand autopsies of people suspected of dying from it.
However, the fact that homosexuals have acquired "victim status" in
current media ideology considerably affects how AIDS will be classified.
My opinion is that everyone will be better off if AIDS is officially
classified as contagious, but the limitations on its transmissibility are
taken into account. There is now a legal case in Texas in which
an anesthesiologist (or perhaps an anesthetist) with AIDS has been
assigned to other duties and is suing to keep his previous duties.
My opinion is that this suit is misguided, and the hospital is
entitled to do what it thinks prudent. Apart from the transmissibility
of AIDS itself, it is entitled to worry about the transmission
of the adventitious infections to which AIDS makes one susceptible,
and even about the psychological effects on patients of being treated
by a doctor with AIDS.
∂08-Feb-87 1441 JMC
To: VAL
It seems to me that the key thing that will help DARPA ISTO get
our proposal smoothly through DARPA office is an identification
of what kinds of expert systems will require the advances we are
trying to make.
∂08-Feb-87 1859 JMC Doctors with AIDS
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: jbrooks@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
Janet Brooks wonders how valid is the idea that some patients might be
weakened enough to catch some of the adventitious infections that a
hospital employee with AIDS might have. What if the hospital wonders too?
I advocated on su-etc that the hospital do what it thinks prudent on the
basis of the knowledge available at the time and would advocate that
Federal District Judge Warren Justice refrain from letting the doctor's
lawyers get him involved in deciding how much danger there is. Whether he
will do so remains to be seen.
∂08-Feb-87 2242 JMC
To: CLT
What was the article that discussed the HP-28C? I'd like a copy.
∂08-Feb-87 2339 JMC bans
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Some people think that the way to improve the world is to build something
or discover something. Others think the way to improve the world is to
forbid something. Oh well, that's better than the people who think
they way to improve the world is to kill somebody.
a284 1947 08 Feb 87
AM-FCC-TV Toys,0285
Group To Seek FCC Ban Of TV Programs That Interact With Toys
NEW YORK (AP) - A group that monitors children's television plans to
ask the Federal Communications Commission on Monday to ban a new kind
of high-tech programming that interacts with toys.
Peggy Charren, head of Action for Children's Television, said Sunday
the programming being readied by Mattel and other toy companies would
create ''two classes of viewers'' - those who could afford the
companies' toys and those who couldn't.
Although the toy companies have been secretive about their plans,
Mrs. Charren said Mattel has produced a program in which inaudible
signals are beamed through television sets to produce responses in
toys created especially for the program.
The toys for Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future are
scheduled to be unveiled at the American International Toy Fair,
which opens this week in New York.
Mattel officials were not available for comment Sunday, according to
a security guard who answered the telephone at the company's
headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif.
Mrs. Charren, speaking by telephone from her home in Cambridge,
Mass., said her group will file a petition with the FCC asking for a
ban on the interactive programs because they are not in the public
interest.
The group also could ask that the FCC conduct an inquiry into the
matter. And if that fails, she said, Action for Children's Television
will ask that the television networks run disclaimers with the
programs saying they are designed to sell toys.
''What's happened to children's television now is similar to what
would happen if the newspapers ... were written entirely by their
advertisers,'' Mrs. Charren said.
AP-NY-02-08-87 2245EST
***************
∂08-Feb-87 2351 JMC HP-28C
To: hearn@RAND-UNIX.ARPA
I agree with you about it. It is a major advance in programmability
including the ability to edit programs. It has too little memory
to do interesting Taylor series. Its list functions permit LISP
style programming especially, although the manual doesn't seem to
mention it, they permit pure LISP style recursive function definitions.
The FORM menu that provides equivalence preserving editing of
algebraic expressions is an innovation, but it could be made much
more systematic. The commands are almost all rewrite rules, and it
would be very easy to make general rewrite rules into HP-28C objects.
Does it have so little memory, because more would be a power drain?
If so, it could be much improved by a single megabit DRAM of volatile
memory that could only be used for working storage.
That would add 128KB to its present 2KB of working memeory.
∂09-Feb-87 0039 JMC visit
To: MS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Carolyn and I would like to phone you concerning our proposed visit
under the joint study program. We are thinking of coming about
March 28 and returning about April 13 and visiting Kyoto, Tokyo
and Sendai in that order. Please MAIL us appropriate phone numbers.
∂09-Feb-87 1315 Mailer failed mail returned
To: JMC
In processing the following command:
MAIL
The command was aborted because these Host Name(s) are Unknown:
RUSSIAN.SPA.Symbolics.COM
------- Begin undelivered message: -------
∂09-Feb-87 1315 JMC re: Fighting Chance
[In reply to message sent Mon, 9 Feb 87 02:12 PST.]
I suppose the Soviets find their analysis as uncertain as we find ours.
The confidence Gorbachev has in what military people say about relative
strength could not have been enhanced by what happened to the airplanes
they supplied the Syrians in 1982. I think that the probability of
the Soviets attacking us depends on some sudden and unlikely but
not impossible political change there. I haven't studied the missile
balance, and so have no independent opinion. However, I distrust the
basis of the analysis by scientific peaceniks like Drell.
------- End undelivered message -------
∂10-Feb-87 0741 JMC Trustees meeting
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I am not so delicate as Mark Wroth. Having heard nothing from any
of the anti-South Africa protesters on the subject of burning people
in necklaces of tires, I am inclined to believe that they regard the
practice as OK. I predict their response, if any, will not discuss
that topic but will be a counterattack of some kind. However, the
American supporters of ANC must be awarded some of the moral responsibility
for the atrocities the people they support they commit. Likewise the
"anti-war" movement bears some of the responsibility for the Khmer
Rouge massacres and the drowning of tens of thousands of boat people.
∂10-Feb-87 1550 JMC re: Trustees meeting
To: HOLDEN@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from HOLDEN@CSLI.Stanford.EDU sent Tue 10 Feb 87 10:56:22-PST.]
The following from Gary Holden is what I was hoping to be able to reply to.
I'm grateful for his expressing it so concisely.
Oppressed people often commit barbaric acts. This is regretable but
understandable, considering the barbaric treatment which they
themselves receive. The moral responsibility for these acts clearly lies
at the door of those who promote and profit by the oppression and
not with those who are trying to eliminate it.
The record of those who commit barbaric acts while seeking power has
almost always been that they commit barbaric acts on an even larger scale
after they get it. Consider the Khmer Rouge. There was plenty of
evidence that they were barbaric before they got power.
My opinion is that the people who helped them get power bear some of the
responsibility for their subsequent barbarism. Holden seems to exonerate
completel the people who tie people to tires and burn them alive and the
people who help them in the West. It suggests that if only you have a
wrong to revenge, you can do anything whatever to people who belong to the
same class as those who wronged the people on whose behalf you are seeking
revenge or even completely innocent bystanders.
Holden has exonerated himself from any responsibility for anything the
people he supports may do. A quite different criterion than those he
applies to the trustees.
∂10-Feb-87 1556 JMC
To: RA
Thanks. We now need a title for Dwork's course and a one sentence bio for
Haley.
∂10-Feb-87 1609 JMC reply to message
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 10-Feb-87 16:04-PT.]
No, I didn't.
∂10-Feb-87 1733 JMC grade change
To: stager@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: hsu@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
I approve the grade change for Kunin to A.
∂10-Feb-87 2343 JMC Trustees meeting
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
First let's understand what we are talking about. I saved the
folllowing news story in October but only just worked up my nerve to say
what I think in because of all the Stanford community seemed so unanimous
to me. What the story reports is evil now and will lead to far worse
evils if the promoters of this terrorism get power.
Well, Gary Holden and friends don't have to believe this and
can support the ANC if they want to. However, they have as much
obligation to publically oppose terrorism by the people they support
as the U.S. Government has to publically oppose terrorism or oppression by the
Contras or the government of Chile or even these governments tolerating
terrorism by their unofficial supporters.
The Reagan Administration has often put pressure on the Contras
and others to behave better, and they pressured d'Aubisson out of the El
Salvador presidency, because he was suspected of being involved in the
death squad activity.
Mr. Holden and SOSA are at a more primitive moral level than the
Reagan Administration, because they won't oppose such crimes. In fact it
appears from the message about the necklacing guerrilla theater when
Buthelezi appeared that they glory in it - a few regarding it as "bad
tactics". When the phrase "bad tactics" is used, the natural
interpretation is that there is no moral disapproval. Can someone tell me
that I have misinterpreted the SOSA position?
a233 1353 19 Oct 86
AM-South Africa,0680
Woman Activist Slashed to Death on Soweto Street
With AM-Restricted, Bjt
By LAURINDA KEYS
Associated Press Writer
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - A mob of black youths armed with
knives and axes chased a leader of the 1976 Soweto black student
uprisings and slashed her to death as bystanders watched, newspapers
reported Sunday.
The killing of Masabata Loate, 29, who was imprisoned for five years
on a treason conviction, occurred Friday night in the Orlando West
section of Soweto, the huge black township on the outskirts of
Johannesburg.
The Sunday Star newspaper quoted her mother, Maria Loate, as saying
she believed her daughter was killed because Miss Loate believed in
non-violent resistance to racial segregation in South Africa.
The government's Bureau for Information, the official source of news
on political unrest since a state of emergency was declared on June
12, made no mention of the attack.
''The police don't regard this as unrest-related. It's being
investigated as a crime,'' said Caspar Venter, spokesman for the
bureau.
According to a bureau report, two black men were killed Saturday in
Alexandra and Temibisa, two other black townships outside
Johannesburg. The victims were burned to death with flaming tires
around their necks, said the report.
The Sunday Star said Miss Loate, a black, was slashed beyond
recognition by 20 young men who stabbed her with knives and sticks
and clubbed her with an ax, breaking several limbs.
It quoted Mrs. Loate as saying her daughter ''totally abhorred the
'necklace' executions taking place in the townships, and always
voiced her opposition to the wanton stoning of people's cars and the
burning down of their homes.''
''Necklacing,'' in which a burning tire is placed around a person's
neck, has been used by black militants to kill suspected
collaborators of South Africa's white-led government.
Miss Loate was released from prison a few months ago after serving a
five-year sentence for violations of the state security laws.
She had been arrested, but was not tried, after the 1976 Soweto
riots, which were touched off when police fired on about 13,000 black
students who were demonstrating. Several students were killed in the
riots.
''That she had to die this way, after dedicating all her life to the
cause of freedom and justice, is heartbreaking,'' Mrs. Loate was
quoted as telling The Sunday Star.
The City Press newspaper quoted unidentified witnesses as saying
Miss Loate ran to her grandmother's house when attacked, but before
the door could be opened, the mob surrounded and assaulted her.
She escaped and ran toward her mother's home, the City Press said,
but the gang caught up with her and killed her.
''When I arrived at the scene, I could hardly recognize her.
Masabata was a gory mess. There was a gaping wound in her head,''
Mrs. Loate was quoted as telling City Press.
The paper reported that family members said people in the vicinity
saw the crowd kill Miss Loate, but no one went to her aid.
Meanwhile, about 600 residents of a black Pretoria township that the
government abolished held a meeting Sunday to call on black workers
in the area to stay away from work Wednesday as a protest.
The Ministry of Constitutional Development and Planning declared on
Friday that Oukasie township no longer existed and more than 1,000
families must move 15 miles west, where a new township has been
built. The government says it would be too expensive to upgrade
Oukasie.
Oukasie residents say the real reason for the forced move is that
the government wants their land for whites.
By law and custom, under apartheid, South Africa's 5 million whites
control the economy and maintain separate districts, schools and
health services. In addition, the country's 24 million black majority
has no vote in national affairs.
According to a combination of official and unofficial tallies, at
least 328 people have died in political violence since the state of
emergency began.
Under the emergency rules, reporters are not allowed to describe
security force actions or publish the names of detainees without
government permission, and may not publish ''subversive statements.''
AP-NY-10-19-86 1652EDT
***************
∂11-Feb-87 0857 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
My complaint wasn't that the blacks in South Africa are using violence.
I don't believe that they can reach political equality without it, and
I believe they should have political equality and there will be fighting
at some level until they achieve it. However, necklacing is an atrocity,
and I believe their supporters in the U.S. have an obligation to denounce
it and even make their support contingent on its stopping just as the
U.S. Government has an obligation to make its support of the Contras
contingent on their giving up random terror. SOSA etc. needn't require
perfection of the ANC any more than Reagan need abandon all support
of the Contras if there is a single incident. Instead it appears that
SOSA glorifies necklacing (from their Bulewezi necklacing gesture).
A few people muttering about "bad tactics" doesn't get them of the
moral hook.
As to the future of South Africa, there need to be negotiations and
a mediator would help. A mediator is someone who has no position on
what the outcome should be but helps the two sides reach an agreement
that both prefer to further fighting. I doubt the situation is ready
for that, because the whites are still too comfortable. There are
two kinds of possibly viable agreement. The one that seems most likely
to work is separate territories ruled by whites and blacks. The trouble
with the territorial part of Apartheid is that it give 13 percent to
the blacks. This was inevitable as long as the whites were comfortable,
because to give the blacks more would require some white farmers to
give up their land, and politics among the whites wouldn't permit it.
Actually the blacks will probably get between 50 and 80 percent of the country
depending on the relative military and political strength of the parties
at the time of agreement. Whether the black ruled part of the country will
have some whites living in it and vice versa will depend on whether there
is genuine peace. Even that is possible.
I imagine that such a solution wouldn't appeal to SOSA, because their
attitude seems to be one of "Let's you fight him to the death".
(I admit I'm thinking by analogy with the "anti-war" movement which,
on campus became entirely dominated by pro-North Vietnam militancy and
wasn't a peace movement at all).
However, according to my principle of mediation, I really should
supplement moral arguments by appeals to straight thinking about the
relative strength of the parties. Within South Africa the whites will
continue to have overwhelming military force unless their morale
cracks. Beating them would require invasion from the outside, e.g.
a U.N. sponsored war with direct Soviet involvement. If the whites
become desperate, nuclear weapons will be used, maybe even against
the countries attacking them. It turn out that reforming South Africa
by war is just as impractical as reforming the Soviet Union by war.
It seems to me most likely that the black militants can make life
sufficiently uncomfortable for the whites that negotiations for
realistic peace terms will be possible, i.e. letting the blacks control
enough territory to make agreement worthwhile to them. The present
"homelands" aren't realistic, because only a small fraction of the
black strength lives in them.
One-man-one-vote seems far less likely to succeed than territorial
division, because if taken literally it will result in black military
dominance and leaving the whites at the mercy of the blacks whose politics
will probably become dominated by thoughts of revenge for the past.
A moralist might say let them get revenge. A mediator will simply say
that such black dominance is unrealistic, because the whites are
strong enough to defend themselves.
To summarize my moral complaint is against atrocities and the Stanford
community support of atrocities.
∂11-Feb-87 1352 JMC re: Los Alamos visit
To: DAVIES@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed, 11 Feb 1987 11:20 PST.]
Yes, they came yesterday. Mostly they listened to us describing the Qlisp
project. They described one of their own slightly based on "functional
programming" and compile-time allocation of tasks. Ask Igor or Carolyn
for details.
∂11-Feb-87 1413 JMC re: Subst
To: AMEHTA@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 11 Feb 87 12:02:11-PST.]
Looks good.
∂11-Feb-87 1508 JMC
To: RA
Whose move is it on my phone?
∂11-Feb-87 1705 JMC Platoon
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: steinberger@SRI-KL.ARPA
How does Steinberger know that Platoon is realistic? He tells us that
it depicts grunts not knowing why they were fighting. That most were
like that agrees with my guesses also, but I cannot call a depiction
realistic merely because it agrees with my prejudices. I suppose some
had more idea why they were there and the ideas were different, and
some thought about it a lot and some only rarely if at all. The
Marine veteran quoted says he learned that the big shots were lying.
Since he was in Vietnam and not among the big shots, he is no more
likely to understand a priori their experience and what they thought
they were doing than they were to understand his experience.
∂11-Feb-87 1740 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Counter to Holden. The Nazi extermination of the Jews can be
characterized as "regrettable but understandable". That doesn't
answer the question of whether necklacing is an atrocity and should be
explicitly opposed by those who otherwise support the side that's doing
it. In order that my concept of moral responsibility be seen as
less "mystical", let me suggest the following to Gary Holden. In
White Plaza at present is a large banner opposing Apartheid. I
forget what it says to do about it. The banner has plenty of white
space on it. I propose to write on it, "Necklacing is a crime" and
sign my name. Does Gary Holden think this is a form of "blaming
the victim"? Will he sign his name there also?
I note that he uses the phrase "not defensible"; will he use the phrase
"is a crime"? If he thinks it's not much of a crime, he could say
"is a misdemeanor".
When something bad is done, moral responsibility can be widely distributed -
both for acts of commission and omission. What I see is Holden maintaining
that the American supporters of the ANC have NO RESPONSIBILITY AT ALL
to speak out against necklacing. In this they are morally more primitive
than the Reagan Administration people; they at least feel some responsibility to
oppose atrocities by people they otherwise support.
Holden is rather cute about my "proposal to create an Israel in South
Africa". He thinks "one is enough". The white South Africans, like
the Jews of Israel, have considerable capacity to defend themselves
and will probably use it. People should look beyond the ends of their
noses and their ideas about who are bad guys and try to find an outcome
that all sides will prefer to further slaughter. Almost certainly it
will take more slaughter in South Africa before enough people
will think in terms of finding an agreement. After all 1500 killed,
mainly blacks killed by other blacks, is historically far too small
a number to get very many enthusiastic partisans of a cause to think
about peace terms. This especially applies to vicarious necklacers
like those at Stanford.
∂11-Feb-87 2249 JMC reply to message
To: GUPTA@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 11 Feb 87 17:55:54-PST.]
Sure, come by. I'm in most afternoons.
∂12-Feb-87 1116 JMC re: [Reply to message recvd: 11 Feb 87 15:08 Pacific Time]
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 12-Feb-87 09:09-PT.]
At 2, I'll be in class. 3:30 would be better.
∂12-Feb-87 1652 JMC re: SCHEMER Paper
To: RDZ@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu, 12 Feb 1987 16:12 PST.]
I would like a copy of your short paper.
∂12-Feb-87 1748 JMC re: possibly wayward posting ?
To: ROBERTS@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 12 Feb 87 16:52:05-PST.]
It only makes for more clutter to apologize on su-etc for cluttering it.
In the future please apologize individually to whoever complains. Note
that this message is not being posted.
∂12-Feb-87 1800 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Mentioning Israel was a great success in diverting attention from the
crime of necklacing. I still have no answer to my contention that
the American anti-Apartheid movement has an obligation to denounce it.
Sherman intentionally destroyed property. He said that a crow flying over
the area he passed through in his "march to the sea" would have to carry
rations. Whether his action was a against the "laws of war" was debated.
The Southerners complained for generations.
However, the "laws of war" are based on the principle that while all
war harms some of the innocent, some things are worse than others,
and equally intensely fought wars can vary by a factor of 100 in how
many innocents are killed.
As many said the Irgun and Stern Gang actions were deplored by the
majority of Israelis and these groups were forcibly disarmed. Neverless,
they permanently harmed Israel's reputation.
It is not inevitable that the ANC will succeed in being the ultimate
representative of all the South African blacks. Their tactics of terror
against other blacks may induce some others to ally themselves with
the whites if they can make a reasonable deal for themselves.
∂14-Feb-87 1226 JMC wrong bboard
To: LES
How about a rule that if someone sends something to the wrong bboard, he
should not send another message to that bboard apologizing?
∂14-Feb-87 1858 JMC re: wrong bboard
To: LES
[In reply to message rcvd 14-Feb-87 15:15-PT.]
If one makes that kind of mistake, one should tolerantly receive the
umpteen grumbles.
∂14-Feb-87 1908 JMC reply to message
To: LES
[In reply to message rcvd 14-Feb-87 19:05-PT.]
Yes, see what they say.
∂14-Feb-87 1915 JMC reply to message
To: LES
[In reply to message rcvd 14-Feb-87 19:05-PT.]
You might point out that whoever receives a complaint is clearly
entitled to clutter the message file of whoever has complained
with a long and fulsome apology.
∂14-Feb-87 2047 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
The discussion of necklacing has led me to a concrete proposition.
The Committee on Investment Responsibility, SOSA, the Stanford
Board of Trustees and even the U.S. Government should make their
respective sanctions against South Africa dependent on a sincere
effort on the part of ANC to get rid of necklacing just as
the Reagan Administration has made its support of the Contras
dependent on an effort to get rid of the abuse of civilians.
Any comments?
∂15-Feb-87 0104 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: goldberg@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
There are two reasons not to join Goldberg in denouncing aid to the Contras
because of the Chomsky account of Contra atrocities. The lesser reason
is that I don't find Chomsky very credible. Unfortunately, however,
there are more reliable accounts of some contra atrocities. The
main reason is that these were isolated and that partly as a result
of American pressure, the Contras have cleaned up their act, even
shooting one of their officers convicted of such a crime against
civilians. I believe the anti-Apartheid activists could pressure the
ANC to clean up its act also if they only would. In both the Contra
case and the ANC case it is likely to involve disciplining people
who are otherwise considered effective, and it means forgoing some
ways of putting pressure on neutrals not to aid the other side.
∂15-Feb-87 1134 JMC South Africa
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Answer to Jeff Goldberg's point that if the U.S. funds the Contras, it
should also fund the ANC. I still regard it as another digression from
the issue of whether the American and other foreign anti-Apartheid
activists have a moral obligation to put pressure against necklacing.
However, I'll answer his points.
1. Should the U.S. fund the ANC? Our primary reason for funding the
Contras is to prevent the consolidation of another Marxist-Leninist
regime in the Western Hemisphere as being contrary to the national
interest of the U.S. While some would regard Contra behavior as
irrelevant from that point of view, the Reagan Administration has
accepted the responsibility of pressuring the Contras to discipline
their forces to avoid atrocities.
With regard to a positive effort against the government of South Africa,
there are two considerations. (a) What does the national interest of
the U.S. demand? (b) Should we go into the business of fighting bad
governments wherever they exist? Many people, including me, hold the
view that on every measure the communist governments are far worse
than that of South Africa. (c) What aims should we pursue?
I think the complete destruction of the South African whites would
have to be avoided. I still think a mediator role would be better
than a partisan role, and there is a large range of solutions that
all sides in South Africa would find preferable to indefinite war.
2. Unfortunately, I don't keep full references to what I read, so
I can't give precise sources on what I read about the Contras improving
their behavior as well as a more accurate view about how bad it ever
was. I read Freedom at Issue from Freedom House, Commentary and Policy Review,
and I think more than one of those discussed the problem of Contra
behavior at length.
As to Jeff's sources, I shall only mention one of them, the American
Friends' Service Committee, because of a personal experience. In the
late 70s I visited Reed College where my elder daughter was finishing
up and saw an AFSC sandwich board poster. It was a plea to regard
favorably what they called the "Kampuchean Experiment" and contained
pictures of happy children and happy workers in textile plants, etc.
I remember being surprised at the time, because the news of the Khmer
Rouge genocide was already widely publicized.
In general it is my impression that the left wing sources are more
inclined to be selective about their facts than the neoconservative
ones. This is, however, an impression and it would be interesting
to see an attempt at objective comparison, taking magazines of both
persuasions and see what possibilities they discuss about the
imperfections of the side they are supporting. Certainly the almost
total stonewalling I have got from the left on the necklacing issue
confirms my impression.
∂15-Feb-87 1134 JMC su-etc
To: goldberg@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
I just sent another long reply to your latest to su-etc forgetting
to send you a copy. Do you prefer to get copies directly? I follow
su-etc frequently enough so that I don't need personal copies of
replies.
∂15-Feb-87 1153 JMC answering machine
To: RA
It is apparently connected correctly. When I dialed 4-4076 it answered
after 4 rings, gave the greeting, took the message and indicated that
it received the message. It disgorged the message when I pushed the
right buttons. Evidently calls are not being forwarded to 4-4076.
∂15-Feb-87 1816 JMC re: SAIL and Score accounts
To: LES@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: Restivo@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun 15 Feb 87 16:23:45-PST.]
I would like to argue that Restivo's operating the Prolog digest
is of sufficient community value to justify continuing his accounts.
I believe it can be called a community service and hence an overhead
item.
∂15-Feb-87 2300 JMC Community service
To: LES
It is customary for computer facilities to provide some community
services within limits out of overhead, e.g. bulletin boards. The
Prolog digest is a bulletin board of scientific interest and not
merely (or especially) of social interest. I think we should keep
it, since it serves a wide community, and I'm quite sure we'll have
no accounting trouble regarding it as an overhead item. Are we short
of some resource that it uses? If so, perhaps it can be revised so
as to use less of that resource.
∂15-Feb-87 2310 JMC Agreeing with Chomsky's politics
To: goldberg@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
I'm curious. Do you also agree with his statement: "I see no reason
why Israel should continue to exist"? - Not a precise quote.
Note: This wasn't sent to su-etc.
∂16-Feb-87 1305 JMC re: infomation
To: Hsu@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 16 Feb 87 13:00:23-PST.]
I suspect you mean Chris Goad. I'm not sure there was a report but
your could phone him at
his company Silma 493-0145.
∂16-Feb-87 1613 JMC re: Necklacing
To: mogul@DECWRL.DEC.COM
[In reply to message sent Mon, 16 Feb 87 16:02:18 pst.]
I might support sanctions given some such action, but what I would
do is not entirely relevant to my point. It is the people (including
Americans) who support sanctions and/or the ANC who have a primary
responsibility to put pressure against inhumanity by the people they
support. I have no information about whether the ANC takes part in
necklacing. There is no advantage for it in saying the same things to the
media that it says to its teen-age adherents.
I think I would support sanctions provided they were in support
of a definite goal that would be preferred by both populations to continued
war.
Seeking out and killing people like the woman who had a reputation
from her role in the Soweto events of ten years ago but now advocates
non-violence, suggests an organization. Killing people who agree with you
on goals but differ on what are permissible means is an action typical of
hierarchically organized revolutionary groups that get fanatical about
what is the "correct line".
∂16-Feb-87 1721 JMC
To: guibas@DECWRL.DEC.COM
I will, alas, be out of town tomorrow.
∂16-Feb-87 1731 JMC proposal
To: VAL
I have had another try at making the case for the relevance of the work
to DARPA. It is darpa.2[w87,jmc]. See what you think of it. I think
your present draft is too fuzzy, incorporating parts of several efforts.
I suggest you have a try at integrating the new effort with the draft.
We would want to omit quite a bit of what we have written. It occurs to
me, however, that it might be worthwhile to include a formalized
example. It could be similar to moving and painting blocks but could
perhaps involve moving and loading a ship. A precondition for loading
is that the ship is in port, but there could be a few example things
that could go wrong.
I will be in L.A. until Wednesday night.
∂16-Feb-87 1910 JMC
To: CLT
Do you know where Shankar is?
∂16-Feb-87 1935 JMC Shankar
To: IGS
Thanks for your efforts. It turns out that Carolyn knew he had taken
a trip to Austin and would be back after a week or so.
∂16-Feb-87 2018 JMC
To: CLT
I had a bowlful. There's quite lot left.
∂18-Feb-87 2012 JMC email addresses
To: CLT
∂17-Feb-87 1130 @SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU,@NTT-20:masahiko@nttlab email addresses
Received: from SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 17 Feb 87 11:30:40 PST
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Date: Mon, 16 Feb 87 22:52:58 jst
From: masahiko%ntt.junet@nttlab (Masahiko Sato)
Message-Id: <8702161352.AA06951@nttlab.ntt.junet>
To: jmc%sail.stanford.edu%sumex-aim@ntt-20,
clt%sail.stanford.edu%sumex-aim@ntt-20
Subject: email addresses
Dear John and Carolyn,
Here is a list of addresses you requested.
Susumu Hayashi
hayashi%kurims.kyoto-u.junet%utokyo-relay@relay.cs.net
Takafumi Sakurai
a87480%tansei.u-tokyo.junet%utokyo-relay@relay.cs.net
Hayao Nakahara
a32275%tansei.u-tokyo.junet%utokyo-relay@relay.cs.net
I am now contacting Arima at ICOT and Nakagawa at Yokohama National
University who are interested in common sense reasoning.
** masahiko **
∂18-Feb-87 2055 JMC re: ROC
To: CHIU@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 18 Feb 87 12:10:42-PST.]
You are somewhat misinformed about the sequence of events. The communists
conquered the mainland in 1949 and the Russians withdrew from Manchuria in
1952 or 1953. Perhaps they helped the communists somewhat before 1949,
but it wasn't enough to be a substantial issue in America. Also I believe
that Stalin didn't trust Mao to be the puppet he wanted.
∂18-Feb-87 2056 JMC re: flying
To: RIVIN@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 18 Feb 87 12:26:37-PST.]
The Stanford Flying Club used to fly from Palo Alto Airport.
∂19-Feb-87 0412 JMC re: SU-ETC census
To: SU-ETC-Census@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent 18 Feb 87 2230 PST.]
∂19-Feb-87 1121 JMC reply to message
To: dwork%almvma.bitnet@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 18 February 1987.]
You are one of them. There is one each of the three quarters.
∂19-Feb-87 1459 JMC re: bag
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 19-Feb-87 12:15-PT.]
Yes.
∂19-Feb-87 1736 JMC library keys
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: DEK@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Don and I (and Persi Diaconis) are going to need Departmental help
again in getting library keys. For no stated reason they changed
the locks in October.
∂20-Feb-87 1344 JMC stationery
To: HK.KSD@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU
Betty Scott passed on your message. I just want to be sure that when
they make the stationery, it has my correct electronic address on it
i.e. make sure whoever supplies it checks with me.
∂20-Feb-87 1346 JMC re: Vacation
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 20-Feb-87 12:03-PT.]
That's ok with me even though it's the week before I go to Japan.
∂20-Feb-87 1416 JMC proposal
To: VAL
I tinkered with the last paragraph of that section a little more, and I
now think we're ready to go. Please print a copy and we'll give it to Les
and send it to Simpson.
∂20-Feb-87 1442 JMC
To: CLT
VAL's and my part of the proposal is ready, so let's talk about yours.
∂20-Feb-87 1459 JMC missionary position
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I first heard the phrase in the 1950s as part of some sexual liberation
propaganda. My recollection is that it was claimed that natives of some
unspecified place (most likely Pacific islanders because of Margaret Mead)
were less inhibited, but the missionaries considered any position but the
one with the woman on her back and the man on top immoral. My conjecture
is that the notion that missionaries advocated a particular position was
an invention based on the sexual liberation people's idea of what a
missionary's attitude would be. I would doubt that missonaries would
write about the matter, being inhibited, and I doubt that these American
sexual liberation people knew any missionaries or natives. In short your
guess is as good as anyone else's as to whether any actual missionaries
advocated any such thing to actual natives.
∂20-Feb-87 2210 JMC re: AAAI workshop on Foundations
To: KIRSH%OZ.AI.MIT.EDU@XX.LCS.MIT.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 20 Feb 87 22:16-EST.]
Call Claudia Mazzetti at the AAAI office in Menlo Park to arrange
everything?
∂22-Feb-87 1028 JMC re: library keys
To: NILSSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun 22 Feb 87 09:27:56-PST.]
In this case the "unsolution" is related to the departure of Harry Llull
and his replacement by Henry Lowood, the Physics Librarian, on a temporary basis
while they look for a successor. Lowood claimed that Llull told no-one about
his having given out the keys and ordered the locks changed before he left.
However, Llull left in August and the locks were changed in October, and
Lowood has seemed evasive about the matter.
∂22-Feb-87 1150 JMC consciousness
To: ailist@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA
I hope this is the correct address for submissions, since it's
in the reply-to field of the messages.
This discussion of consciousness considers AI as a branch of
computer science rather than as a branch of biology or philosophy.
Therefore, it concerns why it is necessary to provide AI programs
with something like human consciousness in order that they should
behave intelligently in certain situations important for their
utility. Of course, human consciousness presumably has accidental
features that there would be no reason to imitate and other features
that are perhaps necessary consequences of its having evolved that
aren't necessary in programs designed from scratch. However, since
we don't yet understand AI very well, we shouldn't jump to conclusions
about what features of consciousness are unnecessary in order to
have the intellectual capabilities humans have and that we want our
programs to have.
Consciousness has many aspects and here are some.
1. We think about our bodies as physical objects to which
the same physical laws apply as apply to other physical objects.
This permits us to predict the behavior of our bodies in certain
situations, e.g. what might break them, and also permits us to
predict the behavior of other physical objects, e.g. we expect
them to have similar inertia. AI systems should apply physics
to their own bodies to the extent that they have them. Whether
they will need to use the analogy may depend on what knowledge
we choose to build in and what we will expect them to learn from
experience.
2. We can observe in a general way what we have been thinking
about and draw conclusions. For example, I have been thinking
about what to say about consciousness in this forum, and at present
it seems to be going rather well, so I'll continue composing
my comment rather than think about some specific aspect of
consciousness. I am, however, concerned that when I finish this
list I may have left our important aspects of consciousness that
we shall want in our programs. This kind of general observation
of the mental situation is important for making intellectual
plans, i.e. deciding what to think about. Very intelligent computer
programs will also need to examine what they have been thinking
about and reason about this information in order to decide whether
their intellectual goals are achievable. Unfortunately, AI isn't
ready for this yet, because we must solve some conceptual problems
first.
3. We compare ourselves intellectually with other people.
The concepts we use to think about our own minds are mainly learned
from other people. As with information about our bodies, we infer
from what we observe about ourselves to the mental qualities of
other people, and we also learn about ourselves from what we
learn about others. In so far as programs are made similar to
people or other programs, they may also have to learn from interaction.
4. We have goals about our own mental functioning. We would
like to be smarter, nicer and more content. It seems to me that
programs should also have such meta-goals, but I don't see that
we need to make them the same as people's. Consider that many
people have the goal of being more rational, e.g. less driven
by impulses. When we find ourselves with circular preferences,
e.g preferring A to B, B to C and C to A, we chide ourselves and
try to change. A computer program might well discover that its
heuristics give rise to circular preferences and try to modify
them in service of its grand goals. However, while people are
originally not fully rational, because our heritage provides
direct connections between our disparate drives and the actions
that achieve the goals they generate, it seems likely that
there is no reason to imitate all these features in computer programs.
Thus our programs should be able to compare the desirability
of future scenarios more readily than people do.
5. Besides our direct observations of our own mental
states, we have a lot of general information about them. We
can predict whether problems will be easy or difficult for us
and whether hypothetical events will be pleasing or not.
Programs will require similar capabilities.
Finally, it seems to me that the discussion of consciousness
in this digest has been too much an outgrowth of the ordinary
traditional philosophical discussions of the subject. It hasn't
sufficiently been influenced by Dennett's "design stance". I'm
sure that more aspects of human consciousness than I have been
able to list will require analogs in robotic systems. We should
also be alert to provide forms of self-observation and reasoning
about the programs own mental state that go beyond those evolution
has given us.
∂22-Feb-87 2226 JMC reply to message
To: CLT
[In reply to message rcvd 22-Feb-87 21:46-PT.]
Done. Would you believe he let me put him to bed awake and without
a squawk and waited for me to cover him? After a couple minutes of
gurgling he went to sleep. He had had some milk, but there's about
an ounce left.
∂23-Feb-87 0109 JMC
To: CLT@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, IGS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU,
JJW@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, okuno@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Seminar Announcement, Friday February 27, 1987, 315 SIC,
1:30 PM, Southern Methodist University
Stephen Watt
ABSTRACT: PARALLEL TECHNIQUES IN COMPUTER ALGEBRA
This talk presents techniques for exploiting parallel proc-
essing in symbolic mathematical computation. We examine the
use of high-level parallelism when the number of processors
is fixed and independent of the problem size, as in existing
multiprocessors.
Since seemingly small changes to the inputs can cause dra-
matic changes in the execution times of many algorithms in
computer algebra, it is not generally useful to use static
scheduling. We find it is possible, however, to exploit the
high-level parallelism in many computer algebra problems us-
ing dynamic scheduling methods in which subproblems are
treated homogeneously. An OR-parallel algorithm for integer
factorization will be presented along with AND-parallel al-
gorithms for the computation of multivariate polynomial GCDs
and the computation of Groebner bases.
A portion of the talk will be used to present the design of
a system for running computer algebra programs on a multi-
processor. The system is a version of Maple able to dis-
tribute processes over a local area network. The fact that
the multiprocessor is a local area network need not be con-
sidered by the programmer.
∂23-Feb-87 1211 JMC re: home terminal essay
To: WINOGRAD@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 23 Feb 87 12:06:00-PST.]
{\bf McCarthy, John (1972)}: ``The Home Information Terminal,'' Man and Computer,
in Proceedings International Conference, Bordeaux 1970, S. Karger, N.Y.
{\bf McCarthy, John (1976)}: ``The Home Information Terminal,'' invited presentation,
AAAS Annual Meeting, Feb. 18-24, 1976, Boston.
{\bf McCarthy, John (1977)}:
``The Home Information Terminal'' {\it Grolier Encyclopedia}.
Most likely the essay I gave you corresponds to the AAAS presentation and
is a slightly updated version of the 1970 meeting paper (published 1972).
∂23-Feb-87 1249 JMC
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
I have sicced a rather ignorant lady from KRON-TV on you.
∂23-Feb-87 1532 JMC re: Trip to Anchorage and Japan
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 23-Feb-87 15:16-PT.]
yes.
∂23-Feb-87 1532 JMC Network Connection Charges
To: LES
∂23-Feb-87 1427 WOODWARD@Score.Stanford.EDU Network Connection Charges
Received: from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 23 Feb 87 14:27:40 PST
Date: Mon 23 Feb 87 14:13:49-PST
From: Deborah Woodward <WOODWARD@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Network Connection Charges
To: McCarthy@Score.Stanford.EDU
cc: RA@Sail.Stanford.EDU, Bscott@Score.Stanford.EDU,
Woodward@Score.Stanford.EDU
Message-ID: <12281427070.14.WOODWARD@Score.Stanford.EDU>
As explained in Les Earnest's memo of January 17 we are now charging for
network connections of hosts that are in Margaret Jacks Hall as of January
1st. 1987. The following host name/names are what we have as belonging to
you. This will be a monthy charge per host. Would you please provide us
with an account number so we can make the appropriate billing.
HOST Charge
Ibmrtpc1 $30.00
Ignorant $30.00
Mt-st-coax $30.00
Gang-of-four $30.00
Total $120.00
Thank you,
CSD-CF
-------
∂23-Feb-87 1626 JMC NAE election
To: feigenbaum@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Thanks for your successful efforts Ed. I assume it was the National Academy
of Engineering you were referring to.
∂23-Feb-87 1628 JMC re: workshop on the frame problem
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 23-Feb-87 16:23-PT.]
You should send this message to the organizer.
∂23-Feb-87 2128 JMC ad hominem
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Ad hominem is an adjective applied to arguments. An ad hominem argument
is of the form, "What he says is false, because of what he is". Ad hominem
arguments were formerly rejected out of hand in polite society as irrelevant,
but Marxists, Freudians and Nazis came to demand that their kind be explicitly
accepted. He's a tool of the capitalists. His argument just shows he has
a resistance. He's a Jew.
∂24-Feb-87 1235 JMC decisions
To: CLT
I promised Nils a decision about next year's teaching today. Here is my
present idea. You teach cs306 in the Fall. I teach twice in the Winter,
my vtss course and cs101. Vladimir will teach cs326 next winter or
whenever they want it. We tell the Texas people that we can come for
the Spring Quarter, i.e. they would have to start our teaching late -
unless you want to go earlier. I would offer to teach the equivalent
of cs326 in the Spring.
∂24-Feb-87 1253 JMC cs326 next year
To: VAL
I assume you still want to teach it. If the catalog description is
to be revised it should be done this week. Also if the quarter is
to be changed it should be done promptly. We discussed making it
two quarters, but I suggest we leave that for the following year.
∂24-Feb-87 1255 JMC algebraic computation
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, IGS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Igor has mentioned teaching a course in algebraic computation. If it's
not too late for him or for the Department, I suggest it be done
next year as a one shot, perhaps making it regular thereafter. In
my opinion we need such a course, and it should be publicized so
as to attract math students as well, perhaps even to the extent
of cross-listing it.
∂24-Feb-87 1454 JMC re: ok for AX charges
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 24-Feb-87 14:37-PT.]
It's ok.
∂24-Feb-87 1611 JMC re: CS258
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 24-Feb-87 15:50-PT.]
It seems to have become 350.
∂24-Feb-87 1747 JMC re: Diagramming: An Educational Anachronism?
To: coraki!pratt@SUN.COM, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon, 23 Feb 87 22:13:51 PST.]
None of the Kellog's mentioned in the previous Britannica, which
has a proper index, is connected with diagramming. However, I don't
see that the various forms of phrase structure grammar that
are being pushed differ from old-fashioned diagramming more
than the differ from each other.
∂24-Feb-87 1754 JMC re: what is the word
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from TAJNAI@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Tue 24 Feb 87 09:02:44-PST.]
At CSLI the command
webster sesquipedalian
elicits
←
ses.qui.pe.da.lian \.ses-kw*-p*-'dal-y*n\ adj [L sesquipedalis, lit., a foot
and a half long, fr. sesqui- + ped-, pes foot -- more at FOOT] 1 : having
many syllables : LONG 2 : given to or characterized by the use of long
words
∂25-Feb-87 0205 JMC Tokyo visits
To: MS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
All the visits you propose seem worthwhile. I'd also like to see
Prof. Goto at Tokyo University to hear how his projects are going
and his point of view on Lisp implementations, etc.
∂25-Feb-87 1543 JMC re: CC of letter I sent to Spanish professor
To: WINOGRAD@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU, nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU,
buchanan@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from WINOGRAD@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU sent Wed 25 Feb 87 15:38:00-PST.]
I'm also turning down Gonzales.
∂25-Feb-87 1602 JMC re: ut
To: CLT
[In reply to message rcvd 25-Feb-87 14:23-PT.]
Please inquire.
∂25-Feb-87 1737 JMC re: contesting parking tickets
To: SELIGMAN@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU, M.MOTORHEAD@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU,
su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from SELIGMAN@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Wed 25 Feb 87 16:13:37-PST.]
If it's a Stanford ticket and you think you can convince the Stanford
Police Department that it was mistaken, go see them. If you convince
the office people, they may persuade the arresting officer to cancel
it, but legally it's up to him.
∂25-Feb-87 1740 JMC tickets
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
On a street like Alma, there are far more people exceeding the speed limit
by 10 mph than the police can possibly ticket. Therefore, from the point
of view of the police administration trying to keep their people working
hard, quotas make sense. However, the public objects to quotas, so they
usually avoid actually having them. I agree that the 35 mph speed limit
on Alma is not reasonable, but I'll bet the residents of Alma fight to
keep it from being increased. Both noise and danger to children and
people coming out of driveways increase with speed. Therefore, compromise
is necessary, since the same residents of Alma probably object to excessively
low speed limits elsewhere. From the point of view of safety, police
activity is probably most effective if aimed at catching drunk drivers.
However, the police must be responsive to the citizens' concerns, and
many streets have activists living on them.
∂25-Feb-87 1745 JMC Please phone
To: RA
the Greyhound bus terminal in Mountain View to see if they
have Carolyn's bag. I suppose they telephoned, but ...
06721698 5 = Greyhound bill number, to get Carolyn's bag
∂25-Feb-87 1755 JMC Please send
To: RA
a copy of the material on the conference on the Workshop on Computers
in the USSR to Dr. Yuri Yarim-Agaev at the Center for Democracy. See
phon for address of Center. Material is in my out box.
∂25-Feb-87 1946 JMC re: parking tickets
To: COWER@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from COWER@CSLI.Stanford.EDU sent Wed 25 Feb 87 17:36:10-PST.]
Why do you believe every ticket should be taken to court?
∂25-Feb-87 2317 JMC re: biblio. ref.
To: beeson@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed, 25 Feb 87 22:20:22 PST.]
No, it wasn't published.
∂25-Feb-87 2322 JMC re: Go programs
To: ILAN@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 25 Feb 87 22:00:26-PST.]
If you find out, please let me know also.
∂25-Feb-87 2351 JMC statistical inference
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
The data lead me to the statistical inference that liberals are more
likely than conservatives to explain away data that don't fit their
ideology. Before about 1930 this wasn't the case. The liberals were
anti-establishment. Starting in the 1930s the liberals gradually
gained control of the educational establishment, although they didn't
control it in the more backward parts of the country till the 1960s.
∂26-Feb-87 0032 JMC re: Go programs
To: ILAN@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 26 Feb 87 00:23:19-PST.]
You're certainly welcome to try writing in Qlisp when it becomes available.
However, my opinion about Go is that one should start only if one has an
idea about how the program should divide the board situation into groups
and answer certain questions about groups separately and then combine
the results suitably. Starting with a very small board avoids the main
new issue that Go presents that is only weakly present in chess.
Let's talk about it some time.
∂26-Feb-87 0054 JMC AIDS
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Larouche was stopped, but AIDS continues. I don't understand why
premarital tests for AIDS aren't even more important than premarital
tests for venereal disease. The objections seem to be stupid
bullheadedness on the part of the homosexual lobby.
∂26-Feb-87 1859 JMC lunch
To: aaai-office@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Claudia, where's lunch at 12:30?
∂26-Feb-87 1913 JMC SJSU
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: watson@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
SJSU indeed has a fairly respectable computer science department, but
for historical reasons all campuses of the California State University
(formerly State Colleges) are looked down upon. Also their teaching
loads are rather heavy for faculty, so for that reason alone, professors
who can get positions at leading universities will leave them.
Also they don't have much outside sponsored research.
Unfortunately, the ARPAnet is not operated commercially and a school
or other institution can't get on it just by paying money. The
non-Government institutions on the ARPAnet are there because of their
connections with Defense Department sponsored research, but this
requirement is sometimes interpreted rather loosely. Stanford, and
I believe most other educational institutions on the ARPAnet, don't
pay anything.
While the Computer Science Department of SJSU is not on the ARPAnet,
I believe some of its computers are on CSnet. Certainly at least
one of them, Michael Beeson, can be reached from here by electronic
mail.
∂26-Feb-87 1943 JMC aids
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
OK, I guess that including AIDS in the diseases to be tested for
as part of getting a marriage license is not controversial among
the participants in the bboard discussion. The consensus in the
Atlanta meeting was against it, but maybe the meeting was in some
sense packed. Of course, the Government or any state is not
bound by the consensus of that meeting. A news story today indicates
that Japan, which has had less than 30 AIDS cases so far is considering
barring all foreigners with AIDS from visiting. The furor their
was triggered when a prostitute died of AIDS. In my opinion they
have a good chance of at least substantially delaying the spread
of AIDS in Japan by such methods, but probably they will have to
bring themselves to require a negative AIDS antibody test from
visa applicants. Remember that the U.S. did, and maybe still does,
require negative chest X-rays for TB as an entrance requirement.
It will indeed be embarassing to be denied a marriage license
because of a positive AIDS antibody test just as it is embarassing
to be denied it for syphillis. However, it is even more inconvenient
to get AIDS or syphillis. In my opinion, the civil rights consideration
here is trivial compared to the public health consideration.
I predict that if the death rate from AIDS really rises to the
hundreds of thousands per year as is predicted, then very drastic
methods will be adopted including compulsory examinations for everyone.
∂26-Feb-87 2224 JMC liberal biases
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
1. My remark about a liberal tendency to explain away was somewhat of a
joke instigated by reading all the BBOARD messages that seemed to be
instances of it. I have a subjective impression that this is generally
so, but I would certainly have to exclude creationists from my statistics
(or divide up the population differently) if I wanted to prove it. My
opinion is that a valid study could be designed based on content analysis
of (say) Mother Jones and National Review if someone wanted to take the
rather large amount of trouble that would be involved.
2. I have read Gould's Mismeasure of Man and also Lewontin's Not in Our
Genes and reviewed the latter for Reason. Gould and Lewontin, who advocate
ultra-caution in inferring that characteristics are heritable are extremely
bold in inferring racist motivations in people who reached conclusions
they disagree with. As a consequence of this and similar observations
of other people, e.g. of the BBOARD message hinting that Shockley's
motivations are improper, I conclude that the caution is ideologically
selective.
3. From what I have read, I have concluded that Lewis Terman and the
other developers of intelligence measurement were both more competent
and more honest than their present critics. The word "honest" being
taken in reference to not having their conclusions predetermined by
ideological commitments.
4. With regard to the message about "giving the oppressed the benefit
of the doubt", I doubt the benefit.
5. It seems to me that no-one today, outside of Marxist countries,
advocates denying opportunity to individuals on the basis of membership
in groups with certain average characteristics, and it isn't honest
to attribute such views or even to say that certain views about
objective matters have this as a consequence.
6. It is a common intellectual sin of today's liberal to mix up
criticism of the truth of a statement with statements about believing
it having undesired consequences. It almost constitutes a warning
that the individual will lie or at least suppress the truth if he
thinks it's good for us to believe something untrue or to not
know the truth. This sin is exhibited in several of the recent
messages.
∂27-Feb-87 1050 JMC re: lunch
To: MAZZETTI@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 27 Feb 87 08:21:23-PST.]
Sorry about your flu and will phone you Monday to reschedule.
∂27-Feb-87 1753 JMC re: Jimmy Carter: What's the scoop?
To: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from helen@Psych.Stanford.EDU sent Fri, 27 Feb 87 14:36:47 PST.]
For starters, some of us think the alternate energy sources was a bad
idea. The proposed technology was based on sentimentality and was inferior
to existing technology and had no prospects of improving enough to be
competitive. The wimpishness was strongly exemplified in the Global 2000
report, which basically wrongly asserted that the world economy was
doomed and should shrink rather than expand. The "inordinate fear of
communism" speech at Notre Dame and kissing Brezhnev on the cheeks as
though he were a satellite leader also struck many as wimpishness.
∂27-Feb-87 1800 JMC re: Another ARPANet question
To: quintus!skolem!watson@SUN.COM
[In reply to message sent Fri 27 Feb 1987 12:12:22 PST.]
Somehow your message of inquiry about what it costs to be
on the ARPAnet arrived again today. I suppose it was some
kind of stutter in the mail system between Quintus and here.
I assume you saw my earlier reply.
∂27-Feb-87 1808 JMC
To: RWF
OK, all but the shortest.
∂27-Feb-87 1829 JMC re: elephant
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 27-Feb-87 15:34-PT.]
Yes, I'll print you a copy on Monday.
∂27-Feb-87 2312 JMC Your visit to Japan
To: CLT
∂27-Feb-87 2113 OKUNO@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU Your visit to Japan
Received: from SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 27 Feb 87 21:13:11 PST
Date: Fri 27 Feb 87 21:12:14-PST
From: Hiroshi "Gitchang" Okuno <Okuno@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Your visit to Japan
To: jmc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Message-ID: <12282551817.30.OKUNO@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU>
John,
Thanks for arranging a seminar for Mr. Hibino. Today, I called Tak
and knew that you would visit ECL. It's a great fun of us. I would
like to suggest you that you would visit Riken (The Institute of
Physical and Chemical Research) to meet Dr. Sasaki to discuss on
parallel algorithm on Symbolic Manipulation. As you know, he is the
most active researchers in Symbolic Algebra in Japan and he developed
a BIGNUM package for REDUCE system when he stayed at Univ. of Utah. I
knew the name of Broebner basis by his papers. If necessary, I would
arrange your visit to Riken. More precisely, I'll ask Tak to arrange
it.
Have a nice trip,
- Gitchang -
-------
∂28-Feb-87 1420 JMC proposal
To: VAL
Let's indeed work more on the proposal Monday. In addition please
look at pages 7 and 8 of darpa[w87,jmc] for possible inclusion.
∂28-Feb-87 1934 JMC sex differences and public policy
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU
The British recommendation as Helen Cunningham reports it and as I
might expect it to be, given that "correct thinking" seems to be
even more dominant in Britain than here, is ambiguous. The
public policy could take as firm the proposition that there
are no sex differences in mathematical talent and ascribe all
differences to upbringing or discrimination. This would therefore
warrant reverse discrimination. Otherwise, it could merely say
that there is no reason to discriminate against women in looking
for mathematical talent. I would support the second and oppose
the first. Does the study refer to the studies of Benbow and
(Simon?)? Surely Feminist Studies could find it for you.
∂01-Mar-87 1339 JMC re: Log of breakin on ibmrtpc1
To: Hansen@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun 1 Mar 87 13:05:30-PST.]
Please explain about this breakin.
∂01-Mar-87 1402 JMC re: Breakin to your account on ibmrtpc1.
To: Hansen@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun 1 Mar 87 13:05:03-PST.]
My previous message was based on seeing only the log you sent me.
I do have additional questions and will phone.
∂01-Mar-87 1443 JMC re: proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 01-Mar-87 14:29-PT.]
ok, see you at 10.
∂01-Mar-87 1657 JMC re: Benbow and (Simon?)
To: D.DOUG@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sun 1 Mar 87 14:15:57-PST.]
Stanley it was.
∂01-Mar-87 2229 JMC re: reply to message
To: RWF
[In reply to message rcvd 01-Mar-87 22:24-PT.]
Alas, I believe so.
∂02-Mar-87 1018 JMC whois database
To: bleiberg@ARGUS.STANFORD.EDU
is very spotty. For example, none of the people in the Math
Dept. with computer addresses are listed, e.g. Feferman.
∂02-Mar-87 1130 JMC ibm
To: AIR
Mark Wegman, who is the IBM monitor of the EBOS contract, will be here
March 19. Be prepared to tell him what progress has been made and
what is planned.
∂02-Mar-87 1132 JMC visit
To: wegman@IBM.COM
CC: AIR@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
March 19 will be fine, and Arkady Rabinov tells me we will have something
to show.
∂02-Mar-87 1407 JMC
To: CLT
He will call back tomorrow morning.
∂02-Mar-87 1520 JMC nic database
To: LES
Please do whois/nic *sail. Please get them to fix our entry.
This involves getting rid of the entry Artificial Intelligence Laboratory,
getting rid of obsolete users, and putting me and some others in. In
particular, Carolyn and Vladimir should be in.
Is there someone else whose job this is?
∂03-Mar-87 1109 JMC re: Binford
To: RICHARDSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 3 Mar 87 10:29:56-PST.]
Yes, I will be available.
∂03-Mar-87 1143 JMC
To: RA
daily.14
∂03-Mar-87 1808 JMC re: Virginia Mann
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 03-Mar-87 15:31-PT.]
Please tell her I will teach it in Winter Quarter, and the catalog
description should stand.
∂03-Mar-87 1810 JMC
To: RA
Please try to get the mail in the afternoon rather than next morning.
∂03-Mar-87 1858 JMC note
To: RA
To: Marcia Sielaff, Hoover
The book I recommended is Moscow Diary by Veljko Micunovic; I had
the author's name wrong, and Mikhail Bernstam set me straight.
∂03-Mar-87 2135 JMC re: Removing Reagan
To: yduJ@SPAR-20.ARPA, gcole@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU,
su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from yduJ@SPAR-20.ARPA sent Tue 3 Mar 87 21:06:43-PST.]
I propose that if Reagan can spell "inability" and "unable", he be allowed to
continue in office but not allowed to receive visits from the families of
hostages.
∂04-Mar-87 0000 JMC AIDS
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Here is a conjecture on the long term future of AIDS. Most likely a cure
cure or vaccine will be discovered turning AIDS into an ordinary disease,
but that's not very interesting, so assume none is discovered. In that
case, the long term future is determined by the difference in AIDS
incidence in different populations. The most obvious populations
to survive without difficulty are those that are monogamous. To
use MRC's terminology, the successor species to humanity will be
the Mormons. (I assume he regards them as nonhuman). The Japanese
are only beginning to be infected and I believe them capable of
discipline and organization if the problem proves serious. They
can identify and isolate the small part of their population with
AIDS and will probably do it.
I actually think the U.S. will act in time to keep the deaths from
AIDS to two or three times the number of people presently infected
by the virus - estimated at around 3 million. There is considered
to be a strong possibility that all these will eventually get the
disease and die of it. I believe that scruples about universal
examination and isolation will take over before the number of
deaths from AIDS exceeds double the number who die in traffic
accidents, i.e. before the number of deaths exceeds 100 thousand
per year. That should happen in about 3 or 4 years.
There is a strong possibility that although the consensus of the
meeting that Centers for Disease Control was against anything but
education, CDC and the surgeon general will in fact take a more
sensible and activist position. Congress will move as soon as
three Congressmen have died. According to the Stanford Daily,
the first faculty member to die of AIDS has just done so.
A system of semi-annual certificates of non-infection will probably work
and allow non-monogamous sex to continue with moderate safety.
While there is a latent period between infection and the appearance
of antibodies, AIDS is apparently not very infectious, so that
the probability of infection from a single sexual encounter is
not large.
I believe that even Africa will save itself, although African
countries may lose 10 or more percent of their populations.
If the worst fears about an infection being always fatal are
realized, but only the present means of infection exist, AIDS
will probably be wiped out in 20 years, but it will require
an effort like that devoted to smallpox.
All bets are off if AIDS acquires the infectiousness of influenza,
say through recombination with it. Then the advanced societies would have
to undertake severe forms of mechanical isolation including shutting down
schools and preventing travel, and the primitive countries might really
die off. However, this kind of thing doesn't seem to have occurred in the
past.
As I said in the beginning, I'd bet on a cure or vaccination, though
not necessarily soon enough to save the three million.
∂04-Mar-87 0012 JMC double-crossing the "peace movement"
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
As has happened before, the Soviets have double-crossed the "peace
movement", which said that unless we gave up the Pershings and
cruise missiles, the Soviets would agree to nothing, and more
recently that unless we give up SDI, the Soviets will agree
to nothing. Reagan's policies have finally led to Soviet proposals
that are apparently worth actually negotiating about.
In particular, they are apparently willing to negotiate the
removal of the SS-20s, which were the reason for the Pershings
and cruise missiles.
However, it seems to me that the Stanford arms control paper
excusing Soviet violations of previous treaties will require
the Reagan Administration to take a particularly tough stand
on verification. There is no point in the U.S. negotiating
a treaty if the Soviets can feel that any violations they
may make will be defined away by prominent Americans.
∂04-Mar-87 1129 JMC re: Faculty AIDS Cases
To: SIEGMAN@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 4 Mar 87 08:04:33-PST.]
One could imagine that it might not have been pointless. Suppose he
actually died of an infection to which AIDS made him more susceptible.
While exotic infections are diagnostic of AIDS, I suppose people
with AIDS also can carry ordinary infections to which other people
are susceptible.
∂04-Mar-87 1446 JMC rams, etc
To: llw@MORDOR.S1.GOV
I'm trying to get you on the phone to talk about several things; (1) the
fact that I find myself defending the computer aspects of SDI from
insufficient information, (2) whether the S-1 project has some 256K rams
that the Chudnovskys might borrow, and (3) whether you would like to get
together for dinner some time.
∂04-Mar-87 1649 JMC re: Procedure for volunteering to organize a workshop
To: rosenberg%hplsr@HPLABS.HP.COM
[In reply to message sent Wed, 25 Feb 87 17:46:21 PDT.]
Here's the brochure.
Workshops in AI sponsored by AAAI.
AAAI will sponsor workshops in particular areas of AI. So far more
than 15 have been sponsored. The format is not prescribed except that
this program does not sponsor large conferences.
Here are some policies.
1. Up to $10K can be approved per workshop.
2. No honoraria for speakers or overhead to institutions will be paid.
3. Any workshop emphasizing commercial technology must be neutral
among the suppliers of relevant technology, e.g. people from the
different suppliers should be contacted and should have equal opportunity
to submit papers.
4. Proposals should be sent to
John McCarthy.
4. Electronic mail to JMC@SU-AI.STANFORD.EDU is preferred, but U.S.
mail to
Professor John McCarthy
Computer Science Department
Stanford, CA 94305
will also work. If you get impatient you can phone (415)723-4430.
5. Proposals should contain approximations to the following:
a. budget.
b. subject, detailed enough to evaluate relevance to AI
and possible overlap with other workshop proposals.
c. conditions of participation including how papers
and attendees are to be selected.
d. when and where if this is known.
6. Correspondence should be copied to AAAI-OFFICE@SUMEX.STANFORD.EDU
or to
Ms. Claudia Mazzetti, Executive Director
AAAI
445 Burgess St.
Menlo Park, CA 94025
You can phone her at (415)328-3123.
7. After McCarthy has approved the proposal further arrangements should
be made with Mazzetti at the AAAI office. This includes transfer of
money and possible help with publicity and workshop preprints and
publication.
8. After the workshop is finished there should be a report suitable
for publication in AI Magazine.
∂04-Mar-87 1651 JMC Sowa
To: LES
∂04-Mar-87 1648 WIEDERHOLD@Score.Stanford.EDU Sowa
Received: from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 4 Mar 87 16:48:32 PST
Date: Wed 4 Mar 87 16:46:09-PST
From: Gio Wiederhold <WIEDERHOLD@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Sowa
To: jmc@Sail.Stanford.EDU
cc: wiederhold@Score.Stanford.EDU
Message-ID: <12283814098.34.WIEDERHOLD@Score.Stanford.EDU>
I received a copy of John Sowa's inquiry re expenses.
If we can put the stipend in an unrestricted fund in his name,
then he can draw on it and it would not be taxable income.
Gio
-------
∂04-Mar-87 1654 JMC re: Sowa
To: WIEDERHOLD@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, LES@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 4 Mar 87 16:46:09-PST.]
I am now out of the loop concerning the industrial lecturers for 87-88
and have therefore referred Sowa's letter and your note to Les. My
role is only to find lecturers and choose among them. After that
I refer matters to the Department, namely Les.
∂04-Mar-87 2059 JMC
To: LES
I have no comment on the agreement with the Computer Museum.
∂04-Mar-87 2155 JMC AIDS
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
This article illustrates the blind stupidity and stubborness of the "gay
rights" advocates and the ACLU - also their present political clout. Note
their opposition to contact tracing and their success in preventing
contact tracing among homosexuals. It isn't mentioned in the article that
contact tracing has been routine for decades in case of ordinary venereal
diseases. Another factor of three increase in deaths will probably
suffice to overcome this opposition.
Here's the key quote for those not wishing to read the whole thing.
''When there's no cure, the question is what are you going to
accomplish through contact tracing that you can't accomplish through
less onerous, less time-consuming and less expensive means,'' said
Ben Schatz of the National Gay Rights Advocates.
It should be evident that contact tracing finds people who may be
infected but whose sex partners may not be infected yet.
a276 1850 04 Mar 87
BC-AIDS-Contact Tracing, Adv 08,1230
$Adv08
For Release Sunday, March 8, and Thereafter
Debate over Contacting AIDS Victims' Partners
An AP Extra
EDITOR'S NOTE - As AIDS spreads, the concerns it raises are not only
those of health but increasingly of ethics. This story, looking at
government efforts to trace victims' sex partners, is the first of an
intermittent series examining moral quandaries surrounding AIDS.
---
By DAVE CARPENTER
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Health officials in California, Colorado,
Minnesota and Wisconsin are locating and confronting heterosexuals
with shocking news, that they have been exposed to the lethal AIDS
virus through past sex partners.
The ethics of tracing partners of victims of the often sexually
transmitted disease are being debated as the death toll from acquired
immune deficiency syndrome mounts and the epidemic spreads in the
general population.
Most public health agencies avoid so-called contact tracing, citing
cost and confidentiality.
Many doctors, however, urge that AIDS victims be asked to identify
sexual partners so potential virus carriers can be tested and
cautioned not to spread the disease unwittingly.
Dean Echenberg, who started the nation's first contact tracing
program in the San Francisco health department, says the alternative
is ''to just let the blind rivulets of the disease spread through our
society.''
But critics, including health agencies and gay and civil rights
groups, contend such identification would only target the recipients
for discrimination because of the stigma associated with AIDS. They
urge public education instead.
''When there's no cure, the question is what are you going to
accomplish through contact tracing that you can't accomplish through
less onerous, less time-consuming and less expensive means,'' said
Ben Schatz of the National Gay Rights Advocates.
''It doesn't do any good to terrify people.''
Yet the advance of AIDS, which destroys the body's ability to fight
infections and has already killed 18,000 people in the United States,
is itself terrifying.
The federal government estimates that up to 1.5 million Americans
have been infected with the AIDS virus, and various estimates say
one-fifth to one-third of those with AIDS antibodies will develop the
disease, which can incubate for years without obvious symptoms.
Antibodies are substances manufactured by the body to defend against
invading microorganisms.
AIDS spreads when virus-bearing body fluids from an infected person
enter the bloodstream of another person. The main risk groups remain
intravenous drug abusers and male homosexuals, but an increasing
number of heterosexual cases is being reported.
Ronald Bayer of the Hastings Center in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y.,
which addresses medical ethics, called the scarcity of contact
tracing programs ''foolish.''
''No system of confidentiality is utterly foolproof,'' he said.
''But people have a right to know they've been infected, as much a
right as a worker in a factory who's been exposed to a toxic
substance. And from the point of view of public health and public
safety it just has to occur.''
Initial protests branded the programs ''Orwellian,'' but Beth
Dillon, manager of the tracing program in Colorado, says there's no
way to compel participants to give information about partners they
don't wish to be notified.
The federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta has not
recommended contact tracing but has been re-examining the issue.
San Francisco's 2-year-old tracing program, like others, focuses on
locating heterosexuals who may be carrying the AIDS virus. Tracing is
considered unfeasible with male homosexuals because many have had
large numbers of partners and less effective because virtually all
are aware of the risk.
Heterosexual carriers are easier to track. In a project sponsored by
the state and the University of California, infected women studied
were described by project director Nancy Padian as ''middle-class and
not particularly promiscuous,'' most catching the virus in long-term,
monogamous relationships.
Heterosexuals account for only 4 percent of the 31,000 reported AIDS
cases, according to federal health officials. But the figure has
climbed from less than 1 percent in late 1985 and by 1991 is expected
to reach 10 percent - 27,000 cases.
Working out of a small office near City Hall, Christine Geoghegan
obtains lists of reported AIDS cases, primarily men who are
heterosexual or bisexual, and asks them to identify any heterosexual
partners since 1979. She then informs the contacts, suggests they be
tested for AIDS antibodies and offers counseling.
So far, seven of 27 people tested have been carrying AIDS
antibodies.
''This is very new information for the straight community,'' said
Ms. Geoghegan. ''People are shocked; the tears come later. Many of
them have had children, and they'll ask, 'Am I going to die? Is my
baby OK?' ...
''It's a tough job. You get emotionally involved in people's
lives.''
California's law on confidentiality of medical information ensures
anonymity for those testing positive for AIDS antibodies.
But nine states require that the names of those with positive test
results be reported to health officials. The states are Arizona,
Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, South
Carolina and Wisconsin, said Richard Merritt, director of the
Intergovernmental Health Policy Project at George Washington
University.
Efforts in eight other states to establish similar requirements
failed last year, he said.
Pilot programs for contact tracing are getting started in Colorado,
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Bayer of the Hastings Institute applauds their efforts but urges
they go further, tracing not only the contacts of AIDS patients but
also the partners of those testing positive for AIDS antibodies.
The American Civil Liberties Union opposes either form of contact
tracing. It has successfully fought legislation in Illinois to
require AIDS testing in order to obtain a marriage license.
''People should take responsibility for their own health,'' said
ACLU board member Anne Jennings. ''It's responsible for people to
inform their partners, but it's not appropriate for the government to
be doing it.''
Contact tracing opponents say the potential for discrimination
starts with notification that someone has tested positive for the
antibodies.
''You cannot keep information about AIDS secret these days,'' said
Schatz.
A San Francisco man recently sued a doctor, two lawyers and an
insurance company, claiming they illegally disclosed he had tested
positive. A Florida woman claims she was fired after telling a
co-worker she tested positive, and a divorced man tested positive and
was refused permission to see his children.
Michael Callen, a New York AIDS patient, says the cost of contact
tracing could siphon off funds for AIDS research.
''If everybody's supposed to be practicing safe sex anyway, then
what's the point of contact tracing?'' Callen asks. ''It doesn't seem
very logical, and the threats to people's jobs and insurability are
real.''
Contact tracing is not done in New York, which has the greatest
number of heterosexual AIDS patients, because of perceived problems
with confidentiality, according to a city health official who spoke
on condition of anonymity.
Mervyn Silverman, president of the American Foundation for AIDS
Research and San Francisco's former health director, said the
benefits of contact tracing nonetheless outweighed the risks.
''You have an opportunity to control the disease's spread where
individuals (heterosexuals) have no inkling that they're infected. We
have people out there who are walking time bombs. We've got to do
something about it.''
End Adv for Sunday, March 8
AP-NY-03-04-87 2149EST
***************
∂04-Mar-87 2208 JMC re: Scoundrels
To: STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA, su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU,
comments@SRI-KL.ARPA
[In reply to message from STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA sent Wed 4 Mar 87 20:44:28-PST.]
Each of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
and The Quotation Dictionary edited by Robin Hyman has it. Also Boswell's
"Life of ... ".
∂04-Mar-87 2334 JMC re: AIDS
To: R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU sent Wed 4 Mar 87 22:30:40-PST.]
Oh, well, Schatz is a lawyer, i.e. a mouthpiece. He will find arguments
for any damn fool position his clients have taken until they change it.
Then he will find arguments for the new position.
The fact that the "gay community" takes a position in favor of "safe sex"
doesn't imply that the law and public policy should presume that everyone
will act accordingly. Promptly and ruthlessly tracing the contacts of all
cases of AIDS will save many hundreds of thousands of lives. Random
sampling will save many more hundreds of thousands. Universal compulsory
testing for the AIDS virus repeated at intervals of some months may be
required in spite of the inconvenience to the sexually inactive or the
totally monogamous. A system of AIDS virus free certificates will also
work. Because the disease has no non-human host, so far as we know,
it can be wiped out by such methods, but the longer the delay, the
greater the number who will die.
Incidentally, are you writing as an individual or as spokesman for
a group? There is nothing wrong with being a spokesman, but it would
be nice to know.
∂05-Mar-87 0200 JMC re: Does JMC speak on behalf of the John Birch Society?
To: R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU sent Thu 5 Mar 87 01:00:21-PST.]
It looks like my question about whether Roland was acting as a spokesman
was relevant, since he has in the past. I'll answer his. No, I'm not
a spokesman for any group; alas there is no group to share the work.
If he conjectures that I speak for the John Birch society, he should
look at that group's literature to see what a real spokesman for it
would be like. By the way it may not still exist.
I'm not convinced by the argument that there is no point in tracing
contacts because there is no treatment to be offered, and I worry that
this argument coming from state medical officials represents a desire
not to offend a "victim" group. Putting pressure
to limit exposure is important enough to justify contact tracing.
Second I believe that safeguards against discrimination against
homosexuals and others on the basis of their sex life
can be found. On the other hand, I believe that rather strong
measures to limit the spread of AIDS are justified, and that
may involve considerable inconvenience to those found to be
infected adding to their existing troubles and worries.
∂05-Mar-87 1113 JMC re: Book bannings
To: STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA, comments@SRI-KL.ARPA,
su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from STEINBERGER@SRI-KL.ARPA sent Thu 5 Mar 87 07:52:04-PST.]
While I happen to agree with the sentiment the fundamentalists want to
ban, I understand their reasoning. They're just getting back at the
people who use the legal system to ban all trace of the bible and religion from
school books. The phrase "Nothing was meant to be" takes a position
explicitly in opposition to most religions that refer to "God's purposes
on earth". If the latter phrase can be banned, it would seem only fair
to ban the former. The fundamentalist gimmick is to call "secular humanism"
a religion. Why not? The phrase in question certainly teaches as true
a point of view opposed to that of religion in an area where almost all
religions are explicit, and it does so without even an indication that
the matter is controversial.
My own opinion is that the purge of religious material from textbooks was
misguided and an abuse of power, specifically the power to manipulate the
legal system. It also tends to cut children off from an important part of
American historical culture. It is would be better to have texts with
quotations both from the bible and Robert Ingersoll where appropriate. We
should figure out a constitutional way to do it. Going back to older
interpretations of the Constitution would do it, but if that's too hard,
an amendment would also work.
The fact that religious symbolism was rife when I went to school did
not prevent me from remaining an atheist, while Madalyn O'Hair's
lawsuits to prevent her son from being exposed to religion in school
turned him into a Jesus freak.
∂05-Mar-87 1232 JMC
To: RA
larsen.1
∂05-Mar-87 1256 JMC tex fix
To: RA
mental.tex[f76,jmc] elicits a complaint about a non-existent font. It's
probably just the change of fonts that occurred a year ago. Please
fix it.
∂05-Mar-87 1556 JMC re: CS326
To: GINN@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 5 Mar 87 15:51:21-PST.]
You could certainly leave on the 23rd but maybe sooner. What's the
scheduled day of the final?
∂05-Mar-87 1913 JMC re: Inference Corp.
To: KOHEN@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 5 Mar 87 19:02:12-PST.]
Yes, Gutman is there, and the phone number is 213 417-7997.
∂05-Mar-87 2120 JMC re: "ROC flag"-continue
To: Crispin@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU, PAO@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
CC: su-etc@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from Crispin@SUMEX-AIM.Stanford.EDU sent Thu, 5 Mar 87 17:30:23 PST.]
I remain convinced that MRC's sources on Chinese history are biased. The
part about Chiang having lost because of U.S. policy is a red herring.
Moreover, it is certainly true that many intellectuals were seduced
by Mao's image just as they had previously been seduced by Stalin's.
American pro-communist propagandists played an important role, perhaps
even within China. One Taiwanese professor told me that he had become
pro-communist because of a Chinese translation of Edgar Snow's Red Star
over China and had only become disillusioned after the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution. However, MRC seems to me to be improving. Recently
he has said that free speech and electoral democracy are important. It
seems to me that he previously said that starving peasants have no need
for Western democracy - or something to that effect. Doubtless I
haven't got it quite right, and he'll set me straight.
He's also wrong about the Yugoslav Chetniks.
∂05-Mar-87 2142 JMC re: AIDS and contact tracing
To: L.LILITH@OTHELLO.STANFORD.EDU, gay@OTHELLO.STANFORD.EDU
CC: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from L.LILITH@OTHELLO.STANFORD.EDU sent Thu 5 Mar 87 13:45:18-PST.]
It seems from l.lilith's message that the style of debate on the mailing
list gay@othello tends to ad hominem remarks. However, I'll have to answer
that my style of life since I married again a few years ago doesn't put
me at risk of getting AIDS according to present knowledge. The remark
that the "non-gay community" not having been much concerned with AIDS
is an instance of "homophobia" seems to indicate a rather conventional
paranoia is characteristic of the gay@othello list. Most of America
is still rather unconcerned about AIDS or any other single hazard to
which they don't think themselves exposed. Why would you expect the
"non-gay community" to be greatly concerned, except for those whose
professional duties are affected by AIDS, until some danger for it
arises? The proposals for contact tracing are an expression of concern,
even if they are contrary to the opinion of the "gay community".
∂05-Mar-87 2204 JMC reply to message
To: CLT
[In reply to message rcvd 05-Mar-87 22:02-PT.]
I did. Timothy finished his bottle both last night and tonight. This
suggests a larger bottle.
∂06-Mar-87 0923 JMC re: The gay community and AIDS
To: N.NUTRASWEET@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU, gay@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU,
su-etc@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from N.NUTRASWEET@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU sent Fri 6 Mar 87 01:20:34-PST.]
No, I don't think homosexuality is a reason why anyone deserves to die.
When I said that three times the present number of deaths would probably
change opinions, I was thinking that this would bring the level of AIDS
deaths to the level of the automobile accident death rate which certainly
has made people think, although perhaps that took some years. It occurs
to me, however, that I was speculating in an area where there is probably
actual information. Namely, how many, if any, AIDS cases and deaths have
there been in the Stanford "gay community", and what effect has this had
on the way people in that community think about the problem? Since I
don't know anyone who has AIDS or even ARC, it is still substantially
a theoretical matter to me.
I have a further gloomy speculation about the effect of more deaths.
Namely, as fear spreads, any theory that makes the AIDS epedemic the result
of someone's deliberate action is more likely to win acceptance among
the fearful and especially among groups with "enemies".
With regard to evictions and other wrongful negative actions towards people
with AIDS exposure, I believe it can be kept well below five times
the number of lives saved. However, I worry about the following, and
the one doctor I asked (not involved in treating AIDS), said he hadn't
previously heard the question. While AIDS itself is not considered
contagious through ordinary association, damage to the immune system
would seem to make an AIDS victim a likely carrier of other diseases
that can so spread. I don't mean the exotic infections that are
diagnostic of AIDS because other people don't get them, but things
like influenza and measles and colds and hepatitis and meningitis.
Does anyone know anything about this?
The point is that this may warrant more isolation of people with AIDS
and ARC or at least making sure they don't work in hospitals or other
places with especially disease-prone populations. This presumably
doesn't apply to people who merely test positive for the virus and
even more doesn't apply to people who have mrely been exposed to it
but don't test positive.
∂06-Mar-87 1252 JMC
To: konolige@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA
Please send me a copy of your paper.
∂06-Mar-87 1318 JMC
To: RA
gelfon.re2
∂06-Mar-87 1508 JMC
To: RA
Also the review needs a cover letter.
∂07-Mar-87 1522 JMC re: Two questions
To: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from helen@Psych.Stanford.EDU sent Sat, 7 Mar 87 13:42:00 PST.]
It was explained to me that the X's were put there to show up on an
aerial photograph to be used to make an accurate map of the campus.
Because of small distortions in film, the map can be made more accurate
if the distances between X's are surveyed on the ground. I didn't see
a lot of surveyors out, so perhaps they will survey only as necessary.
Since some of the X's are fading, I presume the photographs have already
been made. I don't recall who told me, but it wasn't official.
∂07-Mar-87 1524 JMC re: Why it's not Eurasia
To: C.CEDRIC@OTHELLO.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from C.CEDRIC@OTHELLO.STANFORD.EDU sent Sat 7 Mar 87 14:28:23-PST.]
The range of mountains between Europe and Asia is labelled on any globe or
world map. Its name begins with U.
∂07-Mar-87 1533 JMC re: AIDS & opportunistic infections
To: R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from R.ROLAND@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU sent Sat 7 Mar 87 13:25:07-PST.]
Roland's previous message somewhat alleviated my concern about AIDS
patients serving as reservoirs for infections to which everyone is
susceptible. This message restores my concern, because it asserts that
people with AIDS are susceptible to the opportunistic infections but does
not assert that they are not especially susceptible to ordinary
infections. An increased susceptibility to ordinary infections would not
be diagnostic of AIDS but might well constitute a danger to others.
Anyway I didn't really understand the part of the previous message about
T-cells and B-cells and AIDS destroying T-cells but not B-cells. Is it
really true that the opportunistic infections that AIDS people get are
fought by exactly the T-cells and that all ordinary infections are fought
by exactly the B-cells? This seems strange, and I would be grateful for a
reference to an article explaining it.
∂07-Mar-87 1633 JMC trip
To: MS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
We are now thinking of the following revised schedule.
1. arrive Osaka Sunday March 29
visit Takasu and others Monday, March30
2. Kyoto-Sendai, Tuesday evening March 31
3. Sendai, April 1 to Sunday April 5
4. Sendai-Tokyo Friday evening
5. Tokyo visits,April 6-10.
6. Tokyo-San Francisco evening April 10 or April 11
This would mean changing the Sendai lecture date. If Fridays are
convenient, how about April 3. It's ok to tape my lecture, and
then we can see if it seems worth printing.
I haven't called Takasu yet.
If there is a strong reason to make the Sendai lecture on the 10th,
perhaps that will be possible, but the Tokyo dates argue for visiting
Sendai before Tokyo.
Carolyn is also prepared to give the talk she gave in Italy, and
I suppose she has common interests with you, Takasu and with Nori
Suzuki at least.
∂08-Mar-87 1601 JMC re: proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 08-Mar-87 10:50-PT.]
The new version of page 6 is good enough. I have made a few minor changes,
adding two or three explanatory sentences to various paragraphs.
The expert systems paper is in the file drawer where I keep copies of
my papers. It is also common.tex[e83,jmc], but it my be more trouble
than it's worth to integrate the tex macros used in that paper with
the ones being used for the proposal.
∂08-Mar-87 1602 JMC
To: VAL
Please make as much use of Rutie as you can in getting the proposal out.
∂09-Mar-87 1111 JMC re: proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 09-Mar-87 11:06-PT.]
I agree.
∂09-Mar-87 1111 JMC re: proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 09-Mar-87 11:06-PT.]
Maybe we should include one of your papers as well.
∂09-Mar-87 1129 JMC re: proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 09-Mar-87 11:23-PT.]
I think we can send what we have informally to DARPA, i.e. to Col. Simpson,
including a budget but not including the Rockwell addendum. The cover letter
should say that the final version will probably
include collaboration with Rockwell, but this is still being negotiated.
∂09-Mar-87 1540 JMC re: new course: Topics in Algebraic Computation
To: MAYR@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU,
reges@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, IGS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from MAYR@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Mon 9 Mar 87 15:15:31-PST.]
The solution you propose is ok, but I think the department then has to go
to considerable trouble to publicize the course, and I think the following
will work better even as a general policy. I believe that all courses
which we know will be given at the time the catalog copy is prepared for a
given year should be listed even when we only guarantee to give it once.
For example, this course could have the notation: commited only for
1987-88. I also think we should specify the quarter in advance, so
students can plan. The industry lecturer courses are all one shots, and
it seems to me that this works fine. The students know about them and the
department doesn't have to go to extra work to publicize them. My opinion
is that we should institute this policy immediately unless someone can
think of a reason not to do so.
∂09-Mar-87 1604 JMC
To: PJH
Do you still need a SAIL account?
∂09-Mar-87 1923 JMC re: new course: Topics in Algebraic Computation
To: REGES@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
CC: MAYR@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU,
IGS@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Mon 9 Mar 87 16:59:44-PST.]
Stuart's amendment improves my proposal.
∂10-Mar-87 0034 JMC China
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
The argument about Chinese history between MRC and the Chinese
is doubtless academic for many people. Exactly who fought better
and when against the Japanese in World War II and why the communists
won in 1949 and to what extent were the communists satellites of
Stalin at various times - is uninteresting for people who can barely remember
American history. Nevertheless there are some points worth making.
First of all, MRC's original rather solidly pro-Chinese communist view,
which I see as considerably modified in the last few years, was and
is characteristic of many Americans, especially liberals. It goes
back to the 1930s when pro-communist propaganda was a very successful
art. Perhaps the most successful practitioner of this art was an
American journalist, Edgar Snow, who wrote "Red Star over China"
about 1939. It was all about how incorruptible the communists were,
how feudal the Nationalists were, how the people loved the communists,
how they had successfully fought their way on the Long March from
southern to northern China, what great guys Mao, Chou En-Lai and Chu
Teh were, and how democratic they all were. It was very convincing.
Indeed one Taiwanese professor told me that he had read a Chinese
translation of "Red Star over China" in the late 1960s and it had
convinced him. Something later unconvinced him, and I suspect that
the same thing has substantially unconvinced MRC. Namely, most
foreign supporters of the Chinese communist, like foreign supporters
of the Soviet Union, only began to change their minds when the
communists themselves admitted faults. It was possible for them
to ignore the hundreds of thousands of refugees, to deny the
fact that the greatest famine in world history was a consequence
of the Great Leap Forward and to believe that everyone supported
the Cultural Revolution - after a little re-education anyway.
Still MRC hasn't given up completely and still is willing to bet
that the Chinese students who demonstrated for democracy are
still socialists at heart. My guess is that they are firmly
for the slogans they were shouting and that most of them don't
have definite opinions about socialism, recognizing that they
haven't had any opportunity to observe the alternatives and
probably not confident of the truth of what they have been told
about capitalism. It seems clear, however, that they want
electoral democracy and the right to run for office - even
against the communists.
I wouldn't worry much about the opinions of MRC and others of similar
views except for one thing. I fear they would have no objection to the
communists extending their rule to Taiwan by force. It isn't
question of our using our navy to defend Taiwan; we seem to have
abandoned that long ago. I fear a liberal American Administration
might recognize a communist blockade of Taiwan or something like
that.
Does MRC still believe that the Chinese communists deserve to be
able to extend their rule to Taiwan? Whatever other parts of this
message you respond to, please respond to this.
Let me give an extreme example. I just read in the Economist in the
CSD lounge that Taiwan has just passed Switzerland as the country
with the largest foreign exchange reserves in the world. They have
$48 billion, slightly more than twice what the U.S. has and about
$2400 per inhabitant. I suppose much of it is on deposit in U.S.
banks. Would MRC favor acceding to a communist demand that we
freeze these reserves or turn them over to them on the grounds
that we recognize them as the true government of China? If not
that, I hope, then what?
∂10-Mar-87 0055 JMC Asia
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
The 14th edition of the Britannica says that Asia "... has as its conventional
western boundaries the Ural mountains and the Ural river to the Caspian sea,
the Caucasus to the Black sea, the Mediterranean coasts of Asia Minor and the
Levant, and the Red sea."
"Asia" isn't defined politically or by geology but by the history of
the teaching of geography. I believe the word is of Greek origin but for
some reason the OED doesn't give its etymology nor does Webster's Third.
Since the word is so old, it could not originally have been precisely
defined, because the ancients didn't know how far the continent extended
to the East. I think I read somewhere that it originally meant what is
now called Asia Minor.
∂10-Mar-87 0424 JMC industrial lecturers
To: RA
∂10-Mar-87 0358 REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU industrial lecturers
Received: from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 10 Mar 87 03:58:25 PST
Date: Tue 10 Mar 87 03:57:22-PST
From: Stuart Reges <REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: industrial lecturers
To: jmc@Sail.Stanford.EDU
cc: dewerk@Score.Stanford.EDU
Office: CS-TAC 22, 723-9798
Message-ID: <12285247008.11.REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU>
John,
I notice from the catalogue materials that next year's industrial
lecturers will be Cynthia Dwork, Paul Haley, and John Sowa. I have added
PEOPLE entries for all three, but can you give us some contact information
for the database? Gerda DeWerk will be contacting them later this year to
process their appointments for next year.
-------
∂10-Mar-87 0424 JMC correction
To: RA
∂10-Mar-87 0401 REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU correction
Received: from SCORE.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 10 Mar 87 04:01:32 PST
Date: Tue 10 Mar 87 04:00:29-PST
From: Stuart Reges <REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: correction
To: jmc@Sail.Stanford.EDU
cc: dewerk@Score.Stanford.EDU
Office: CS-TAC 22, 723-9798
Message-ID: <12285247575.11.REGES@Score.Stanford.EDU>
On more careful reading I find that you did tell us:
John Sowa is from IBM Systems Research Institute
Cynthia Dwork is from IBM Almaden Research Center
Paul Haley is from Inference Corporation
If you have further contact info (e.g., phone numbers or email addresses),
please pass them along to Gerda.
-------
∂10-Mar-87 0518 JMC China
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
It is fortunate that the oriental mind operates on such different principles
that the western mind. Peacefully contemplating the prospect of people
of MRC's views determining the foreign policy of a future U.S. administration,
the oriental mind wonders how many refugees the U.S. would take, whereas
the rude and undisciplined western mind would take to wondering how much
of a deterrent what fraction of $48 billion would buy.
∂10-Mar-87 1113 JMC re: Proposal
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 10-Mar-87 10:37-PT.]
looks good
∂10-Mar-87 1304 JMC re: thursday
To: CLT
[In reply to message rcvd 10-Mar-87 12:43-PT.]
No problem.
∂10-Mar-87 1307 JMC
To: RA
I had created gelfon.re2 in 1,jmc by mistake. It's now in let,jmc.
∂10-Mar-87 1501 JMC Re: trip
To: CLT
∂10-Mar-87 1206 masahiko%nttlab.ntt.junet%utokyo-relay.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET Re: trip
Received: from RELAY.CS.NET by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 10 Mar 87 12:06:32 PST
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Date: Wed, 11 Mar 87 00:16:18 jst
From: Masahiko Sato <masahiko%nttlab.ntt.junet%utokyo-relay.csnet@RELAY.CS.NET>
Message-Id: <8703101516.AA04888@nttlab.ntt.junet>
To: JMC@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
In-Reply-To: John McCarthy's message of 07 Mar 87 1633 PST
Subject: Re: trip
Thank you for accepting to give a general talk at Tohoku University.
As you might know, in Japan, school year begins in April, and at Tohoku
University it begins on April 6. We are now having school holidays
until then. So, we would like to avoid to have your your talk before
April 7.
When I first talked with Nori Suzuki, he said that he would be
available anytime after April 6. Today, I talked with him again.
This timie he said that he would be available only on April 9 or 10.
He seems to be extemely busy. He also said that someone else at IBM
will welcome you even if he will be out.
Today I called Prof. Takasu. He said he would welcome you on March
30, but he would go to Tokyo on March 31.
According to Shigeki Goto, he and Ikuo Takeuti will welcome you on
April 2 or 3.
I understand that you will visit ICOT on April 7.
So, I think the following plan would satisfy all the conditions above.
1. March 29. Arrive Osaka.
2. March 30. Visit Prof. Takasu and others.
3. March 31 or April 1 or 2. Move from Kyoto to Tokyo.
4. April 2 or 3. Visit NTT.
5. April 6. Visit IBM.
6. April 7. Visit ICOT.
7. April 8. Move from Tokyo to Sendai in the moring, and see us in
the afternoon.
8. April 9. Your lecture for general audience.
9. April 10. Move from Sendai to Tokyo.
How do you think about this plan? You will be able to find time to
see Professor Goto in Tokyo. You can leave Tokyo either on April 10
or 11, and you will perhaps be able to see Nori Suzuki on April 10 if
you like.
Please let me know if this plan would be ok for you. Also let me know
the title of your talk at Tohoku Univ. Is the tentative title "Lisp
and AI" ok?
** masahiko **
P.S. By the way, are you and/or Carolyn interested in receiving
electronic mails while you will be in Japan. If you like, I will ask
Shigeki to set up accounts for you at NTT. Then by forwardin your
mails to NTT, you will be able to receive (and also send) mails when
you visit NTT and when you will be in Sendai.
∂10-Mar-87 1614 JMC re: EBOS
To: AIR
[In reply to message rcvd 10-Mar-87 14:09-PT.]
Even if there are not more than 256 characters used in a document,
they may not all come from a single "character set". Suppose, for example,
a document uses mathematical characters, Greek characters and Russian
as well as English and a few German letters. It was part of the basic
EBOS proposal to represent characters internally in the editor in such
a way that any set of characters could appear in a single document
and be displayed properly with the cursor moving commands working
properly.
∂10-Mar-87 1707 JMC re:
su-etc
AIDS patients as reservoirs of infection
No, I wasn't the person who used the phrase "latex sex". I remain
un-reasured about whether people with AIDS present a hazard of
transferring other infections. I would like some assurance, e.g.
a reference to a journal article, to show that the medical community
has considered the problem. It originally came to my mind in connection
with a court case about an anesthesiologist with AIDS resisting his
reassignment to duties not involving contact with patients. Let me
point out that hospitals sometimes contain immunosuppressed patients,
e.g. those having had transplants, and they are subject to at least
some of the opportunistic infections. I believe that the identification
of AIDS as a disease was facilitated by the fact that the first AIDS
patients came down with infections resembling those that had been
observed in people whose immune systems had been intentionally
suppressed so they wouldn't reject transplants. Maybe this situation
has been relieved by the use of Cyclosporin which only partially
suppresses the immune system.
∂10-Mar-87 1753 JMC re: The ROC.PRC debate
To: DLIU@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 10 Mar 87 17:45:24-PST.]
I would suggest you keep the Mainland visitors in mind in making points
and giving references. It would be interesting to know whether they
read the discussions. I can think of two reasons for their not taking
part. The first is that individuals don't feel free to do so. The
second is that the official communist line on these issues has a rigidity
that doesn't look good in debate. I would imagine that certain issues
are not even to be mentioned.
∂10-Mar-87 1709 JMC AIDS patients as reservoirs of infection
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
No, I wasn't the person who used the phrase "latex sex". I remain
un-reasured about whether people with AIDS present a hazard of
transferring other infections. I would like some assurance, e.g.
a reference to a journal article, to show that the medical community
has considered the problem. It originally came to my mind in connection
with a court case about an anesthesiologist with AIDS resisting his
reassignment to duties not involving contact with patients. Let me
point out that hospitals sometimes contain immunosuppressed patients,
e.g. those having had transplants, and they are subject to at least
some of the opportunistic infections. I believe that the identification
of AIDS as a disease was facilitated by the fact that the first AIDS
patients came down with infections resembling those that had been
observed in people whose immune systems had been intentionally
suppressed so they wouldn't reject transplants. Maybe this situation
has been relieved by the use of Cyclosporin which only partially
suppresses the immune system.
∂10-Mar-87 1952 JMC re: That is...
To: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from helen@Psych.Stanford.EDU sent Tue, 10 Mar 87 18:52:02 PST.]
According to the theory of the expansion of the universe that has been
accepted since the 1930s the expansion of the universe is analogous
to the galaxies being on the surface of an expanding balloon. The
expansion rate is therefore proportional to distance. Whether the
coefficient (one current estimate, if I remember correctly, is
50 km/sec per megaparsec) varies with time depends on refinements
of the theory, especially on the total amount of mass in the universe.
If there's enough, the rate declines with time and will eventually
stop and reverse. If there's not enough I think it still declines
but approaches a non-zero asymptotic value.
∂11-Mar-87 0105 JMC
To: VAL
Your final.tex now contains a draft of the whole exam.
∂11-Mar-87 0107 JMC re: K2
To: MOSSINGHOFF@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 11 Mar 87 00:13:19-PST.]
K2 is in Pakistan, Everest on the Nepal, Tibet border.
∂11-Mar-87 1500 JMC Another Macsyma-like situation.
To: LES
∂11-Mar-87 1457 rms@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU Another Macsyma-like situation.
Received: from PREP.AI.MIT.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 11 Mar 87 14:55:49 PST
Received: by PREP.AI.MIT.EDU; Wed, 11 Mar 87 18:01:49 EST
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 87 18:01:49 EST
From: rms@PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (Richard M. Stallman)
Message-Id: <8703112301.AA02937@prep.ai.mit.edu>
To: jmc@su-ai.arpa
Subject: Another Macsyma-like situation.
I have reports that BBN TCP was developed under an ARPA contract
that required the results to be given to ARPA, but that BBN is
refusing to do so and is licensing the software very expensively.
If BBN TCP were available, it might be very useful for the GNU project.
Perhaps your contacts at ARPA could tell you if there is any chance of this;
perhaps a request from you would encourage them to take action.
∂11-Mar-87 1514 JMC
To: browne@R20.UTEXAS.EDU
226. Epistemological Problems of Artificial Intelligence - Formalisms for
representing what a general intelligent program must know about the common
sense world including facts about causality, ability, knowledge and
action. Modes of rigorous and conjectural reasoning, especially
non-monotonic reasoning. Approximate theories and counterfactuals.
Connections with philosophy, especially philosophical logic and
epistemology. Some familiarity with first order logic will be assumed.
∂11-Mar-87 1548 JMC re: Course Proposal
To: RICHARDSON@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, shankar@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from RICHARDSON@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Wed 11 Mar 87 15:41:02-PST.]
The reason you don't know about it is that there isn't a proposal for
a new course. The proposal was for the development of interactive
theorem proving as a general course tool but especially for CS306
which Shankar will be teaching in the Fall.
∂11-Mar-87 1551 JMC re: Eurisko...
To: paddstep@PORTIA
[In reply to message sent Wed, 11 Mar 87 15:46:42 PST.]
The author of this program is Douglas Lenat. Articles can be located
using Computing Reviews in the library. Lenat is at MCC in Austin,
Texas. He can be reached there.
∂11-Mar-87 1831 JMC re: Poverty In America
To: R.REMRECKONING@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU,
su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from R.REMRECKONING@LEAR.STANFORD.EDU sent Wed 11 Mar 87 16:51:07-PST.]
In 1964 when Goldwater ran for President he grumbled about the Government
spending 15 billion dollars per year on welfare. Now we spend even more
on various kinds of welfare than on defense, and yet the poverty problem
is said to be worse than it was then. Perhaps neither REMRECKONING nor
anyone else knows how to spend money on curing poverty without making
it worse.
∂11-Mar-87 1843 JMC religion and science
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Various messages have tried to delimit the kinds of questions
addressable by science and religion. Looking at religion
historically this is an anachronism. As far as I can see
religion started simply as unsuccessful science and engineering.
It assumed that natural phenomena like the weather and social
phenomena like success in war were caused by the action of gods,
i.e. the deliberate actions of powerful human-like personalities.
It further assumed that the gods could be influenced by humans
by prayer and sacrifice. Human thinking, when undisciplined
by the scientific method, is capable of enormous wishful thinking
and misinterpretation of evidence, so that the rituals of the
various religions were considered to be of confirmed effectiveness
in getting one's way in the material world. In its battles
with science religion has been steadily obliged to retreat, and
its current core is indeed concentrated on questions science doesn't
try to answer - perhaps because they have no clear meaning.
However, residues of what might be called "religious engineering"
still exist, and it requires a certain amount of fast talking
to advocate prayer for material goals, e.g. someone's safety,
without accepting suggestions to compare the effectiveness
of the prayers of different religions or the old suggestion of
comparing the health of the British royal family for whom
millions used to pray with the health of ordinary rich people.
∂11-Mar-87 2104 JMC re: want to help name my sister's child?
To: MACMILK@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from MACMILK@Score.Stanford.EDU sent Wed 11 Mar 87 20:00:01-PST.]
I once asked a friend if he had minded having his somewhat unusual first name.
"Not since I was 50", he replied.
∂11-Mar-87 2328 JMC Common LISP mail litht
To: RPG
∂11-Mar-87 2325 Olasov.StudentNS@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA Common LISP mail litht
Received: from MIT-MULTICS.ARPA by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 11 Mar 87 23:25:42 PST
Acknowledge-To: Olasov@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Date: Thu, 12 Mar 87 02:22 EST
From: Olasov@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Common LISP mail litht
To: JMC@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Message-ID: <870312072228.788846@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA>
Hello,
I'd like to be placed on the Common Lisp mailing list, and
I'm not sure who to contact about it.
If you're the appropriate conta[C[C, could you place me on
the list? If not, could you forward this mail to the
appropriate party. (T If you don't know who the appropriate
person to do this might be could you return this to my
return path. Thanks,
MULTICS.MIT.EDU>
∂12-Mar-87 0957 JMC re: CS326 final
To: RA
[In reply to message rcvd 12-Mar-87 09:09-PT.]
Go ahead.
∂13-Mar-87 1119 JMC re: Take Home final and unintended typos
To: GUNNING@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 13 Mar 87 08:59:12-PST.]
You're right.
∂13-Mar-87 1409 JMC
To: RA
OK, you can have it now.
∂13-Mar-87 1513 JMC re: Immune System Article
To: AI.CHRISSIE@R20.UTEXAS.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 13 Mar 87 17:03:23-CST.]
Thanks for the reference. I get National Geographic, and I believe I read
the article. While I don't remember all the details, I'm rather sure
that it didn't deal with the one question I raised. Is someone with AIDS
likely to be a carrier of ordinary infections in addition to those that are
diagnostic of AIDS because they only affect people with compromised
immune systems? This is relevant to the question of whether a hospital
that did so was justified in reassigning a doctor with AIDS to a position
not involving contact with patients. It might be especially important
to keep people with AIDS away from other people with compromised immune
systems.
∂13-Mar-87 1532 JMC lending Moravec's book to Les
To: RA
Assuming that "More than Robot" is the book I reviewed for Harvard, please
lend it to Les and put a note next to it in LIBRAR[1,jmc] that I have
lent it. This is how I propose to handle loans in the future.
∂13-Mar-87 1736 JMC re: Performance Evaluations
To: BSCOTT@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 13 Mar 87 16:02:27-PST.]
Maybe I have missed something, but I don't think I know exactly what
performance evaluations I am expected to provide.
∂13-Mar-87 2014 JMC re: Law *requiring* firearms!
To: JACOBS@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU, SINGH@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
CC: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from JACOBS@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Fri 13 Mar 87 19:09:19-PST.]
Jacobs doesn't remember correctly. Morton Grove passed a law forbidding
(not merely registering) hand guns, not firearms in general. Here's where
I may not correctly, but I believe it was only hand guns that were forbidden.
Kennesaw passed its law later.
∂13-Mar-87 2053 JMC re: Job offer
To: brink@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 13 Mar 87 20:46:52-PST.]
Most likely. Let's talk about it. Unfortunately, I want to postpone
scheduling a meeting till I see how much of next week's Common Lisp
meeting I want to attend. Most likely, it won't be much, and Tuesday
would be good around 1pm. Perhaps we should tentatively set it for
then, and I'll send you a message Monday night if I want to change it.
∂13-Mar-87 2149 JMC expert on women's gymnastic
To: scholz@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
I seem to recall your saying that you formerly did gymnastics. If
it isn't so maybe you know the answer anyway. I expect to be at
a meeting with Hubert Dreyfuss and intend to argue with his concept
of expert knowledge necessarily involving practice. It occurred
to me that a good counterexample might be a fat middle aged man
who was an expert on women's gymnastics, and I vaguely recall that
the man who trained Nadia Comenici was such. Is it so? If it is,
I would like to get a picture of him - and a picture of one of his
star pupils. I'd have transparencies made. Maybe there is a book
that would have such pictures.
∂13-Mar-87 2230 JMC
To: RA
comm.1 needs to be addressed to the Editor of Communications of the ACM.
∂13-Mar-87 2259 JMC
To: RA
Please find out if IJCAI-1 is available from Morgan-Kaufman - or where.
∂14-Mar-87 1308 JMC
To: RA
oliver.2 and please check the zip code of HP labs on Page Mill.
∂14-Mar-87 1322 JMC negotiations with Gibbons
To: DEK@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
I don't think it is proper for you to negotiate with Gibbons about
more theory slots independent of the department as seems to be
indicated by Guibas's message about the results of the theory search.
∂14-Mar-87 1840 JMC re: Spring financing
To: TEICH@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sat 14 Mar 87 18:29:04-PST.]
I will ask John Nafeh of MAD Intelligent Systems whether he is interested
in talking to you. Actually I have already just asked his answering machine.
∂14-Mar-87 2131 JMC 2 things
To: CLT
1. I'll be out wed eve.
2. With the window open, it got too cold in T's room. He
protested, and now he has much to say. If you want window open,
I'll open it after he goes to sleep.
∂15-Mar-87 0931 JMC re: 326 final
To: RLG
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Mar-87 00:26-PT.]
The ordering of situations is a partial order, so that if two situations
are not related by a chain of results, neither s1 ≤ s2 nor s2 ≤ s1 holds.
∂15-Mar-87 1337 JMC re: final
To: RLG
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Mar-87 13:28-PT.]
I'll have to think further about your question then. Unfortunately, I
have no way of communicating with the class as a whole, so I'm reluctant
to discuss the matter. However, if you think the question as stated
doesn't lead to a useful formalization, the best solution would be
to describe the situation as you see it and go for the most useful
formalization.
∂15-Mar-87 1423 JMC re: typo? on final
To: RLG
[In reply to message rcvd 15-Mar-87 14:20-PT.]
Several people have noticed that typo; they have all noted the fix
and proceeded.
∂16-Mar-87 0939 JMC
To: CLT
Scherlis is on hi way to see you.
∂16-Mar-87 0942 JMC re: hi
To: AI.BOYER@MCC.COM
[In reply to message sent Mon, 16 Mar 1987 10:43 CST.]
I am looking forward to your reactions to the material. I have
neither requests nor complaints at present. J. Browne's proposals
to me are very generous. We will be there barring an unexpected
hitch in his arrangements with Carolyn.
∂16-Mar-87 1045 JMC banana slug
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Clearly U.C. Santa Cruz should move to Gurneville.
GUERNEVILLE, Calif. (AP) - Participants in the eighth annual Slug
Fest didn't need strong jaws so much as strong stomachs.
The event Sunday included slug-eating contests, slug races and the
sampling of gourmet dishes prepared with the slimy creature,
including Szechwan Slug and Strawberry Almond Slug Shortcake.
To wash it all down, there were vodka martinis with a twist of slug.
Sebastopol Councilwoman Anne Magnie drew loud chants of ''Eat it!''
when she hesitated on the ''Slug-Ka-Bob,'' skewered slug with bits of
fruit and vegetables.
Municipal Court Judge Mark Tansil allowed that he actually likes
slugs. ''I'm into cruel and unusual punishment,'' he said.
''That salad was horrible. That's got to be a felony offense,''
Sonoma County Sheriff Dick Michaelsen said of Sezchwan Slug.
Michaelsen, one of the judges for the festival at the Guernewood
Lodge, said that no matter what cooks do to them, slugs ''are slimy
creatures and they feel that way going down your throat.''
∂16-Mar-87 1048 JMC AIDS
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
It's a good thing the world isn't all one country.
High-Risk Groups Targeted for AIDS Screening in Europe
By ROBERT GLASS
LONDON (AP) - Some European countries have begun or plan selective
medical screening of high-risk groups for AIDS, prompting complaints
of discrimination and invasion of privacy.
Proponents say selective blood tests are needed to halt the rapid
spread of the acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but civil
liberties groups say it violates the rights of homosexuals,
prostitutes, drug abusers and foreigners.
A survey by Associated Press bureaus in Europe indicates that most
governments have rejected mass screening in favor of health-education
campaigns. Nationwide screening programs are confined mainly to
voluntary tests for antibodies to the AIDS virus in donated blood and
transplant organs.
Nevertheless, some authorities have opted for selective and, in some
cases, compulsory testing:
-The West German state of Bavaria has adopted sweeping measures
requiring compulsory screening of all homosexuals, prostitutes,
inmates, applicants for public-service jobs and foreigners from
outside the European Economic Community from seeking residency.
-Belgium has announced it will require foreign students, most of
them from central Africa, to submit to annual blood tests for AIDS.
Finland has similar plans, and Finns who study abroad would also be
tested for AIDS on their return.
-Turkey has ordered AIDS screening of all prostitutes and
homosexuals, and officials say at least 5,000 have been tested in
Istanbul alone since December.
-Austria also has included tests for AIDS in regular health checkups
given licensed prostitutes.
-The French Health Ministry has said it will soon require AIDS
screening for applicants for marriage licenses to protect unborn
children.
The number of AIDS cases in Europe reported to the World Health
Organization has nearly tripled in the past 18 months: from 1,573
through September 1985 to 4,559 as of this past March 5.
Twenty-seven European countries now have reported AIDS, up from 21
in 1985.
Compared with the United States, where as of Feb. 23 there had been
31,036 reported AIDS cases, including 17,851 deaths, the figures from
Europe are small. But the disease is following the U.S. pattern in
Western Europe, with a doubling of cases every nine to 11 months, and
experts are forecasting a European epidemic.
AIDS cripples the immune system, leaving victims vulnerable to
infections and cancers. It is invariably fatal and is spread through
sexual contact or exchange of blood, as can occur when drug addicts
share needles. Male homosexuals, prostitutes and intravenous drug
users are most at risk.
With no cure or vaccine expected for at least five years,
large-scale screening has been proposed by some as the only possible
way to protect the uninfected population.
A Harris poll published by London's Observer newspaper in November
found 63 percent of the public favored compulsory nationwide AIDS
screening. Eighty-two percent of the 1,050 people surveyed said all
visitors to Britain should be tested.
Britain's chief medical officer, Dr. Donald Acheson, told a
parliamentary committee that the government is considering screening
visitors from high-risk countries, presumably central Africa, where
the disease is widespread.
He also said officials were considering anonymous tests for the AIDS
virus among hospital patients to determine trends and prevalence of
the disease. Under the proposal, patients would not be told the
results of the tests.
Marie Staunton, legal officer for Britain's National Council for
Civil Liberties, said in an interview that her group opposed any
screening that could involve coercion or invasion of privacy.
''The problem with compulsory screening is that it is impracticable
to screen everybody, so to screen targeted groups would further
expose groups that already suffer from prejudice, such as gay men, to
further prejudice,'' Ms. Staunton said.
AIDS experts convened in March by the World Health Organization in
Geneva rejected screening international travelers. They said it would
be too costly, impractical and possibly counterproductive.
Dr. Jonathan Mann, the American director of the organization's
special program on AIDS, said it can take weeks, or even months, for
antibodies to the AIDS virus to show up in the blood after a person
is infected. A negative result might be meaningless and could lead to
the abandonment of sexual precautions, he said.
But the Belgium government says it will go ahead with plans to
require all foreign students on state scholarships, as well as their
spouses and partners, to submit to annual blood tests for AIDS.
Of the 207 AIDS cases reported in Belgium, more than half - 113 -
have been among nationals from the former Belgian colonies of Zaire,
Rwanda and Burundi in central Africa.
Eighty-five percent of 1,262 foreign students studying in Belgium
are from central Africa.
Pierre Herbecq, spokesman for the Belgium's Human Rights League,
denounced the program as racially discriminatory because it primarily
affects black students. ''The government picks on one group when
there are others'' at risk, he said.
In West Germany, the radical Greens party accused the right-wing
Bavarian government of introducing draconian screening measures in an
attempt to justify discrimination against homosexuals and members of
other known high-risk groups.
''The testing of so-called AIDS suspects is something we find
particularly reprehensible since it leads simply to social
denunciation and discrimination of undesirable fringe groups,''
Greens spokeswoman Heike Wilms-Kegel told reporters.
But in France, the hardest-hit European country with 1,253 AIDS
cases, there has been little opposition to the Health Ministry's plan
to include AIDS screening in pre-marriage health checks. A positive
result would not prohibit anyone from getting married, even though
pregnant women can pass the virus to unborn children.
Municipal officials Vienna, Austria, have acknowledged carrying out
secret AIDS screening among applicants for city jobs and patients at
some hospitals. But the councilman for health, Alois Stracher, denied
a report in the newsmagazine Profil that names of those who tested
positively were stored in a computer.
Poland has screened 35,000 blood donors and 2,000 members of
high-risk groups for AIDS, even though the country has reported only
one death. Jerzy Bonczak, the deputy health minister, said there are
plans to test about 1.5 million people by mid-1988, including Poles
who have lived in central Africa, the United States and Western
Europe.
∂16-Mar-87 1242 JMC
To: RA, LES, VAL
simpso.2[let,jmc] is a draft cover letter for the DARPA proposal.
∂16-Mar-87 1609 JMC re: please verify
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 16 Mar 87 14:57:29-PST.]
I'd like to include the first IJCAI Research Excellence Award of 1985,
especially since they decided not to give an award at the 1987 IJCAI on
the grounds that the nominees weren't up to the standard of the first one.
∂16-Mar-87 1639 JMC re: course on interactive proof checkers etc
To: MAYR@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 16 Mar 87 14:15:06-PST.]
I didn't have in mind a specific new course or I would have gone
through the curriculum committee. What I had in mind was that
the computer aided theorem proving used in CS306 and sometimes
in CS326 was inadequately user friendly resulting in too high
a ratio between work required to get the computer to accept the
proof and what was learned by the exercise. It seemed to me that
big improvements could be made and that Shankar could do it, and
he turned out to want to do it. Maybe a new course is desirable,
and Shankar will want to propose one. Anyway Shankar will teach
CS306 in the Fall and could use whatever he's got by then. I hope
the Department will support the request for support. It now occurs
to me that we may have lost this possibility by our move to the
Engineering School and that we are still getting H and S propaganda
by mistake.
∂16-Mar-87 1649 JMC
To: RPG
08-17 22 Moscow meeting
∂16-Mar-87 1720 JMC
To: AIR
03-19 1pm, Mark Wegman, EBOS review
∂16-Mar-87 1803 JMC re: ``We present you now Professor Twist...''
To: PLAMBECK@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 16 Mar 87 17:50:17-PST.]
Why not, Ogden Nash, accurately? As I remember, it was "Trustees
exclaimed `he never bungles'" There are other errors of which
I am less sure.
∂16-Mar-87 1810 JMC workshop support
To: ZM@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, mazzetti@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
Zohar:
Here are the guidlines. So far as I know from what you said, your
plan is in accordance with it. Please check them and make sure.
Then call Claudia Mazzetti at AAAI to arrange the details.
Workshops in AI sponsored by AAAI.
AAAI will sponsor workshops in particular areas of AI. So far more
than 15 have been sponsored. The format is not prescribed except that
this program does not sponsor large conferences.
Here are some policies.
1. Up to $10K can be approved per workshop.
2. No honoraria for speakers or overhead to institutions will be paid.
3. Any workshop emphasizing commercial technology must be neutral
among the suppliers of relevant technology, e.g. people from the
different suppliers should be contacted and should have equal opportunity
to submit papers.
4. Proposals should be sent to
John McCarthy.
4. Electronic mail to JMC@SU-AI.STANFORD.EDU is preferred, but U.S.
mail to
Professor John McCarthy
Computer Science Department
Stanford, CA 94305
will also work. If you get impatient you can phone (415)723-4430.
5. Proposals should contain approximations to the following:
a. budget.
b. subject, detailed enough to evaluate relevance to AI
and possible overlap with other workshop proposals.
c. conditions of participation including how papers
and attendees are to be selected.
d. when and where if this is known.
6. Correspondence should be copied to AAAI-OFFICE@SUMEX.STANFORD.EDU
or to
Ms. Claudia Mazzetti, Executive Director
AAAI
445 Burgess St.
Menlo Park, CA 94025
You can phone her at (415)328-3123.
7. After McCarthy has approved the proposal further arrangements should
be made with Mazzetti at the AAAI office. This includes transfer of
money and possible help with publicity and workshop preprints and
publication.
8. After the workshop is finished there should be a report suitable
for publication in AI Magazine.
∂16-Mar-87 2128 JMC re: expert on women's gymnastic
To: SCHOLZ@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 16 Mar 87 19:58:06-PST.]
Many thanks. With the name of the coach and a suitable magazine I can set
Rutie looking for pictures.
∂16-Mar-87 2133 JMC pictures of gymnastics coach and pupil
To: RA
I need, well before the May Los Alamos meeting, a transparency of a male
coach of women's gymnastics and another of his star pupil performing. The
fatter and more unlikely that he could do gymnastics himself, the better.
However, Bela Carolli, mentioned below will do fine, and a picture of
Nadia Comenici would supplement it nicely. The magazines mentioned by
Karen Scholz are the places to look. There should be no printing on the
pictures.
∂16-Mar-87 2000 SCHOLZ@Sushi.Stanford.EDU Re: expert on women's gymnastic
Received: from SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU by SAIL.STANFORD.EDU with TCP; 16 Mar 87 20:00:03 PST
Date: Mon 16 Mar 87 19:58:06-PST
From: Karin Scholz <SCHOLZ@Sushi.Stanford.EDU>
Subject: Re: expert on women's gymnastic
To: JMC@Sail.Stanford.EDU
cc: SCHOLZ@Sushi.Stanford.EDU
In-Reply-To: Message from "John McCarthy <JMC@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU>" of Fri 13 Mar 87 21:49:00-PST
Message-ID: <12286994770.12.SCHOLZ@Sushi.Stanford.EDU>
john,
many gymnastics coaches are former gymnasts, but nadia's former coach,
bela carolli, is not, so he would be a good example for you to use. he is
large. i don't know if i would call him fat. he is currently coaching in
houston. i called his gym, but they don't have any publicity photos of
him to send out. magazines like 'international gymnast' have photos of
him coaching almost every month, however, so you could check the magazine
shops for a photo. 'sports illustrated' certainly had photos of him
during the olympics coverage this past olympics. (he was mary lou retton's
coach, too.) i'll check the -------
∂16-Mar-87 2134 JMC
To: RA
By transparency I mean an overhead projector transparency.
∂16-Mar-87 2352 JMC re: slugs, trees, eyes, and pelicans
To: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from helen@Psych.Stanford.EDU sent Mon, 16 Mar 87 20:17:44 PST.]
That's not by Ogden Nash; it's by Dixon Lanier Merritt, of course.
A wonderful bird is the pelican
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Food enough for a week,
But I'm damned if see how the helican.
∂17-Mar-87 0949 JMC re: kyoto
To: CLT
[In reply to message rcvd 17-Mar-87 09:44-PT.]
That's fine with me. Even though it doesn't involve a change of where we
spend the night, you should let Sato know, since we probably won't be
riding with Takasu.
∂17-Mar-87 1010 JMC re: expert on women's gymnastic
To: SCHOLZ@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 17 Mar 87 09:58:49-PST.]
Thanks again.
∂17-Mar-87 1212 JMC re: car sales
To: COWER@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from COWER@CSLI.Stanford.EDU sent Tue 17 Mar 87 09:31:52-PST.]
I'm not sure there is such a thing as "a bullet proof bill of sale", even
for a private sale. There certainly isn't for a car dealer. No matter
what is written in the bill of sale, it is possible for the buyer to claim
that this is all confusing "fine print". Printing the "fine print" large
won't help either. There are both laws and legal tradition on this.
Besides that, I think there are additional laws concerning the
responsibility of a seller for meeting smog requirements. A private party
selling something is in a different position from a dealer, of course.
Economics quiz question. What will the different legal position of
private sellers and dealers do to the car selling business? Hint: it
already has - to a minor extent.
∂17-Mar-87 1417 JMC reply to message
To: davism@NYU-CSD1.ARPA
[In reply to message sent Mon, 16 Mar 87 16:15:37 est.]
Two matters.
1. Pornographic programming.
I'm not sure what I had in mind precisely when I wrote that, but one thing
that occurs to me now is Paul Abrahams's use of the ERRORSET mechanism
as a means of non-local exit. Here's a small explanation of that. Consider
an S-expression with numbers as atoms and a program to multiply all these
numbers. A simple such Lisp program is:
(defun mult (x) (if (atom x) x (* (mult (car x)) (mult (cdr x))))).
This is not optimal if there is a high probability that at least one
of the atoms is 0. In that case we prefer that as soon as a 0 is found,
the whole computation terminate. In present Lisps, this can be written
(defun mult1 (x) (catch 'foo (mult2 x)))
(defun mult2 (x) (if (atom x) (if (zerop x) (throw 'foo 0) x)
(* (mult2 (car x)) (mult2 (cdr x))))).
The difference is that (catch <label> <expression>) evaluates
<expression>, but if (throw <label> <value>) occurs during the
evaluation of expression, then then the value of <value> is thrown
up, and the value of (catch <label> <expression>) is the value of
<value>.
catch and throw didn't exist when Abrahams wrote his proof checker,
so he invented using the error mechanism for this purpose. The Lisp
(pseudo)-function ERRORSET allowed the user to specify what the
value of an expression should be if an error occurred during the
evaluation of the expression, and this could be made to serve the
function of CATCH and THROW. I guess this was Abrahams's original
idea.
Incidentally, this relates programming and logic, because it is
necessary to extend the use logic to include expressions with
such non-local exits. My wife Carolyn Talcott treats such matters
in her 1985 PhD thesis, which she did with Feferman.
I'm sure I had other things in mind as well as pornographic. Here's
one more. LISP allows simple recursive definitions, and some of them
are tail recursive. For example,
(defun rev1 (u v) (if (null u) v (rev1 (cdr u) (cons (car u) v)))),
for example, (rev1 '(A B C) (D E F)) => (C B A D E F).
This should be compiled to a program with a simple loop that
doesn't use stack. However, many LISP compilers don't do it,
so a program using PROG though longer and more obscure is
actually more efficient when such a compiler is used. The longer
program is
(defun rev2 (u v) (prog (w z)
(setq w u)
(setq z v)
loop
(if (null w) (return z))
(setq z (cons (car w) z))
(setq w (cdr w))
(go loop))).
Relative to the first program, the second is pornographic.
2. An account purge is on at SAIL, and the question arises of whether
you still need your account here. Do you still use it, and what for?
∂17-Mar-87 1506 JMC
To: nilsson@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
I now have a library key. Thanks.
∂17-Mar-87 1611 JMC proposal
To: simpson@A.ISI.EDU
We sent you a new version Federal Express. The budget is
correct and includes just the AI part. The proposal as
sent, however, includes an obsolete version of Scherlis's
part. Please ignore that.
∂17-Mar-87 1949 JMC re: Lathrop spooling
To: ME
[In reply to message rcvd 17-Mar-87 19:05-PT.]
it was as you said.
∂17-Mar-87 2045 JMC
To: RA
grauba.4
∂17-Mar-87 2149 JMC
To: CLT
That was about 2 minutes, perhaps 4.
∂17-Mar-87 2235 JMC Grosof letter
To: RA
grosof.re1 should be the reply to various inquiries about Grosof
that are in my incoming mail and on my desk.
∂17-Mar-87 2316 JMC sarcasm, etc.
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
The debate between van Gaalen's team and Ginsberg's team about the exact
kind and degree of sarcasm, etc. appropriate on su-etc and who did what
to whom recently in violation of the standard needs to be abandoned or
made more systematic. If the latter I suggest that the battle be renewed
with an initial score of (0,0) - (0,0). A committee of neutrals should
be formed, e.g. with Hussein and MRC as co-chairmen, who will award both
touch'e points and demerits (the two components of each side's score)
for each message.
∂18-Mar-87 1146 JMC
To: RA
elepha[s80,jmc] should be converted to elepha.tex[s80,jmc].
∂18-Mar-87 1159 JMC course proposal
To: NSH@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: mayr@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
We have an appointment, if it is feasible with you, to discuss the
interactive proving course proposal with Ernst Mayr at 3pm tomorrow.
∂18-Mar-87 1205 JMC The following should go in the NSF proposal
To: RA
Recent and forthcoming publications:
{\bf McCarthy, John (1986)}:
``Applications of Circumscription to Formalizing Common Sense Knowledge''
{\it Artificial Intelligence}, April 1986
% circum.tex[f83,jmc]
{\bf McCarthy, John (1987)}:
``Review of {\it Artificial Intelligence --- The Very Idea} by John
Haugeland'' to appear in {\it SIAM Journal}.
% haugel[f86,jmc]
{\bf McCarthy, John (1987)}:
``Generality in Artificial Intelligence'', to appear in
a collection of Turing lectures published by ACM
% genera[w86,jmc]
{\bf McCarthy, John (1987)}:
``Logic in Artificial Intelligence'', to appear in
{\it Daedalus}.
% logic.2[w87,jmc]
\endgroup
∂18-Mar-87 1414 JMC
To: NSH
Mayr is free now.
∂18-Mar-87 1507 JMC
To: LES, JJW
∂18-Mar-87 1504 SJG Symbolic support
Hi John:
Do you want to join in on the maintenance deal that KSL/Logic are
arranging with Symbolics? Should I be talking to Les about this?
Matt
∂18-Mar-87 1508 JMC re: Symbolic support
To: SJG
[In reply to message rcvd 18-Mar-87 15:04-PT.]
I have referred the matter to Les and Joe Weening.
∂18-Mar-87 1540 JMC
To: CLT
03-22 Monday, 9am, Steve Hamstad, 329-6929, Allstate Insurance Adjuster
∂18-Mar-87 1544 JMC re: logic paper
To: SJG
[In reply to message rcvd 18-Mar-87 15:05-PT.]
∂18-Mar-87 1551 JMC
To: LES
Gosper is reachable at 494-9081 at night.
∂19-Mar-87 0949 JMC re: the newest mac millen...
To: MACMILK@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 19 Mar 87 09:02:14-PST.]
What will be remembered about Shiloh is not that it is an Indian
place name but that it is the name of a famous civil war battle.
Grant didn't do as well as in his other battles, allegedly because
he was drunk. The losses on both sides were very heavy. The
Southerners eventually retreated, but Grant's forces were in
no shape to pursue them.
∂19-Mar-87 1144 JMC re: research interests
To: TAJNAI@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 19 Mar 87 10:26:09-PST.]
I find writing self-praise embarrassing, and I'm puzzled why the
research interests brochure should concern itself with areas in
which a faculty member is no longer active. Crediting me with
coining AI suggests that a student should consult me if he is
interested in coining a word for a new field of science. However,
I have produced two short biographies for different purposes which
are appended. Note that they are slightly obsolete.
John McCarthy is Professor of Computer of Science at Stanford University
and one of the founders of artificial intelligence research. He invented
the LISP, the programming language most used in AI research and also
first proposed the general purpose time-sharing mode of using computers.
The emphasis of his AI research has been in identifying the common
sense rules that determine the consequences of actions and other events,
the expression of such rules and other common sense information as
sentences in logical languages in the data bases of artificial intelligent
programs. He has also worked on formalizing common sense reasoning,
and his recent work has concerned non-monotonic common sense reasoning.
He is President-Elect of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence
and a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Artificial Intelligence.
John McCarthy was born in Boston in 1927 and grew up there
and in Los Angeles. He received the B.S. in mathematics in 1948 from
the California Institute of Technology and the Ph.D. from Princeton
University in 1951 also in mathematics. He has taught at Princeton
Dartmouth, M.I.T. and at Stanford. He has been Professor of Computer
Science since 1962 and Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at
Stanford since 1965.
He is one of the founders of artificial intelligence research,
emphasizing epistemological problems, i.e. the problem of what information
and what modes of reasoning are required for intelligent behavior.
He originated the LISP programming language for computing with
symbolic expressions, was one of the first to propose and design
time-sharing computer systems, and pioneered in using mathematical
logic to prove the correctness of computer programs.
He has also written papers on the social implications of computer
and other technology.
He received the A.M. Turing award of the Association for
Computing Machinery in 1971 for his contributions to computer science.
His recent work includes formalization of non-monotonic reasoning
whereby people and computers draw conjectural conclusions by
assuming that complications are absent from a situation.
∂19-Mar-87 1158 JMC re: Hershey's/Reese's/Kit Kat eaters
To: COHN@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from COHN@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Thu 19 Mar 87 10:56:38-PST.]
Your calculation assumes that the 1/360,000 refers to the odds of a single
dollar bill matching a single wrapper. This seems unlikely, because I
suppose that each dollar bill has a different serial number. According
to the 1979 Statistical Abstracts of the U.S., in 1978 there was $3.2 billion
in one dollar bills in circulation. Therefore, the probability of a random
Hershey label matching a random dollar is less than 0.3E-9,
since the number of dollar bills in circulation is somewhat larger
now. Therefore, I suppose the 1 in 360,000 refers to the chances of someone
who organizes an effort of the kind you propose.
∂19-Mar-87 1208 JMC re: Hershey's/Reese's/Kit Kat eaters
To: COHN@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 19 Mar 87 10:56:38-PST.]
Addendum: All the dollar bills in my wallet have two letters and eight
digits in the serial number, allowing for 67.6 billion dollar bills.
However, my 20s have serial numbers from the same population.
Note that there are various ways in which Hershey's could make the
odds worse than 0.3E-9 by choosing from a diffent population of serial
numbers than that currently being used but no way in which they could
make the odds better unless they knew which ranges of serial number
were likely to be in circulation in different parts of the country.
They could improve the odds by requiring a match only of the digit
part of the serial number or even less.
∂19-Mar-87 1237 JMC Hershey's
To: cohn@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
Clearly I should have bought the Hershey bar before rather than
after commenting on your proposal. I see that they are ignoring
the letter part of the serial number. I still suspect that the
main payoff is promised from the random drawing part of the contest
rather than the successful matching.
∂19-Mar-87 1615 JMC
To: RA
beckma.3
∂19-Mar-87 2107 JMC
To: RA
Please make sure to finish the backlog of letters including those about Grosof.
∂20-Mar-87 0946 JMC re: Intemperate thoughts about our Attorney General
To: HOLSTEGE@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from HOLSTEGE@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Fri 20 Mar 87 08:55:49-PST.]
Your thoughts are indeed intemperate. Requiring a drug test of some kind
for getting or retaining certain kinds of employment may or may not be a
bad idea, but it isn't unconstitutional. Requiring the test from everyone
or people arbitrarily selected by authorities probably would count as an
unreasonable search. All sorts of things can be required as a condition
of employment. To take the extreme example, seizing someone on the street
and making him work for you violates the 13th Amendment against slavery,
but requiring work as a condition of employment still seems to be legal.
I suppose it might be possible to build a constitutional case against
requiring drug tests, but you have to do more work. You have to babble
about imposing novel conditions violating the spirit of the Constitution
or something like that. Accusing Meese of violating the spirit of the
Consititution is, of course, well within the bounds of political discourse
in which intemperate utterance is standard. To get rid of him you must
either wait till 1988 or try to persuade Congress to impeach him. If the
latter you face two problems. First, there are still too many Republicans.
Second, and even more difficult, impeachment so far hasn't been used for
such political purposes, i.e. with accusations of advocating something
unconstitutional. Indeed such impeachment might turn out itself to
be unconstitutional. When the conservatives were advocating the impeachment
of Justice Douglas on the charge of subverting the Constitution as a
Supreme Court Justice, it was argued that the Constitutional definition
of impeachment forbade Congress to do it. The point was never settled,
because the conservatives didn't have the votes.
Actually proposals to require drug tests are in line with requiring
chest x-rays, in fear of tuberculosis, or requiring vaccinations. I
believe that both have been required of teachers at various times.
You have either to figure out a constitutional difference between
drug tests and chest x-rays or else argue that requiring chest x-rays
was unconstitutional all along, and the fact has just been discovered.
I believe there is a body of constitutional law on the subject, e.g.
in Jacobson vs. Massachusetts, the Supreme Court of Massachusetts
ruled in 1905 that it did not violate Jacobson's rights to require
inocculation against small pox as a condition for something.
∂20-Mar-87 1357 JMC
To: RA
The abstract is page 3 of nsf87.pro.
∂20-Mar-87 1726 JMC teen suicides
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
If the media publically used the Pournelle phrase, "Think of it as
evolution in action", instead of instigating the reader or viewer to feel
sorry for the suicides, there would be fewer copycat suicides. For
example, the stories on the original four in the latest batch might have
concentrated on the two sisters involved, looked into their past and
commented, "Those two always did feel sorry for themselves. They used to
bang their heads on the wall when forbidden a third piece of candy".
∂20-Mar-87 2106 JMC re: Lindy problem accessing Forsythe
To: GQ.JAN@FORSYTHE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue, 17 Mar 87 15:27:53 PST.]
Thanks.
∂20-Mar-87 2122 JMC re: UCB CogSci Seminar
To: helen@PSYCH.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri, 20 Mar 87 14:23:22 PST.]
I did my best but was unable to remove you from all those Berkeley
mailing lists, but it occurs to me that I also want to be removed
from them.
∂21-Mar-87 1224 JMC
To: CLT
I am going to the doctor for a sore eye.
∂21-Mar-87 1849 JMC re: John, its "publicly" rather than "publically",
To: SIEGMAN@SIERRA.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Sat 21 Mar 87 17:55:23-PST.]
I have looked it up several times, but it's one I'm never sure of and
often get wrong. I hope being actually chided for it will keep the
correct spelling in my mind.
∂22-Mar-87 1226 JMC This meets a long unfelt need.
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (AP) - In today's atmosphere of open records and
ready lawsuits, a Lehigh University professor has come up with a
system of doublespeak to pan job applicants without risk.
Under the system, dubbed ''LIAR'' or Lexicon of Inconspicuously
Ambiguous Recommendations, by economics Professor Robert J. Thornton,
managers and teachers can hide behind ambiguity when asked to write
recommendation letters.
''There must be a million people out there suffering from the
problem of how to write a letter of recommendation for a person who
isn't really qualified,'' Thornton said in a telephone interview
Monday.
To describe a lackluster employee, Thornton said, a manager would
write: ''In my opinion, you will be very fortunate to get this person
to work for you.''
To describe a candidate who is woefully inept, Thornton recommends
saying: ''I most enthusiastically recommend this candidate with no
qualifications whatsoever.''
Any of the statements might be taken as praise, Thornton said. But,
he said, ''These phrases actually convey the complete opposite.
That's what makes them so strange and that's what makes them so
humorous.''
''Whether perceived correctly or not by the candidate, the phrases
are virtually litigation-proof,'' he said, noting that court rulings
have opened up employment records to workers.
Other LIAR samples:
-To describe a candidate who is so unproductive the position would
be better left unfilled: ''I can assure you that no person would be
better for the job.''
-To describe a candidate who is not worth further consideration: ''I
would urge you to waste no time in making this candidate an offer of
employment.''
∂22-Mar-87 1709 JMC
To: ginn@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
What do you know about Jonathan Traugott as regards cs326?
∂22-Mar-87 1732 JMC re: AIList Digest V5 #77
To: LES
[In reply to message sent Fri, 13 Mar 1987 19:14 EST.]
I'm afraid so.
∂23-Mar-87 1119 JMC cs326
To: JCT
I see I have you on my cs326 class list. However, I have no final or
paper. Did you take it?
∂23-Mar-87 1500 JMC re: MSCS-petition proposed program
To: KARTAM@SUSHI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Mon 23 Mar 87 14:25:01-PST.]
I you're still in MJH, please come by.
∂23-Mar-87 1512 JMC re: Hershey's/Reese's/Kit Kat eaters
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, kent@DECWRL.DEC.COM
[In reply to message from COHN@Sushi.Stanford.EDU sent Thu 19 Mar 87 10:56:38-PST.]
All you suspicious people like Chris Kent, who worry that maybe Hershey's
has all the dollar bills locked away and won't give any prizes, can relax.
Your mama in Washington, from whom all blessings flow, has already thought
of this and forced the big, bad corporations to actually give away money.
If you will read carefully your Hershey wrapper, it tells how much money
they have agreed to give away per day until the end of the contest.
∂23-Mar-87 1528 JMC
To: VAL
circum[w87,jmc] yet another form of circumscription
Maybe we call it pointwise variable circumscription.
It is defined by minimizing according to the ordering
P < P' ≡ (∃x.V(x,x) ∧ P(x) < P'(x)) ∧ ∀y.(P'(y) ≠ P(y) ⊃ ∃x.(
V(x,x) ∧ P(x) < P'(x) ∧ V(x,y))).
We conjecture that if V - λx.V(x,x) is a transitive and irreflexive
ordering, then P < P' will also be transitive and irreflexive.
What follows is an unsuccessful attempt to write the above to include c's
c < c' ≡ (∃P x.P ε C ∧ V(x,x) ∧ P(x) < P'(x)) ∧ ∀y C.(c'(y) ≠ c(y) ⊃ ∃x.(
V(x,x) ∧ P(x) < P'(x) ∧ V(P,C,x,y))).
∂24-Mar-87 1035 JMC re: [MARY%UK.AC.UMIST.CCL%UK.AC.UMIST@ac.uk: AAAI funding for workshops]
To: AAAI-OFFICE@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 24 Mar 87 09:06:05-PST.]
Please turn down the Manchester workshop on Japanese as not being
sufficiently connected to AI.
∂24-Mar-87 1127 JMC exams
To: VAL
We can give the exams back to the students now, but maybe you would like
to look at some of them first. In particular, I would suggest you look
at Bob Givan's and maybe discuss it with him; it will make his efforts
for us more productive.
∂24-Mar-87 1200 JMC quote
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
From an article "The collapse of the Soviet welfare state".
by Mikhail Bernstam
"Soviet publications have been churning out a cascade of statistics and
stories of mass destitution and despair. By its own admission, the Evil
Empire has produced more misery than even U.S. conservatives had imagined.
To take a minor example, the President in the 1987 State of the Union
address mentioned that one-third of Soviet families are without hot
running water. According to the recent Soviet welfare book by N. M.
Rimashevskaia, it is cold running water that one-third of Soviet families
are without; as for hot running water, it is only one-third of Soviet
families who do have it."
Bernstam's article, not yet published, contains many more similar 1987
citations from Soviet publications.
So what? (1) Glasnost has been non-trivial. (2) Those who think the
self-professed Marxist-Leninist Daniel Ortega will do better in Nicaragua
should think again. (3) Domestic poverty is entirely compatible with
military strength. (4) Continued economic and social failure diminishes
the intellectual attractions of socialism only slightly. (5) If only the
Soviets and Chinese communists had continued to claim to be perfect,
Western journalists would mostly continue to believe them, and fair-minded
Western people, like many contributors to su-etc, would find it even
easier to believe that the U.S. and the Soviet Union are essentially the
same.
Finally, I should remark that many people suppose that Gorbachev's
gestures and steps toward democratization are mainly for Western
consumption. In fact "glasnost" will greatly harm the international
reputation of the Soviet Union, just as Khrushchev's 1956 speech did, and
I think the Party leaders know it. Therefore, I think Gorbachev's
reason is primarily disgust with the Soviet internal situation and
hope of improving it; Western reactions are a secondary matter. However,
what he regards as an improvement, and what he can actually do remains
to be seen. Whether he will terminate various expensive Soviet aggressions
remains to be seen. Not much sign of it so far.
What can the West do? Not much. In contrast to almost everyone else, I
don't regard arms control as very important. We should avoid
anything like another U-2 incident - just in case someone in the CIA
has something in mind to humiliate the Soviet Union to win back
"points" lost by recent U.S. intelligence and covert action failures.
∂24-Mar-87 1506 JMC proposal
To: amarel@A.ISI.EDU, simpson@A.ISI.EDU
CC: VAL@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU, LES@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
I have sent Bob a revised version of our proposal. I am leaving for
Japan for two weeks starting Saturday, so any reactions after that
should be sent to Vladimir (VAL@su-ai.stanford.edu) and Les Earnest
(LES@su-ai.stanford.edu). Vladimir is primarily concerned with the scientific
content and Les with the contractual arrangements.
I'm hoping, however, for some reaction before I leave.
Michael Buckley of Rockwell is interested using the ideas as part of
a "non-monotonic reasoning testbed" and suggests a small subcontract
similar to that being negotiated as part of Nils's proposal.
∂24-Mar-87 1518 JMC aids
To: su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
It looks like the establishment is coming around.
a232 1410 24 Mar 87
AM-Koop-AIDS, Bjt,0829
Women Should Have AIDS Test Before Pregnancy, Surgeon General Says
By JERRY ESTILL
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Any woman who wants to have a baby should be
tested for AIDS before becoming pregnant, Surgeon General C. Everett
Koop said Tuesday.
Koop's advice came during a question-and-answer period at the
National Press Club in which he was asked about mandatory AIDS
testing for people applying for marriage licenses.
''I can't understand why it is so controversial,'' he said. ''I
would think anybody who is getting married today would want to be
tested and would want to know'' whether his or her intended spouse
had the AIDS virus.
''One of the things I think is most important about this ... is my
great concern for the babies who are born to ... positive mothers,''
he said. ''I think no woman should contemplate a pregnancy without
voluntarily wanting to be tested for the AIDS virus.''
Researchers say there is about a 90 percent chance that a woman
infected with the virus will pass it on to her newborn child. It is
not clear what percentage of people with the virus ultimately develop
the disease itself.
Koop, a strong opponent of abortion, answered cautiously when asked
whether abortion is an option for a woman who discovers she has the
AIDS virus after becoming pregnant.
''If you wanted to give her all the possibilities that were
available to her, you would have to mention abortion,'' he said.
''I can tell you what the practice is around the country at the
moment, anecdotally,'' Koop continued.
''These things are not reported scientifically yet, but they will
be. It is my understanding that in major obstetrical clinics on the
East Coast ... where the population has a high incidence of ... the
AIDS virus that women who are pregnant under 13 weeks are being
advised to have abortions and about 50 percent of those, I
understand, are indeed having abortion.''
AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is an affliction in
which the body's immune system becomes unable to resist disease.
There is no known cure, and some 18,000 Americans, most of them
homosexuals or intravenous drug users, have died from it.
Koop said the thinks the general resistance to AIDS testing for
marriage applicants is ''a hangover from the old days of syphilis''
when a person with syphilis could not obtain a license unless
undergoing treatment.
''But in those days our culture was quite different,'' he said. ''If
you couldn't get married the chances are John and Mary would not live
together. Today, John and Mary - three-quarters of them - are living
together before they get married. So you don't have any weapon,
either cultural or legal that you can use.
''Suppose you were to make premarital (AIDS) testing mandatory in
some particular municipality,'' Koop said. ''All you have to do is
move to another one and get your blood test (without AIDS testing),
or, get it and find that you're positive and if you both still want
to get married who's to stop you?
''I think that we have not yet come to the place where the
government is going to say, 'You can't get married,''' he added.
In an effort to obtain ore data about the spread of the AIDS virus,
Koop said he favors going beyond confidentially to anonymity to
encourage wider testing.
''What we need is to be able to see a cross-section of all people in
this country,'' he said. ''That's why the question was raised so
forcibly at the recent meeting in Atlanta sponsored by CDC (Centers
for Disease Control) that one good way to do this, as long as blood
is being drawn anyway, would be at the time of initial admission of
patients to hospitals.
''Blood like this could be drawn anonymously, knowing only the sex,
the age and the sexual preference of these people and would aid us
tremendously in mapping the epidemology of the disease,'' he
suggested.
Asked his reaction to critics who have said President Reagan should
be speaking out about AIDS, Koop said, ''I think he thinks I'm doing
it, and I am. The president is kept informed constantly of everything
the Public Health Service does.''
He said the president's instruction to him last year to write an
AIDS report was ''not out of the blue'' and had come after
consultation with White House officials - though not with Reagan
personally - about the ''up and down side of such a report.''
''I think the president is throughly in favor of what the Public
Health Service is doing and I think there is not the need to keep
running back and saying, 'Hey, Mr. President, look what we did',''
said Koop. ''He knows and he's in favor of this program, especially
the extended program that will go on in education.''
AP-NY-03-24-87 1708EST
***************
∂24-Mar-87 2257 JMC reply to message
To: ILAN@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Tue 24 Mar 87 19:10:45-PST.]
Thanks. That was impressive. Nevertheless, I'd like to see some manufacturer,
e.g. Apple or IBM, sponsor a one-design computer chess contest. All contestants
must use a standard configuration computer. This would put a premium on
AI as opposed to hardware or begging access to a supercomputer.
∂24-Mar-87 2323 JMC How can a program mean?
To: perlis@MIMSY.UMD.EDU
Thanks for it and the other papers. I have only skimmed it and
am not very sympathetic, but I need to point out that you have
given the wrong reference to one of mine. I discuss ascribing
beliefs to thermostats in "Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines"
not in "Programs with Common Sense". I can send you a copy if
you don't have one. The version distributed as a Stanford AI
memo was a garbled draft printed by mistake, but the version
published in Ringle's Philosophical Perspectives in Artificial
Intelligence is correct. I chose the thermostat as one example
of ascribing precisely because it can also be understood physically
and go on to discuss a more complicated temperature control system
that some people might only be able to understand intentionally.
In general I agree with Dennett in these matters. It seems to me
that the next step is to give some good AI examples where it is
necessary for a program to ascribe meaning in order to do some
task that doesn't itself involve ascribing meaning.
∂25-Mar-87 1017 JMC re: covert operations
To: W.WROTH@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU, su-etc@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message from W.WROTH@HAMLET.STANFORD.EDU sent Wed 25 Mar 87 09:46:22-PST.]
In World War II, certain things that cost a lot had to be secret, e.g.
the atomic bomb project. The leaders of the House and Senate delegated
supervision of such appropriations to a very small subset who were kept
informed to the extent that they asked to be informed. As far as the
history I read goes, there were no leaks via Congress. The present Administration
has proposed one step in that direction - that the House and Senate
intelligence oversight committees be combined into one committee with
a very restricted staff. This was reported in the last few days, but
it was also reported that either the House or Senate majority leader
had told the CIA that they would not agree to it. Maybe being on the
Intelligence Committee is too valuable a source of publicity to be
restricted. However, a major difference with World War II in keeping
secrets is that World War II secrets were vital only for about four years,
during which time many critical people kept the same job. Some of our
intelligence secrets, e.g. forms of Soviet carelessness that permit
interception of certain communications, might be forty years old and
lost only through high level babbling and low level defections.
∂25-Mar-87 1217 JMC mail reports
To: taleen@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
Please U.S. mail one each of Ascribing Mental Qualities to Machines and
First Order Theories of Individual Concepts and Propositions to:
Don Perlis (301) 454-7931
Computer Science Department
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742
They're in the second drawer of my file cabinet nearest the door.
∂25-Mar-87 2333 JMC re: Do we want RT's?
To: REGES@SCORE.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Wed 25 Mar 87 20:58:05-PST.]
I'm not much on workstations, per se, and basically have no advice. However,
I would be much averse to giving up the RT on which we are developing the
Editor Based Operating System. I trust it's not among those that might
be given up.
∂26-Mar-87 0939 JMC rpg account
To: LES
CC: RPG
Please get Gotelli to charge RPG to Qlisp.
∂26-Mar-87 1341 JMC rww account
To: LES@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
CC: RWW@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
My opinion is that a temporary overhead account for RWW can be justified
by his maintenance of FOL which a number of people are still using. When
he gets another grant, the charge should be switched to it.
∂26-Mar-87 1351 JMC
To: RWW@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
Janusz Kowalik at Boeing Computer Services
∂26-Mar-87 1740 JMC
To: LES
%addressees
%Prof. Patrick Winston, MIT
%Prof. Berthold Horn, MIT
%Prof. Mike Brady, Oxford
%Prof. Ruzena Bajcsy, chairperson, CSD, Univ of Penn
%Prof. Ram Nevatia, USC
%Prof. Azriel Rosenfeld, u. of Maryland
%[[[Candidate People: Horn, Kanade, Rosenfeld, Brady, Fischler, ...]]]
Dear xxxx:
I am writing you in regard to Thomas Binford. It is our policy at
Stanford to review and evaluate the work of our research faculty
periodically through inquiries of people of eminence outside of the
University. This particular review of Professor Binford is concerned
with his reappointment as Professor (Research).
A key criterion for continued appointment includes the requirement that a
professor continue to perform research of high quality and impact.
The accomplishments and continued promise of faculty members are
evaluated by comparison and ranking with outstanding contemporaries. This
comparison and ranking is the keystone of our decision process.
We request then, not a recommendation from you regarding our decision,
but rather an assessment of the stature, general reputation and quality
of his work. We hope that your assessment can be responsive to our criteria
and in the context of comparison of him to his contemporaries whose work
may be familiar to you; e.g. B. K. P. Horn, M. Brady, A. Rosenfeld, T.
Kanade, and with whom you regard comparison as relevant.
[[[making sure that we delete from this list the
person to whom the letter is addressed!]]]. For your use, I enclose a
recent resum\'e.
In developing your assessment, the following questions may provide a useful
framework:
1. How well do you know Professor Binford's work?
2. How would you characterize his ability to carry out creative and
significant research?
3. What basis is there for expecting him to make significant
contributions in the future?
4. Can you cite any specific contributions that have had a significant
effect on his reputation?
5. How does he rank in comparison with his peers?
I am deeply appreciative of your taking time from a busy schedule to
respond to this inquiry. I also wish to assure you that your response
will be kept confidential within the Senior Faculty of the Department
and University administration. We would
appreciate a response from you by January 15, 1986; if this presents a
problem could you please contact me.
Sincerely,
John McCarthy
∂26-Mar-87 2226 JMC name
To: VAL
Perhaps we should call the new variant Charles M. Piggott circumscription.
∂27-Mar-87 0039 JMC re: An invitation
To: GARDNER@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Thu 26 Mar 87 10:14:04-PST.]
Yes, I would be glad to speak at the AI and law conference. If you
need a title before April 20, it's Non-monotonic reasoning. I will
be away from Saturday until about that time.
∂27-Mar-87 0143 JMC Sierra wizard
To: TVR@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU
It's Stephen Hansen, hansen@sierra, 3-1058. What precisely happened?
Please MAIL instead of SEND.
∂27-Mar-87 0953 JMC
To: CLT
Please send me a message with plane reservations to put in calendar.
∂27-Mar-87 1022 JMC re: Richard Stallman
To: AIR
[In reply to message rcvd 27-Mar-87 10:13-PT.]
All I've got are the following two notes. I can't remember what
naxos means and I don't know whether it's Boston. The 253 number
is an M.I.T. number. However, I think his Free Software Foundation
would be reachable via information area code 617.
naxos
548-1361, Stallman,
>Stallman, Richard rms@mit-prep, (617) 253-8830.
∂27-Mar-87 1213 JMC re: The frame problem workshop
To: VAL
[In reply to message rcvd 27-Mar-87 10:42-PT.]
I'd be glad to try. Give me another copy of the paper to take with me
to Japan and MAIL me a note saying what you want covered. I'll be back
from Japan briefly before going to Kansas.
∂27-Mar-87 1652 JMC re: Paper of yours
To: WINOGRAD@CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
[In reply to message sent Fri 27 Mar 87 15:48:00-PST.]
It did not get published or even finished. If you want to look at it,
it's objec.ess[ess,jmc] and is unprotected.
∂27-Mar-87 1653 JMC (→20477 21-Apr-87)
To: "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"
Carolyn and I are going to Japan on March 28, and I'll return on April 10.
However, I'll again be away most of the following week.
∂27-Mar-87 1713 JMC reservations to Kansas
To: RA
Please make reservations for me to go to Lawrence, Kansas on
April 12 and return the 15th evening. VAL knows the details of
how to get to the meeting there.
∂27-Mar-87 2118 JMC (→20472 16-Apr-87)
To: "#___JMC.PLN[2,2]"
I will be in Japan from March 28 to April 10 and in Kansas
from April 12 thru 15. While in Japan I can be reached
in case of urgency by electronic mail to MS@SU-AI. It will
be forwarded to Masahiko Sato in Sendai who will know how to
reach us. Carolyn will return from Japan April 8.