From hombre!uunet!Think.COM!gls Wed Nov 7 00:19:18 1990 Return-Path: Received: by marob.masa.com (/\=-/\ Smail3.1.18.1 #18.1) id ; Wed, 7 Nov 90 00:19 EST Received: by hombre.MASA.COM (smail2.5) id AA08165; 7 Nov 90 00:05:51 EST (Wed) Received: from cbmvax.UUCP by uunet.uu.net (5.61/1.14) with UUCP id AA20463; Tue, 6 Nov 90 18:56:24 -0500 Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore Jan 13 1990) id AA11965; Tue, 6 Nov 90 18:54:08 EST Received: by snark.thyrsus.com (smail2.3) id AA12081; 6 Nov 90 19:48:45 EST (Tue) Received: by cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (5.57/UUCP-Project/Commodore Jan 13 1990) id AA10751; Tue, 6 Nov 90 18:30:40 EST Received: from Mail.Think.COM by uunet.uu.net (5.61/1.14) with SMTP id AA26469; Tue, 6 Nov 90 17:57:14 -0500 Return-Path: Received: from Verdi.Think.COM by mail.think.com; Tue, 6 Nov 90 17:57:01 -0500 Received: from beethoven.think.com by verdi.think.com; Tue, 6 Nov 90 17:56:55 EST From: uunet!Think.COM!gls (Guy Steele) Received: by beethoven.think.com; Tue, 6 Nov 90 17:56:07 EST Date: Tue, 6 Nov 90 17:56:07 EST Message-Id: <9011062256.AA04845@beethoven.think.com> To: cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!lojbab Cc: jimc@math.ucla.edu, major@pta.oz.au, lojban-list@snark.thyrsus.com In-Reply-To: cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!lojbab@uunet.UU.NET's message of 6 Nov 90 00:02:21 EST (Tue) <9011060002.AA08681@snark.thyrsus.com> Subject: response to J. Prothero book review and comments of 12 Oct 90 Status: RO Date: 6 Nov 90 00:02:21 EST (Tue) From: cbmvax!snark.thyrsus.com!lojbab@uunet.UU.NET ... I've heard that there is someone programming a computer with 'common sense' (a Discover from a couple issues ago, I think) understanding of English. It is a slow process to write all the rules, as jimc seems to be trying to do. A heuristic program would >learn< by experience. It is Douglas Lenat, and indeed there was an article in Discover about it. He is a principal scientist at MCC in Texas. For a much better description of his work, see the article by him and four co-authors in the Communications of the ACM, August 1990. --Guy