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%6S%5 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, California 94305
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	Douglas B. Lenat
	Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
	Stanford University
	Stanford, California  94305
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Cheers,
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Doug  Lenat
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.LTR(Professor W. W. Bledsoe)
Applied Mathematics Department
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
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Dear Woody,

Enclosed is some output from my "Automated Mathematician" system. I've scrawled
a few comments on it to make it more intelligible. 
A few significant concepts have been discovered to date
(Cardinality, Multiplication, Prime Numbers).
However, I am not satisfied with AM's motivation
at each instant. Several awful concepts were thought to be interesting (take a set
S and an element x; if x%7ε%*S, 
insert %5TRUE%* into S, else insert %5FALSE%* into S).
My biggest problem with AM is getting it to recognize the significance of the
good concepts it develops, and %2quickly%* 
recognize the insignificance of bad concepts.
Unfortunately, our judgment is typically based on hindsight (why should one
suspect %2a priori%*
that nonassociative algebras are not very fruitful constructs? that the
Missionaries and Cannibals problem is neither trivial nor insurmountable?).

Although AM is "working" at a level acceptable to my PhD reading committee,
I know that an extra six months of effort could raise its performance
significantly.
For that reason, I can't be sure when I'll receive my degree, though I expect it
will be this summer, probably in August.
Wherever I am next year, I shall probably continue research on automating
mathematical discovery; perhaps continue developing AM itself.


Yes, I would like very much to discuss AM with you. 
Perhaps I could give a colloquium
in February. I'll be at the ACM conference in Anaheim from February 10-12,
but any time other than that is fine.
Would it be possible for your university to pay my transportation costs?
If only partially, then perhaps I can schedule a colloquium (e.g., on the
East coast) just before or after visting Austin.

If you have any written reports about your proposed domain-independent
system, I'd be interested in reading through them. If not, maybe we can 
discuss it when I see you.


.DBL