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01300	.EVERY HEADING(⊗3BEINGS⊗*,{DATE},⊗4Doug Lenat⊗*)
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02000	Professor John McCarthy
02100	Stanford A.I. Lab
02200	
02300	.GROUP SKIP 10
02400	Dear John,
02500	
02600	.fill
02700		Here is the latest copy of the BEINGs research report. The
02800	major theme is that of representing knowledge and control as
02900	standardized, structured, interacting modules. The difference between
03000	a BEING and pred. calc. is the division of the former into about thirty
03100	fixed subparts.  So each BEING is an organized packet of facts.
03200	Unlike ACTORS, which have no fixed formats for messages, and CLASSES,
03300	which have no single universal set of message types, BEINGS have a
03400	fixed set of messages they may pass. 
03500		Hopefully, the paper will be of interest to you.
03600	I would greatly appreciate any and all of the following:
03700	criticism of the ideas and of the style of the paper; suggestions for
03800	filling in references which are left as ... currently; getting together
03900	and talking about the paper -- and BEINGS -- with you.  
04000		I don't know if there will be any more work on
04100	the specific system described, but the ideas involved -- and the
04200	difficulties -- will probably remain.  I am beginning my thesis,
04300	which tentatively involves using the BEINGs concepts to get a program to
04400	understand mathematics.
04500		Send me a note [DBL] when you are ready to meet. My
04600	schedule is nebulous. Please don't circulate the draft, however; I am
04700	not finished polishing it.  Thanks again.