COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00003 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	.DEVICE XGP
C00005 00003	.LTR(Professor Patrick Winston)
C00008 ENDMK
C⊗;
.DEVICE XGP
.page frame 50 high 80 wide
.title area heading lines 1 to 3
.area text lines 4 to 50

.FONT 1 "BASL30"; FONT 2 "BASI30"; FONT 3 "BASB30"; FONT 5 "NGB25"
.FONT 6 "STA200.FNT[XGP,SYS]"
.TURN ON "%{α"
.ODDLEFTBORDER ← EVENLEFTBORDER ← 1000
.AT "ffi" ⊂ IF THISFONT ≤ 3 THEN "≠"  ELSE "fαfαi" ⊃;
.AT "ffl" ⊂ IF THISFONT ≤ 3 THEN "α∞" ELSE "fαfαl" ⊃;
.AT "ff"  ⊂ IF THISFONT ≤ 3 THEN "≥"  ELSE "fαf" ⊃;
.AT "fi"  ⊂ IF THISFONT ≤ 3 THEN "α≡" ELSE "fαi" ⊃;
.AT "fl"  ⊂ IF THISFONT ≤ 3 THEN "∨"  ELSE "fαl" ⊃;

.MACRO FAC ⊂FILL ADJUST COMPACT ⊃
.MACRO FAD ⊂FILL ADJUST COMPACT DOUBLE SPACE; PREFACE 2 ⊃

.MACRO LTR(name,dat)  ⊂
.place HEADING
.nofill
.BEGIN
.TURN ON "-←→∂↑↓&[]";
%6S%5 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, California 94305
.end
.PLACE TEXT;
.SELECT 5; if length ("dat") > 2 then date←"dat";
.once turn on "→"
%5Telephone 415-497-1391→{date}
or  415-497-4971
.SKIP 3; SELECT 1
name
.EVERY HEADING("%3NAME, {date}",,Page {Page})
.⊃

.MACRO AIADDRESS ⊂GROUP BEGIN SKIP 1; NOFILL
	Douglas B. Lenat
	Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
	Stanford University
	Stanford, California  94305
.END APART ⊃

.MACRO DBL ⊂ GROUP BEGIN SKIP 3; NOFILL  CENTER
Sincerely,
.SKIP 6
Doug  Lenat
.END APART ⊃

.portion main
.page←1
.LTR(Professor Patrick Winston)
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
545 Technology Square
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts  02139

.FAC

Dear Pat,

I hope you've fully recovered from the administrative nightmare of IJCAI75.
I'll never forget the free session I chaired, with 6 scheduled speakers;
a Russian came in, said %2he%* was the chairman, and had a list of 7
%2different%* speakers! Well, all 13 people talked, with tandem translations,
hence had about 5 minutes per talk. 

As you may recall, I'm a fourth-year grad student in Stanford's CS program.
My dissertation research deals with 
how one might explain -- and automate --
the formation of new mathematical theories.
I've been working on a program which can develop
simple mathematical concepts, which aims at
expertise in proposing new definitions and in theorem %2proposing%*,
rather than theorem %2proving%*.
A brief description of the project is enclosed.
It uses as its representation the BEINGs scheme, the concept I talked
about in the IJCAI paper.

My committee consists of Ed Feigenbaum, Cordell Green,
Bruce Buchanan, and Don Knuth. They have suggested that I
write you and Marvin, 
since I expect to receive my Ph.D. by next Fall. I am interested
in a faculty position for next year, and would welcome the opportunity to
discuss the matter with you 
(even if there will be no  openings at MIT).
I could visit Boston sometime this Winter,
perhaps in February.
If there is sufficient interest,
I'd be happy to give a
colloquium on my thesis research.

Hoping to hear from you soon,

.DBL