Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wasatch!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!epistemi!edai!cam
From: cam@edai.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Is "Me" -> "Family" -> "Race" an Interpolation or an Extrapolation?
Message-ID: <459@edai.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 13 Jul 89 19:32:09 GMT
References: <5453@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <2061@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> <5480@pt.cs.cmu.edu> <5490@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: cam@edai (Chris Malcolm)
Organization: University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh
Lines: 26

In article <5490@pt.cs.cmu.edu> jps@cat.cmu.edu (James Salsman) writes:
>When the object referenced by the word "Me" in generalized,
>it can be done in many ways.  Here are four:
>
>1. genetically		yeilding "Family," "Race," etc.
>2. geographically	yeilding "City," "State," "Nation," etc.
>3. institutionally	yeilding "Business," "Profession," "School," etc.
>4. memetically		yeilding "Style," "Philosophy," "Point of View", etc.
>
>My question is whether this is an "interpolation" or an "extrapolation."
>
>The _American_Heritage_Dictionary_ in CMU's Library
>Information System is not that helpful...

Of course not - you need an English dictionary :-) "Interpolation" and
"extrapolation" are English words from Latin roots. "Inter" means
"between" and "extra" means outside or beyond. "Interpolation"
etymologically means "to polish between", and thus has the notion of
smooth behaviour between known points; "extrapolation" is a coinage from
"interpolation". For example, in mathematics "interpolation" is done
between given values, whereas "extrapolation" extends a curve beyond a
set of values. So generalising from family to race is extrapolation.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.edai   031 667 1011 x2550
Department of Artificial Intelligence, Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK