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From: sts@ssc-vax.UUCP (Stanley T Shebs)
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: FP and AI - (nf)
Message-ID: <427@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 17-Aug-83 17:06:13 EDT
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.427
Posted: Wed Aug 17 17:06:13 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Aug-83 22:31:46 EDT
References: <2574@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Organization: Boeing Aerospace, Seattle
Lines: 13

There *is* a powerful functional language underlying most AI programs -
Lisp!  But it's never pure Lisp.  The realization that got me to thinking
about this was the apparent necessity for list surgery, sooner or later.
rplaca and allied functions show up in the strangest places, and seem
to be crucial to the proper functioning of many AI systems (consider
inheritance in frames or the construction of a semantic network;
perhaps method combination in flavors qualifies).  I'm not arguing
that an FP language could *not* be used to build an AI language
on top; I'm thinking more about fundamental philosophical differences
between different schools of research.

						stan the lep hacker
						ssc-vax!sts (soon utah-cs)