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From: ladkin@kestrel.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: Searle, AI, NLP, understanding, ducks
Message-ID: <13428@kestrel.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 13-Oct-86 18:07:54 EDT
Article-I.D.: kestrel.13428
Posted: Mon Oct 13 18:07:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Oct-86 07:14:02 EDT
References: <1918@well.UUCP> <1919@well.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Kestrel Institute, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 16

In article <1919@well.UUCP>, jjacobs@well.UUCP (Jeffrey Jacobs) writes:
> Mathematics is very well understood, and
> consists almost entirely of "formal procedures". 

I infer from your comment that you're not a mathematician.
As a practicing mathematician (amongst other things), I'd
like to ask precisely what you mean by *well understood*?

And I would like to strongly disagree with your comment that
doing mathematics consists almost entirely of formal procedures.
Are you aware that one of the biggest problems in formalising
mathematics is trying to figure out what it is that
mathematicians do to prove new theorems?

Peter Ladkin
ladkin@kestrel.arpa