Jack Minker
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This is the third report prepared by the ACM Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights (CSFHR). The first was published in the March 1981 Communications and the second in the December 1982 issue. This report is an update. Since the committee intends to publish future updates, it would appreciate receiving further information about computer scientists whose rights have been violated. Such information should be sent to: Jack Minker, Vice-Chairman, Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 29742.Because those whose scientific freedom or human rights have been violated derive sustenance and support from contacts with their colleagues, the CSFHR has established a program in which ACM chapters “adopt” individual scientists and correspond with them. Such correspondence should touch on the personal and scientific and not discuss political matters. These letters greatly improve the morale of the recipients and are one of the few ways they can keep current with computer science and technology. This CSFHR program is directed by Helen Takacs (P.O. Drawer CS, Mississippi State, MS 39762).
This report had its genesis before the establishment in February 1980 of the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights (CSFHR). In 1978 Paul Armer, chairman of the Committee on Computers and Public Policy (CCPP), asked Jack Minker of the University of Maryland to chair a Subcommittee on Human Rights and to prepare a report on the human rights of computer scientists. When CSFHR was formed it was natural to transfer this activity to it since one of the activities of CSFHR, as specified in its charter, is:
Gathering data on systematic violations of scientific freedom and human rights and fully publicizing such data.… Careful attention will be given to assuring the validity of all data.
State-space problem-reduction, and theorem proving—some relationships
This paper suggests a bidirectional relationship between state-space and problem-reduction representations. It presents a formalism based on multiple-input and multiple-output operators which provides a basis for viewing the two types of representations in this manner. A representation of the language recognition problem which is based on the Cocke parsing algorithm is used as an illustration. A method for representing problems in first-order logic in such a way that the inference system employed by a resolution-based theorem prover determines whether the set of clauses is interpreted in the state-space mode or in the problem-reduction mode is presented. The analogous concepts in problem-reduction and theorem proving, and the terminology used to refer to them, are noted. The relationship between problem-reduction, input resolution, and linear resolution is is discussed.
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