From owner-cse575-fa07-list@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Fri Oct 5 14:58:03 2007 Received: from ares.cse.buffalo.edu (ares.cse.buffalo.edu [128.205.32.79]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l95Iw3ie006396 for ; Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:58:03 -0400 (EDT) Received: from front1.acsu.buffalo.edu (coldfront.acsu.buffalo.edu [128.205.6.89]) by ares.cse.buffalo.edu (8.13.8/8.13.6) with SMTP id l95IvtBK021474 for ; Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:57:55 -0400 (EDT) Received: (qmail 614 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2007 18:57:49 -0000 Received: from deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.57) by front1.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 5 Oct 2007 18:57:49 -0000 Received: (qmail 24804 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2007 18:45:51 -0000 Received: from listserv.buffalo.edu (128.205.7.35) by deliverance.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 5 Oct 2007 18:45:51 -0000 Received: by LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU (LISTSERV-TCP/IP release 14.5) with spool id 3003483 for CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU; Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:45:51 -0400 Delivered-To: cse575-fa07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu Received: (qmail 18621 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2007 18:44:30 -0000 Received: from mailscan7.acsu.buffalo.edu (128.205.6.158) by listserv.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 5 Oct 2007 18:44:30 -0000 Received: (qmail 10910 invoked from network); 5 Oct 2007 18:44:29 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.buffalo.edu (128.205.32.14) by smtp2.acsu.buffalo.edu with SMTP; 5 Oct 2007 18:44:29 -0000 Received: from castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (rapaport@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.10) with ESMTP id l95IiTXn005757 for ; Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:44:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from rapaport@localhost) by castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU (8.13.6/8.12.9/Submit) id l95IiTw5005756 for cse575-fa07-list@listserv.buffalo.edu; Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:44:29 -0400 (EDT) X-UB-Relay: (castor.cse.buffalo.edu) X-PM-EL-Spam-Prob: : 7% Message-ID: <200710051844.l95IiTw5005756@castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 14:44:29 -0400 Reply-To: "William J. Rapaport" Sender: Introduction to Cognitive Science From: "William J. Rapaport" Subject: Universal Semantic Communication To: CSE575-FA07-LIST@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Precedence: list List-Help: , List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Owner: List-Archive: X-DCC-Buffalo.EDU-Metrics: castor.cse.Buffalo.EDU 1029; Body=0 Fuz1=0 Fuz2=0 X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00 autolearn=ham version=3.1.8 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.90.2/4480/Fri Oct 5 10:51:39 2007 on ares.cse.buffalo.edu X-Virus-Status: Clean Status: R Content-Length: 1872 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Universal Semantic Communication ------------------------------------------------------------------------ An upcoming Computer Science colloquium concerns a cognitive-science topic, though the methodology might be more theoretical than cognitive. In any case, I thought some of you might be interested. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Department of Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Speakers Series Presents Madhu Sudan MIT (CSAIL) Towards Universal Semantic Communication Is it possible for two intelligent players to communicate meaningfully with each other, without any prior common background? What does it even mean for the two players to understand each other? In addition to being an intriguing question in its own right, we argue that this question also goes to the heart of modern communication infrastructures, where misundestandings (mismatches in protocols) between communicating players are a major source of errors. In this talk, I will describe what complexity theory has to say about such interactions. Most of the talk will focus on how some of the nebulous notions, such as intelligence and understanding, should be defined in concrete settings. We assert that in order to communicate "successfully", the communicating players should be explicit about their goals--what the communication should achieve. We show examples that illustrate that when goals are explicit the communicating players can achieve meaningful communication. Joint work with Brendan Juba (MIT). October 18, 2007 3:30-4:30 PM University at Buffalo North Campus - 330 Student Union This talk is free and open to the public Refreshments for attendees after the talk in 224 Bell Hall For more information, please call 645-3180