report available

[mclennan@cs.utk.edu]

               **DO NOT FORWARD TO OTHER GROUPS**

The following technical report has been placed in the Neuroprose
archives at Ohio State (filename: maclennan.flexcomp.ps.Z).  Ftp
instructions follow the abstract.

      -----------------------------------------------------
              Research Issues in Flexible Computing
                   Two Presentations in Japan

                         Bruce MacLennan
                   Computer Science Department
                     University of Tennessee
                       Knoxville, TN 37996
                      maclennan at cs.utk.edu

                   Technical Report CS-92-172

                            ABSTRACT:

This report contains the text of two presentations made in Japan
in 1991, both of which deal with the Japanese ``Real World Com-
puting Project'' (previously known as the ``New Information Pro-
cessing Technology,'' and informally as the ``Sixth Generation
Project'').

(1) ``Flexible Computing:  How to Make it Succeed'' (invited
presentation, Institute for Supercomputing Research workshop, New
Directions in Supercomputing): Many applications require the
flexible processing of large amounts of ambiguous, incomplete, or
redundant information, including images, speech and natural
language.  Recent advances have shown that many of these problems
can be effectively solved by _emergent computation_, which is the
exploitation of the self-organizing,collective and cooperative
phenomena arising from the interaction of large numbers of simple
computational elements obeying local dynamical laws.  Accomplish-
ing flexible computing will require basic research in three
areas.  THEORY:  We need to understand the dynamical and computa-
tional properties of systems with very high degrees of parallel-
ism (more than a million elements).  SOFTWARE:  We need to under-
stand the representation and processing of subsymbolic and sym-
bolic information in the brain. HARDWARE:  We need to be able to
implement systems having a million to a billion analog proces-
sors.

(2) ``The Emergence of Symbolic Processes from the Subsymbolic
Substrate''(panel presentation, MITI, International Symposium on
New Information Processing Technologies '91): A central question
for the success of neural network technology is the relation of
symbolic processes (e.g., language and logic) to the underlying
subsymbolic processes (e.g., pattern recognition, analogical rea-
soning and learning).  This is not simply an issue of integrating
neural networks with conventional expert system technology.
Human symbolic cognition is flexible because it is not purely
formal, and because it retains some of the ``softness'' of the
subsymbolic processes.  If we want our computers to be as flexi-
ble as people, then we need to understand the emergence of the
discrete and symbolic from the continuous and subsymbolic.

      -----------------------------------------------------
                        FTP INSTRUCTIONS

Either use the Getps script, or do the following:

     unix> ftp archive.cis.ohio-state.edu (or 128.146.8.52)
     Name: anonymous
     Password: <your e-mail address>
     ftp> cd pub/neuroprose
     ftp> binary
     ftp> get maclennan.flexcomp.ps.Z
     ftp> quit
     unix> uncompress maclennan.flexcomp.ps.Z
     unix> lpr maclennan.flexcomp.ps (or however you print postscript)

If you need hardcopy, then send your request to:

                       library at cs.utk.edu

     Bruce MacLennan
     Department of Computer Science
     107 Ayres Hall
     The University of Tennessee
     Knoxville, TN 37996-1301

     (615)974-0994/5067
     FAX: (615)974-4404
     maclennan at cs.utk.edu