From sentto-2719433-20-981085549-gtoal=vt.com@returns.onelist.com Thu Feb 1 21:12:39 2001 Received: from jj.egroups.com (jj.egroups.com [208.50.144.82]) by admin.vt.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id VAA14923 for ; Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:12:34 -0600 (CST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-2719433-20-981085549-gtoal=vt.com@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.54] by jj.egroups.com with NNFMP; 02 Feb 2001 03:45:50 -0000 X-Sender: gtoal@admin.vt.com X-Apparently-To: edinburgh-computer-history@egroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_0_2_1); 2 Feb 2001 03:45:49 -0000 Received: (qmail 39541 invoked from network); 2 Feb 2001 03:45:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.142) by l8.egroups.com with QMQP; 2 Feb 2001 03:45:48 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO admin.vt.com) (204.117.188.10) by mta3 with SMTP; 2 Feb 2001 04:46:53 -0000 Received: (from root@localhost) by admin.vt.com (8.8.5/8.7.3) id VAA14908; Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:12:23 -0600 (CST) Message-Id: <200102020312.VAA14908@admin.vt.com> To: edinburgh-computer-history@yahoogroups.com From: Graham Toal MIME-Version: 1.0 Mailing-List: list edinburgh-computer-history@yahoogroups.com; contact edinburgh-computer-history-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list edinburgh-computer-history@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 21:12:23 -0600 (CST) Reply-To: edinburgh-computer-history@yahoogroups.com Subject: [ed-comp-hist] Great news! Donald Michie is helping us! Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Status: RO I pass the following letter on with permission. It has been lightly edited to remove some irrelevant remarks. We are VERY lucky to have Donald Michie as a contributor. I'm giving serious thought to flying over to Scotland in July myself to help examine and scan/OCR his archive! He doesn't explicitly mention having any old source code, but even if there's no code, we really must transfer as much of this history to online media as we can. I'll ask him if he has anything in electronic form. I don't personally know much about the MIRU; I remember Rae R giving me a tour and showing me some of the early Computer Chess work. I'm looking forward to learning some of this history myself. Graham > Dear Graham Toal > > I have an archive brimming with documentation > of every kind covering the early days, -- technical > reports, minutes of the weekly staff meetings in the > EPU and DMI, correspondence galore with University > Admin and Court, with international AI scientists, > with visitors and Machine Intelligence Workshop > contributors, with editors, authors, other Departments > of the University at that time, proposals, manifestos > and goodness knows what else. > > There is in addition a complete History of the > Machine Intelligence Research Unit written by > my wife, then a member of the said MIRU. The > special point of interest is that it documents > an organization that had a ten-year run, from > 1974 - 1984. But its existence and history > remains I believe almost entirely unknown. This > is because a usual account of events is that after > the departure from Edinburgh of Professors Richard > Gregory (who left in 1970) and Christopher Longuet- > Higgins (around 1974) I also departed, to Glasgow > to found the Turing Institute, at the same time > that the Department of Artificial Intelligence was > being set up in Edinburgh. In actuality I did not > leave for Glasgow and set up the TI until 1984. > > The dramatic collapse of funding following the > Lighthill report temporarily stranded a community > of several dozen AI research workers. The > University had to set up new structures and a > new mission for as many as could be retained > in Edinburgh. > > The DAI was the main result. In the process > each person was asked whether he or she would > accept assignment to undergraduate teaching. > Uniquely, my University post was a so-called > Personal Chair. In those days such appointments > carried no teaching obligation. Never having > done any teaching in my life, I opted out. I > also had private doubts about whether the field > had yet sufficiently matured to support > undergraduate courses*. > > The University accordingly set up two Departments, > of which the DAI was one. The other, named the > Machine Intelligence Research Unit, consisted of > myself, my secretary, and 1/11th of the time of > Dr Horace Townsend, of the medical faculty. We > were allotted space for four postgraduate > students. One or two self-funded workers also > attached themselves, including Jean Hayes who > ten years later wrote the History, and there > was also a constant stream of visiting workers > from overseas. So although from the outside > the MIRU was almost invisible, it had a vigorous > internal life and a steady and varied output. > It was quite unbelievably crowded and chronically > broke. But in its peculiar way the MIRU was fun. > > My boxes of documents are of course overkill > from your point of view. I am sure you will only > want to retain or copy a few fragments. At the > same time it seems pointless to try to offer > anything from here in Australia. > > It will be best, I think to wait until I get > back, unfortunately not until July 1st. I will > be delighted then to get access to my files > and give you the run of them. > > For the Computer Science Dept history, Peter > Schofield's memory should stretch back to the > beginning. He also contributed an excellent > paper to one of the first two Machine Intelligence > volumes. > > Best wishes > > Donald Michie > > > *My doubts were soon refuted by the newly- > formed DAI's publication of the world's > first-ever AI textbook. Written by Alan Bundy, > Rod Burstall and Pat Ambler this set a standard > that no subsequent text that I have seen has > come near. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-~> eGroups is now Yahoo! 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