Bayesianism, Infinite Decisions, and Binding

We pose and resolve several vexing decision theoretic puzzles. Some are variants of existing puzzles, such as ‘Trumped’ (Arntzenius and McCarthy 1997), ‘Rouble trouble’ (Arntzenius and Barrett 1999), ‘The airtight Dutch book’ (McGee 1999), and ‘The two envelopes puzzle’ (Broome 1995). Others are new. A unified resolution of the puzzles shows that Dutch book arguments have no force in infinite cases. It thereby provides evidence that reasonable utility functions may be unbounded and that reasonable credence functions need not be countably additive. The resolution also shows that when infinitely many decisions are involved, the difference between making the decisions simultaneously and making them sequentially can be the difference between riches and ruin. Finally, the resolution reveals a new way in which the ability to make binding commitments can save perfectly rational agents from sure losses

Negotiating a turnkey system: The vendor's viewpoint

My talk today will be from the viewpoint of a business manager responsible for product development, product marketing and product service, while at the same time meeting established goals for profitability. It is not my intention to give a highly technical or legalistic presentation. First, I am not qualified to do so, and second, you are more likely to benefit from understanding the general concepts involved in contracting and leaving the legal details to counsel.published or submitted for publicatio

Meetings and Meeting Modeling in Smart Environments

In this paper we survey our research on smart meeting rooms and its relevance for augmented reality meeting support and virtual reality generation of meetings in real time or off-line. The research reported here forms part of the European 5th and 6th framework programme projects multi-modal meeting manager (M4) and augmented multi-party interaction (AMI). Both projects aim at building a smart meeting environment that is able to collect multimodal captures of the activities and discussions in a meeting room, with the aim to use this information as input to tools that allow real-time support, browsing, retrieval and summarization of meetings. Our aim is to research (semantic) representations of what takes place during meetings in order to allow generation, e.g. in virtual reality, of meeting activities (discussions, presentations, voting, etc.). Being able to do so also allows us to look at tools that provide support during a meeting and at tools that allow those not able to be physically present during a meeting to take part in a virtual way. This may lead to situations where the differences between real meeting participants, human-controlled virtual participants and (semi-) autonomous virtual participants disappear

Social Algorithms

This article concerns the review of a special class of swarm intelligence based algorithms for solving optimization problems and these algorithms can be referred to as social algorithms. Social algorithms use multiple agents and the social interactions to design rules for algorithms so as to mimic certain successful characteristics of the social/biological systems such as ants, bees, bats, birds and animals.Comment: Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, 201

Impossibility Results in AI: A Survey

An impossibility theorem demonstrates that a particular problem or set of problems cannot be solved as described in the claim. Such theorems put limits on what is possible to do concerning artificial intelligence, especially the super-intelligent one. As such, these results serve as guidelines, reminders, and warnings to AI safety, AI policy, and governance researchers. These might enable solutions to some long-standing questions in the form of formalizing theories in the framework of constraint satisfaction without committing to one option. In this paper, we have categorized impossibility theorems applicable to the domain of AI into five categories: deduction, indistinguishability, induction, tradeoffs, and intractability. We found that certain theorems are too specific or have implicit assumptions that limit application. Also, we added a new result (theorem) about the unfairness of explainability, the first explainability-related result in the induction category. We concluded that deductive impossibilities deny 100%-guarantees for security. In the end, we give some ideas that hold potential in explainability, controllability, value alignment, ethics, and group decision-making. They can be deepened by further investigation

Remarks on Environmental Regulation, Firm Behavior and Innovation

The Porter Hypothesis says that well-designed environmental regulation should trigger innovations and enhance the competitiveness of firms. This paper, which follows the invitation to participate at a recent workshop financed by the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, summarizes theoretical findings concerning this Hypothesis and makes recommendations to improve existing regulation. L'hypothèse de Porter veut qu'une réglementation environnementale bien conçue encourage l'innovation et renforce la compétitivité des entreprises. Ce cahier, qui fait suite à l'invitation à participer à un récent atelier financé par la Environmental Protection Agency des États-Unis, résume la recherche théorique récente se rapportant à la validité de cette hypothèse et formule des recommandations visant à améliorer les réglements existants.Environmental regulation, innovation, organizational failure, Réglementation environnementale, innovation, failles organisationnelles

Implementation of Migrant Education Program in the Richgrove School District

Justification of the problem. A significant percentage of the children attending school in the Richgrove School District are identified as migrant students. Migratory children often were two or more grades below grade level in reading, spoke little or no English, tended to withdraw from the school environment, had poor self-concepts, lacked nutritionally balanced meals, and had few, if any, previous health records. The present study is an outgrowth of the Richgrove School District\u27s effort to develop and provide an educational program designed to meet the needs of migratory children residing within its attendance boundaries. The problem. The problem was to examine student achievement in pull-out instruction classes in reading and in English as a second language, student self-image improvement, food and health services, and 2 community involvement for migrants. Delimits of the study. The study was limited to those aspects of the Richgrove School District\u27s migrant education program during the 1970-71 school year. Hypothesis. It was the hypothesis of this study that migrant education programs can be designed to improve student achievement in reading and English as a second language classes, improve the self image of the student and improve food and health services for migrant children. Method of procedure. The procedure followed in this study was to describe the development, implementation, and observed results of the Richgrove School District\u27s 1970-71 migrant education program. The effectiveness of the migrant education program was determined by student achievement, teacher and student ratings, observed results, records of food and health services provided, and an evaluation of nutritional and health services by a medical doctor. Findings. Migrant pupils in the Language Comprehension Improvement classes who were enrolled for pre-test and post-test evaluations of reading achievement gains in grades two through eight, as measured by the California Achievement Test, averaged more than one month\u27s gain for each month in class . The English as a Second Language pre-class and post-class ratings revealed that children in the English as a Second Language classes learned to speak English at an accelerated rate. Teacher and student opinion indicated that children in the E.S.L. classes learned to speak English more quickly and took part in classroom activities sooner than previous migrant children who did not have the benefit of supplemental instruction. The food and nutritional services provided 11,612 free lunches to migrant students. Migrant families had the option of purchasing reduced priced lunches for their children at a cost of 10 cents per meal. The findings indicated that the food services were available for all migrant children. The findings revealed that health services were improved for migrant children. Fluoride brush-in treatment was provided for 96 migrant children. In addition, 85 dental examinations and treatments were conducted as well as complete physical examinations for 76 migrant children. Migrant families were assisted by the school district in obtaining glasses, shoes, and clothing for their children. Observations, student ratings, and teacher opinions indicated that migrant pupils experienced opportunities that aided the improvement of self-image and that migrant children seemed to develop a better self-concept. The related services which included cross-age tutors, recreational programs, learning experience field trips, summer school, and migrant parent involvement were deemed by the findings to have a positive influence on the school experiences offered migratory children. Implications . The project findings revealed that migrant education programs can be designed to increase achievement in reading and English as a second language, offer opportunities to improve self image, and offer increased nutritional and health services for migrant children. The findings of this study may be used to help improve educational services provided migratory children by other school districts or states