MACHINE INTELLIGENCE 9

Donald Michie Volumes 1 --7 are published by Edinburgh University Press and in the United States by Halsted Press (a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) Volumes 8 -- 9 are published by Ellis Horwood Ltd., Publishers, Chichester and in the United States by Halsted Press (a subsidiary of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) MACHINE INTELLIGENCE 9 New York - Chichester - Brisbane - Toronto First published in 1979 by ELLIS HORWOOD LIMITED Market Cross House, Cooper Street, Chichester, West Sussex, P019 lEB, England The publisher's colophon is reproduced from James Gillison's drawing of the ancient Market Cross, Chichester No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form of by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. One intelligent approach to prefaces -- is to have the empty preface. The well prepared reader will form a good idea of the technical programme just from looking at the table of contents; together with the names of the authors, this gives him a good idea of what happened at the symposium. I could try to assess the tallcs and direct the reader's attention to the more interesting communications. But I fear this would be too subjective and unfair to the remaining authors -- all of them equally represented in this book. However, recalling that Spring week in Repino, a resort 20 kilometres from Leningrad on the Bay of Finland and unpopulated at that time of year, I have come to the definite conclusion that the scientific meeting was in its own way unique.