FLAIRS 2000 Conference Report

Subrata Dasgupta from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette spoke about the computer's role in the current revolution in cognitive science. His talk came from a historical perspective--how humankind has always felt an overwhelming need to understand the world around us and to control it for our own benefit. He further described how this need is now embodied in our need to understand our own cognitive processes--the very same organ that allows us to understand is not at all well understood. He described the roles that the computer has played as a metaphor for description and explanation and as an instru-The Thirteenth Annual International Conference of the Florida Artificial Intelligence Research Society was held in Orlando, Florida, on 22 to 24 May. The conference included sessions on 11 topics.