The Institute for the Advanced Study of
Automated Reasoning, Cognition, Science, Music,
and Lots of Other Stuff

Ernest Davis, Founder and Executive Director

Mission

Here at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Automated Reasoning, Cognition, Science, Music, and Lots of Other Stuff, we think really deep thoughts about automated reasoning, cognition, science, music, and lots of other stuff. We're not just interdisciplinary* and multidisciplinary; we're extradisciplinary, superdisciplinary, hyperdisciplinary, postdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, neo-disciplinary, pandisciplinary, polydisciplinary, pluridisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, supradisciplinary and even metadisciplinary --- indeed well-nigh omnidisciplinary.

* The KDD Conference describes itself as "a premier interdisciplinary conference, [which] brings together practictioners from data science, data mining, knowledge discovery, large-scale data analytics, and big data." That's an impressive fraction of human thought, but we're even broader!

People

Director: Ernest Davis
Associate Dean for Eureka Moments: Ernest Davis. (I stole that idea from The University of Bristol )
Staff: Ernest Davis, Administrative Assistant to the Director and the Associate Dean
Visitors: Nobody, really, recently. Students sometimes drop by with questions about their assignments --- does that count?

Research Projects

General Artificial Intelligence: We are working on a system with general artificial intelligence based on classical trigonometry. We have proven that trigonometry is optimal for rational behavior. The law of sines is much underappreciated in the AI literature. We have a working prototype Trigonometricon that can carry out elementary versions of story understanding, bipedal motion, and singing Piedmontese folksongs. We expect to achieve general artificial intelligence within a few months, and Universal Artificial Intelligence around July ~~2019~~ 2024 -- in any case, well in advance of Kurzweil. Kurzweil doesn't appreciate the importance of trigonometry.
God: We're trying to figure out whether, academic fashions being what they are, there is more cachet at the moment to proving that God exists or that he doesn't. Meanwhile, we're stockpiling lots of great arguments, with lots of trigonometry, on both sides of the question.
Music and Math: This multi-year project aims at establishing all the superficial similarities between music and math that occur to anyone who thinks about it for five minutes. This enables associates of the Institute to justify any time spent watching Youtube music or dance videos as research. Once we actually publish something, CDs and concert tickets will be tax-deductible.
- Brahms: So my first idea was I was going to write something about the relation of math to Bach. I'm really into Bach. But it turns out that every half-wit who can add two fractions and owns an iPod has written something about the relation of math to Bach; and Mozart and Chopin are almost as bad. Schönberg is mathematical; but then I might get caught having to admit that the only thing I've listened to is Verklärte Nacht.
  So I settled on Brahms, who I figure is sufficiently uncool and stodgy that I won't have any competition. Plus there are a dozen or so pieces by Brahms that I really do like. Here for example is the YouTube video of Anastasia and Liubov Gromoglasova playing the Brahms Sonata in f minor for two pianos, Op. 34 --- it doesn't get any better than that! When I can figure out some way to connect that to math, I'll be a happy man.
  The project has hit a snag, though, in that I haven't been able to listen to the First Symphony from beginning to end without falling asleep.
Meta-analysis: The associates of the Institute look for half-baked articles that somehow got accepted at top-ranked journals --- these are a dime a dozen --- and then publish snarky comments poking fun at them. This enables them to prove how much smarter they are than anyone else, without having to do actual research, which is hard. It is dangerous, dirty work, but someone has got to do it. It is Important for the Integrity of Science.
As a spinoff from this enterprise, we have compiled a small collection of quotations by famous intellectuals that we find annoying. This is a valuable electronic resource.

Fellows

The Institute is happy to consider applications to become a Fellow. Applicants should have at least high-school equivalency, and have given some thought to automated reasoning, cognition, science, music, or something else. To expedite the consideration of your application, it is advisable to submit it in hard copy and to enclose a check for $300 to cover processing costs. The list of fellows, current and emeritus, is here.

Location

The Institute is currently housed in a disgracefully small office. However the Provost and the President have both assured me that they will give serious consideration to our request that we need a floor of the Zipper building, when it is complete. It should be noted that the Institute has not, qua institute, voted on any resolutions, votes of no confidence, or other such unnecessary expressions of discontent or concern. The Institute reluctantly concedes that individual associates have the right to their own opinions, however wrong-headed or counter-productive.

Library

The Institute Library comprises approximately 100,000 volumes, on topics ranging across automated reasoning, cognition, science, music, and lots of other stuff, plus a bunch of LP's.

Borrowing privileges: Friends of the Institute may borrow any of the books in the library, except the 3 or 4 that the Director actually uses and 1 or 2 others that he might eventually get around to reading, on condition that they do not return them.

Museum

Associated with the library is a museum, with a collection of toys chewed by dogs who died ten years ago, remotes and power adapters for devices that were thrown away 20 years ago, and unidentifiable electronic* devices. A catalogue for this historically valuable collection is under development.

* We think they're electronic. They seem to be leaking battery acid.

Conference

The Institute is the proud sponsor of the annual International Conference on Studies in Automated Reasoning, Cognition, Science, Music and Lots of Other Stuff. This year's conference will be held at the University of Montana, Missoula, MT, at the 7-11 near campus, on December 15, 3:00-4:15 AM. Preregistration is advisable.

Melpomene Bergson Fellowship in -Mediality

We are delighted to announce the creation of the prestigious Melpomene Bergson Fellowship in -Mediality (pronounced "hyphen-mediality"), for the advanced study of the interactions, interrelations, and interfaces between intermediality, hypermediality, transmediality, panmediality, plurimediality, extramediality, multimediality, polymediality, sur-mediality, co-mediality, cross-mediality, and metamediality.

Applicants should submit a CV demonstrating their scholarly contributions to no fewer than four of the above, together with a description of their proposed research, not to exceed 200 pages.

Bergson Fellows in -Mediality are encouraged to apply to the NEA, the NEH, the NSF, or anywhere else for financial support, keeping in mind the Institute's 75% indirect costs policy, which pays for all kinds of important stuff.

Website

The Institute will have a much sexier website, with much better jokes, once the Director figures out how to use anything more complicated than vanilla HTML, and finds someone with a good sense of humor to write the jokes.

M.C. Escher inspires deep thoughts. Note that the artist has paradoxically placed the staircase in the vertical plane. Mindblowing.

The Institute for the Advanced Study of Automated Reasoning, Cognition, Science, Music, and Lots of Other Stuff