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
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.