Strange Aeons
sesquipedalia verba
Simon Wells is an academic researching Argumentation Theory, Automated Reasoning, Intelligent Agents (IA) and MultiAgent Systems (MAS) all approached through a ludic lens.
He is particularly interested in how these tools can be usefully applied to critical literacy, security, gamification, and complex systems.
TwitterCaliornia Odyssey Day 7
My final day in Pasadena I had a few hours to kill in the morning because my flight wasn't until early evening so I packed, booked my supershuttle ride, checked out, left my luggage in the hotel luggage facility, and went for breakfast in the old town. I spent a couple of hours wandering around with the hope of tiring myself out so that I might sleep on the plane later. Around lunchtime I returned to the hotel had humous and flatbread sitting at the bar and got talking to the bartender. We started talking about Whisky and I pointed out that I like Bourbon and that a particular favourite is Wild Turkey. At this the bartended informs me that Wild Turkey really isn't very good and he lines up about eight glasses and proceeds to take me through a succession of top quality Bourbons, starting with something just a little more up market than Wild Turkey and finishing with a 146% proof rare single barrel. Needless to say he earned himself a very good tip and I felt that I had a good chance of falling asleep later on the aeroplane.
My flight from LAX to CDG was uneventful, in the early hours of the morning I got up to stretch my legs and spent about two hours talking to a retired social worker from California named Chester who was on his way to Europe with his wife. It turned out that he had visited Dundee 30 odd years ago to attend a social work convention. He had also spent some time in England and told me what it was like to be a black man in Britain at that time. Because of heavy immigration at that time many people thought that he was West Indian and in Britain for work, rather than a U.S. citizen and skilled social worker so thinks the attitudes that he experienced then were partly as a result of that. We put the world to rights for a couple of hours before turbulence meant that we had to return to our respective seats.
I arrived at CDG late morning and spent a couple of hours asleep across three seats in terminal 2E waiting for my connection to Edinburgh. Before midnight on the sunday I was home, having started travelling at around 4PM the previous day. It's good to be home.
Caliornia Odyssey Day 6 & IJCAI Day 4
The final day of IJCAI was much better in terms of topics that I had either an active research interest in, or at least sufficient background understanding to get something out of the sessions. Of particular interest today were the Coalitions and Coordination session and the Negotiation and Commitment session, both chaired by Michael Wooldridge, and the second Argumentation session chaired by Iyad Rahwan. Papers of particular interest today were:
- Dialectical Abstract Argumentation: A Characterization of the Marking Criterion Nicolás D. Rotstein, Martín O. Moguillansky, Guillermo R. Simari
- A Unified Framework for Representation and Development of Dialectical Proof Procedures in Argumentation Phan Minh Dung, Phan Min Thang
- Labellings and Games for Extended Argumentation Frameworks Sanjay Modgil
- Computational Properties of Resolution-based Grounded Semantics Pietro Baroni, Paul E. Dunne, Massimiliano Giacomin
Caliornia Odyssey Day 5 & IJCAI Day 3
Caliornia Odyssey Day 4 & IJCAI Day 2
Today was the first argumentation session of the IJCAI technical track chaired by Stefan Woltran. I am quite impressed that there are now two argumentation sessions in the main technical track where there didn't used to be any. Argumentation, at least in the technical sense applied in A.I. must really be making some headway and gaining popularity. That said this wasn't the most widely attended session. Papers during this session included:
drink cost me much less that the conference banquet would have. Although I didn't have the opportunity to geek out with the other delegates, afterwards I did find a great bar that server reasonably priced beer, had friendly bar staff, and had great entertainment. I spent the rest of the evening listening to Sarah Daye singing live in a bar in the Paseo Colorado. She has a great voice and sings a mixture of tracks that you have heard before and tracks that you haven't. I stayed until the very end and was pleased with my evenings entertainment.
- "A Characterisation of Strategy-Proofness for Grounded Argumentation Semantics" by Iyad Rahwan, Kate Larson, and Fernando Tohme.
- "Repariing Preference-Based Argumentation Frameworks" by Leila Amgoud and Srdjan Vesic
- "Argumentation System with Changes of an Agent's Knowledge Base" by Kenichi Okuno and Kazuko Takahashi
- "On the Accrual of Arguments in Defeasible Logic Programming" by Mauro Javier Gomez Lucero, Carlos Chesnevar, and Guillermo Simari
Caliornia Odyssey Day 3 & IJCAI Day 1
Caliornia Odyssey Day 2
California Odyssey Day 1
NYC Odyssey Day 5
My last morning in NYC. Feeling a little tired after my night out in Manhattan I threw all my gear into my bag and headed back to Manhattan for breakfast. My travel plan was to take the subway into Manhattan, eat breakfast then a train from Penn Station to Jamaica Center, followed by the Air Train to my terminal at JFK. This was suggested by Simon last night as the best trade off between time and expense and was a plan made when we were originally meeting on saturday morning before I headed to the airport. With Betsy still sick we abandoned the work plans but I still followed the basic travel plan. So I hopped onto the Q line to canal street. I then found a nice french bistro with a terrace where I had some Eggs Benedict, coffee and juice, before taking the subway up to Penn Station. The journey to JFK was uneventful. It was after my arrival at JFK terminal seven that things started to get interesting.
My itinery from BAA sent me to terminal seven to catch an Air China flight to LAX on what appeared to be a code share flight with Continental. My first inkling of something not quite right was the Air Chine flys out of a different terminal than seven. Anyhow, after failing to find my flight code on any monitor, and their being no Air China in this terming, I then tried the Continental, because it was a CA code, and United, just for luck, desks to see if they could indicate where I was supposed to be checking in. I was basically sent to another terminal, that Air China operates out of where I was subsequently informed that Air China had no idea what flight I was on, or who with, because they don't fly to LAX. Eventually I gave up with Air China and went to the Air France desk and explained that all of my other flights were with them and that there was some sort of mix up with my connection to LAX. The Air France people were really helpful, they searched in the system, found my flight, informed me that the flight didn't actually accept passengers and that it was basically a cargo flight. They then booked me onto an American Airlines flight leaving an hour later as my scheduled cargo flight had been missed at this point with all of the travel between JFK terminals and check-in desks.
So I eventually arrived at LAX after a long cattle class flight on American Airlines stuck in the center seat of the middle row which has made me realise that I don't ever really want to fly long haul again in economy class. I think that in future I would much rather pay personally for the upgrade to business or first class where it actually makes a difference. Anyhow, arriving in California, first impressions were that it is very different on the west coast to the east coast. Where in NYC nobody has the time to talk and the overall impression is quite aggressive and self-interested, the west coast seemed quite laid back, peole seemed to have the time to talk to complete strangers. Within minutes of landing I had talked to a guy at the taxi rank who was collecting donations for a homeless shelter, seeing as he helped me find the supershuttle stop and explained that I didn't need to phone them to get on the shuttle I gave him a small donation. After that I got on the next shuttle heading for Pasadena and arrived at my hotel around 11PM. My first few hours were spent at LAX and on various California highways, whilst my shuttle driver first tracked down his phone which he had lost meaning that he couldn't coordinate with his despatcher.
My hotel is a step up from the Best Western, I am in the Pasadena Hilton -- because it is the main IJCAI conference hotel, honest. I have never felt bed sheets of such high quality, whilst the building itself seems a little tired, it is clean and the beds are great. I even got a room with a balcony which was nice. I took a couple of pictures from my balcony in the warm night air then retired quickly to my bed.
NYC Odyssey Day 4
NYC Odyssey Day 3
Mat Fraser presents: Sealo's British Invasion Salute the Queen and wear your Union Jack with pride, it time for the all British night of classy, brassy, and arsey girls and boys to reclaim the America’s, stiff upper tits, and tally hoe, what? Starring a bawdy bevvy of all British Burlesque Beauties, hosted by your favourite British Freak, the sealboy himself, Mr Mat Fraser!Basically we had a show filled with lovelies enacting typical British stereotypes in the typical Burlesque form, which was funny and sexy and better than almost any other entertainment form. On one level I think that I like Burlesque for exactly the same reason that I read speculative fiction. This is because they break the rules. The shows are not as polished as something from Hollywood. The audience has the opportunity to interact with (and in this case get sprayed with liquid (which I hope was sparkling wine)) the artists. At the Coney Island Sideshow you get to see, and interact with, the stars of the show at the bar, drinking the same beer as yourself, and in Mat's case, clearing his bar tab from earlier that night. Basically Burlesque doesn't obey the rules of "what is cool right now" but acknowledges that the classic shows actually had entertainment value and that sometimes a corny, or old, or even bad joke is still funny if delivered in the right way... ... with nipple tassles. I plan to head to the Slipper Room to see Julie Atlas Muz tomorrow night. She was in tonight"s show where her British accent made Dick Van Dyke sound like Olivier ;) More information once there is something to talk about. Either way she is one of the best Burlesque artists, or even just one of the best performance artists, to see. So if you get the chance, see one of her shows.
Julie Atlas Muz Photograph Source: http://www.leahmeyerhoff.com/
