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To: ai@uk.ac.ucl.cs
Subject: A quote of no particular importance
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 93 15:13:02 +0100
From: Jonathan Poole <J.Poole@uk.ac.ucl.cs>


I came across the following quote made by a computational linguist.  It
neatly expresses my own feelings about doing ai research...  8-) 

	Like all other scientists, linguists wish they were physicists.
	They dream of performing classical feats like dropping grapefruits
	off the Leaning Tower of Pisa, of stunning the world with pithy
	truths like `F = ma' ... [But instead] the modern linguist spends
	his or her time starring or unstarring terse unlikely sentences
	like "John, Bill, and Tom killed each other", which seethe with	
	repressed frustration and are difficult to work into a conversation.

						Joseph D Becker 1975


Jonathan