Referential communication in AUTONOTE, a personal information retrieval system

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the mechanisms of human intelligence and natural language communication, and with the design of an interactive computer program that incorporates and utilizes analogous mechanisms to improve man-machine communication. AUTONOTE2 is an improved personal information retrieval system. It includes, in addition to AUTONOTE (a presently running system), (1) mechanisms allowing the user to employ certain kinds of noun phrases to describe the items he wishes to store and retrieve; and (2) mechanisms enabling the system to maintain a map of what the user is referring to. Though extremely limited by comparison with the analogous human capabilities, these mechanisms add significantly to the descriptive power available to the user, and to the ease and efficiency of communication with the system. Furthermore, because AUTONOTE is a file oriented system, these additions add little to the present low cost of using the system. AUTONOTE2 also suggests new directions for software development for man-machine interaction, and it provides a practical testing ground for ideas about intelligence derived from observation of natural intelligence.