A partly-finished response to your initial missive has been sitting in my
out-box since the first day you sent it. I don't know whether or when I'll
get to finishing it. I discovered that formulating a cogent response was
going to be difficult and require significant time and energy.
Dave Schum's office is 2 floors below mine and we are frequent lunch
companions. I have thought for years that Dave has been raising important
issues our community needs to be thinking about, but expressing them in
language that many UAI folks have trouble relating to. For years we have
had an ongoing intention to spend the necessary time and effort to see
whether we could formalize Dave's ideas in a way that Judea or others who
think like him can at least respond to intelligently, if not accept.
Unfortunately we've not made as much progress on this as we would like, due
to the many pressures of "urgent and important" matters that leave little
time for leisurely exploration of challenging but unfunded research issues.
There may be a real opportunity to do this now. Dave and I are both being
PAID to work on the same research program -- one in which these issues are
relevant. We are hoping to find space in this program for the dialogue
we've been meaning to have all these years.
I just wanted to say that you should count me in as one who finds the
questions you ask important and interesting, who thinks they deserve a
thoughtful response, and who would like to be able to find the time to give
you a solid answer to your questions.
Kathy Laskey