The Fifth Generation’s Unbridged Gap

Abstract

Abstract The “Fifth Generation” planning decisions (JIPDEC 1981) of 1979-80 by the Japan Information Processing Development Centre (JIPDEC) embodie da number of primary themes, subsequently institutionalized in the ICOT laboratory in Tokyo. In addition to improvements to the general run of man machine communication aids, such as visual and speech input-output, sensory robot interfaces, natural language database query and the like, cognitive compatibility between the new ultra-powerful machines and their users was to be ensured by use of knowledge-based programming techniques. Taken together with radical approaches to the design of computing hardware, the Fifth Generation plans exceed present-day machines in power, instructability, and task-oriented intelligence by margins which leave the reader of the Japanese material somewhat dazed.