This book has an important starting point in the conference held in
Stockholm in May-June 1988 on Culture, Language and Artifidal
Intelligence. It assembled more than 300 researchers and practitioners
in the fields of technology, philosophy, history of ideas, literature,
linguistics, sodal science etc. The conference was an initiative from
the Swedish Center for Working Life, based on the project AI-Based
Systems and the Future of Language, Knowledge and Responsibility in
Professions within the COST 13 programme of the European Commission.
Partidpants in the conference and researchers related to its aims were
chosen to contribute to this book. It is preceded by Knowledge, Skill
and Artificial Intelligence (ed. B. Göranzon and I. Josefson,
Springer-Verlag, 1988), Artifidal Intelligence, Culture and Language
(ed. B. Göranzon and M. Florin, Springer-Verlag, 1990) and Dialogue and
Technology: Art and Knowledge (ed. B. Göranzon and M. Florin,
Springer-Verlag, 1991). The two latter books have the same conference
connection as this one, and their aim is to present the contours of a
research field with a multitude of issues that demands thorough
investigation. The contributors' thinking in this field varies greatly;
so do their styles of writing. For example: contributors have varied in
their choice of "he" or "helshe" for the third person. No distinc- tion
is intended, but chapters have been left with the original usage to
avoid extensive changes. Similarly, individual contribu- tor's
preference as to notes or reference lists have been followed.
