FOREWORD (December 2004)

I published NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSNG in 1988. It is now out of print and the first two parts of the text - on syntax and semantics, are obsolete. My reasons for re-publishing the text on the Internet has been prompted by the recent publication of a book by Jeff Hawkins entitled 'ON INTELLIGENCE' Times Books 2004 in which he expounds an interesting theory about the brain and intelligence. This theory has been attracting some favourable comment from several quarters.

I want to point out that most of the elements of this theory were preseaged in my 1988 book. In particular I draw attention to the following

Section 17.1 'Internal representation and predictions
Section 17.4 Uniformity of representational form
                (i.e. word concepts and non-linguistic mental representation are the same) Section 18.2, 18.2 and figure 18.1 Which are concerned with how word-concepts can be put together to construct
                the meaning of a sentence. Section 19.4 on causal links and time-stamps
Section 20.1 on States and perceptions
                (how state representations can be constructed from basic perceptions)

It is not just a question of staking a claim on these ideas. I am on the point of publishing another book (the text of which has been circulating among acquaintancies for many months). In it I develop these ideas into a complete general theory of intelligence and consciousness. I want to avoid accusations that I pinched these ideas from Jeff Hawkins.

This e-text is as close to the original as I can manage. Some format and typographical changes were forced upon me by the notational requirements of HTML. There may also be a few scanning errors. I have tried to spot and eliminate these but I know that some will remain - for which I apologise. It has to be said, that I am the world's worst proof reader.