Comments on the Symposium on `Computer Discovery and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge'

Abstract

The Special Issue of Social Studies of Science, of November 1989, containing the Symposium on 'Computer Discovery and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge',' came to my attention only a few months ago, and I have just now had an opportunity to review its contents carefully. If the debate has not already closed, I should like to add a few words to it. The most important comment is that BACON and KEKADA, referred to so often in this exchange are not 'Simon's programs?. If a single name is to be attached to BACON, it should be that of Pat Langley, since the early versions of that program consituted the core of Pat's doctoral dissertation. Pat should not be allowed to escape all of the blame that is heaped on me in these comments. Even more accurate would be to call these the LSBZ (pronounced 'lizbiz') programs after their four authors (a social collectivity!), or even LSBZK (Lizbizeek) to include Deepak Kulkarni, whose dissertation was built around KEKADA. Matters of content are mostly handled quite adequately by Peter Slezak in his Symposium opening paper, and closing replies. I can therefore largely restrict myself to specific assertions about BACON where perhaps Slezak conceded too much to the critics. It would take many pages to correct all the factual errors in the critiques; I will address only the most obvious.

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