From: oded@ai.mit.edu (Oded Maron)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 13:49:19 -0500
To: all-ai
Subject: GSB today, 4/5 at 5:30 - 7th floor playroom


Now that the Unabomber seems to be behind bars, the main question
(other than who will star in the movie) is how did the FBI find him?
I claim that his brother's tip is merely a red herring.  The real clue
actually came from his doctoral thesis.  As the Boston Globe so
succinctly put it:

	Kaczynski's 80-page dissertation, ``Boundary Functions,''
	focused on a pure mathematical problem about functions and 
	circles that Duren [his advisor] said had no apparent 
	practical application. [p.12, 4/5/96]

As any FBI trainee will tell you, "Boundary Functions" are actually
codewords for "Fringe Elements".  In fact, the FBI has for years been
running a secret program nicknamed PWATSFTOG (people who are too smart
for their own good).  Every thesis and tech report produced in this
country and Canada was analyzed for subversive content.  Due to a lack
of computing resources, only the titles were analyzed.  Using
sophisticated neuro-fuzzy technology, the system was trained to
red-flag dangerous sounding titles.  The AI lab was not spared, and
several theses were put on the FBI's alert list, including:

LAMBDA The Ultimate Imperative 
	(for suggesting the US be turned into a monarchy, ruled by the
         mysterious, as yet uncaptured, LAMBDA) 

Hoeffding Races 
	(as it related to Communist success in the olympics)

Learning Structural Descriptions From Examples 
	(arches are easy to blow up)

Intelligence Without Reason 
	(the keywords "intelligence" and "reason")


So, in the future, make sure that your thesis has a nice,
conservative, bland title (for example, "The").  Otherwise, if you go
nuts and start blowing people up, the FBI will be on your tail before
you can say

G  I  R  L       S  C  O  U  T      B  E  N  E  F  I  T

Friday, at 5:30 in the 7th floor playroom