Intermediate languages for switching and control

Abstract

When I was asked to give this paper, I was unaware that the title of the Conference was ‘Words and Meaning’. While I warmly welcome this theme, I must admit that it gave me rather abruptly a feeling of nervous awareness of the problem of associating words with meaning. I began to read things twice and look for alternative interpretations; and when I received the registration form for this conference I experienced a feeling of near panic when I was asked to answer the question ‘Will you be eating lunch on Wednesday the 12th of April?’ How difficult it is to verbalize concepts, especially in subject areas such as ours which contain so many abstract notions that one is sometimes guilty of trying to avoid being too precise. I am reminded of the professor, who when asked the question ‘What is electricity?’ replied ‘It all depends what you mean by “is”.’