TITLE: Universal Semantic Communication SPEAKER: Brendan Juba, MIT DATE: 27/6/2010 ABSTRACT: Is meaningful communication possible in the absence of any common knowledge or background? We believe that this question is not only interesting in its own right, but also relevant to the design of modern communications infrastructures: we face standards that constantly evolve over time, and are often not strictly followed, and so if possible, it would be highly desirable to design communications systems that do not rely on the assumption of fixed, universally adopted standards. Unfortunately, existing theories of communication are not well suited to addressing such questions. We suggest that such communication without common background is possible, and we propose a mathematical theory of communication in terms of the "goals" of the communication, in which we can pose such questions and begin to address to what extent communication is possible. In particular, we will show how some first-cut "universal protocols" can be designed for some explicit goals. (Joint work with Oded Goldreich and Madhu Sudan.)