This book springs from a conference held in Stockholm in May­ June 1988 on Culture, Language and Artificial Intelligence. It assembled more than 300 researchers and practitioners in the fields of technology, philosophy, history of ideas, literature, lin­ guistics, social science, etc. It was an initiative from the Swedish Center for Working Life, based on the project AI-Based Systems and the Future of Language, Knowledge and Responsibility in Professions within the COST 13 programme of the European Commission. Participants in the conference, or in some cases researchers related to its aims, were chosen to contribute to this book. It was preceded by Knowledge, Skill and Artificial Intelligence (ed. B. G6ranzon and 1. Josefson, Springer-Verlag, London, 1988) and will be followed by Dialogue and Technology (ed. M. Florin and B. Goranzon, Springer-Verlag, London, 1990). The contributors' thinking in this field varies greatly; so do their styles of writing. For example: contributors have varied in their choice of 'he' or 'he/she' for the third person. No distinction is intended but chapters have been left with the original usage to avoid extensive changes. Similarly, individual contributor's preferences as to notes or references lists have been followed. We want to thank our researcher Satinder P. Gill for excellent work with summaries and indexes, and Sandi Irvine of Springer­ Verlag for eminent editorial work.