  Statistics is a uniquely difficult field to convey to the uninitiated. It
sits astride the abstract and the concrete, the theoretical and the applied. It
has a mathematical flavor and yet it is not simply a branch of mathematics. Its
core problems blend into those of the disciplines that probe into the nature of
intelligence and thought, in particular philosophy, psychology and artificial
intelligence. Debates over foundational issues have waxed and waned, but the
field has not yet arrived at a single foundational perspective.
