Closing Remarks

When I started to compile material for this summary, it rapidly became obvious that the task of summarizing the ASI exemplified a point made during it: although a task can be defined and the actions required to accomplish it can be specified, it does not follow that a satisfactory task performance can be achieved or is actually feasible. The task of considering every paper, presentation, plenary discussion, group discussion, and informal meeting — in order to record every significant point, to capture the gist and enthusiasm of the discussions, and to synthesize everything into a structured and balanced summary — seemed impossible in such a short time. Good ideas were prolific, but a bald listing of them could not convey their value. Even the simplest summary of all of them would be a long document. It might also be dull, which the ASI was not. In any case, most of the ideas will appear in the published Proceedings. Therefore these remarks attempt to review the ASI from a broader perspective.