Cobb%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA (04/12/84)
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by SASW@MIT-MC.]
SEMINAR
Kenneth D. Forbus
April 17 - 4:00PM
NE43 - 8th floor Playroom
Title: QUALITATIVE PROCESS THEORY
Objects move, collide, flow, bend, heat up, cool down,
stretch, break, and boil. These and other things that happen to cause
changes in objects over time are intuitively characterized as
processes. To understand common sense physical reasoning and make
programs that interact with the physical world as well as people do we
must understand qualitative reasoning about processes and their
effects. Qualitative Process theory defines a simple notion of
physical process that appears useful as a language in which to write
dynamical theories. Reasoning about processes also motivates a new
qualitative representation for quantity in terms of inequalities,
called the Quantity Space.
This talk will describe the basic concepts of Qualitative
Process theory, two different kinds of reasoning that can be performed
with them, and its implications for causal reasoning. Several
examples will be presented to illustrate the utility of the theory,
including figuring out that a boiler can blow up and how different
theories of motion may be encoded.
Refreshments at 3:45PM
Host: Professor Patrick H. Winston