CRISSE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA (03/28/84)
From: Crisse Ciro <CRISSE%MIT-OZ@MIT-MC.ARPA>
[Forwarded from the MIT bboard by SASW@MIT-MC.]
Procedural Hints in the Control of Reasoning
Michael R. Genesereth
Computer Science Department
Stanford University
DATE: Thursday, March 29
TIME: 4:00 PM
PLACE: NE43 8th Floor Playroom
[This talk is also being given at IBM San Jose on
Friday, April 6, 10:00. -- KIL]
One of the key problems in automated reasoning is control of
combinatorics. Whether one works forward from given premises or
backward from desired conclusions, it is usually necessary to consider
many inference paths before one succeeds in deriving useful results.
In the absence of advance knowledge as to which path or paths are
likely to succeed, search is the only alternative.
In some situations, however, advance knowledge is available in the
form of procedural hints like those found in math texts. Such hints
differ from facts about the subject of reasoning in that they are
prescriptive rather than descriptive; they say what a reasoner OUGHT
to do rather than what is TRUE.
This talk describes a language for expressing hints to control the
process of reasoning and provides an appropriate semantic account in
the form of an interpreter that behaves in accordance with the hints.
The work is relevant to understanding the phenomenon of introspection
and is of practical value in the construction of expert systems.
HOST: Prof. Randy Davis