YLIKOSKI@FINFUN.BITNET (07/26/88)
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 88 11:37 EDT
From: YLIKOSKI%FINFUN.BITNET@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
Subject: thesis + antithesis = synthesis
To: AILIST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU
X-Original-To: @AILIST, YLIKOSKI
Distribution-File:
AILIST@AI.AI.MIT.EDU
In AIList Digest V8 #9, sme@doc.ic.ac.uk (Steve M Easterbrook)
writes:
>In a previous article, YLIKOSKI@FINFUN.BITNET writes:
>>> "In my opinion, getting a language for expressing general
>>> commonsense knowledge for inclusion in a general database is the key
>>> problem of generality in AI."
>>...
>>Here follows an example where commonsense knowledge plays its part. A
>>human parses the sentence
>>
>>"Christine put the candle onto the wooden table, lit a match and lit
>>it."
>>
>> ... LOTS of stuff by me deleted ...
>>
>>Therefore, Christine lit the candle, not the table."
>
>Aren't you overcomplicating it a wee bit? My brain would simply tell me
>that in my experience, candles are burnt much more often than tables.
>QED.
There could be some kind of default reasoning going on.
Candles are burnt, not tables, unless there is something out of the
ordinary about the situation. Christine is an ordinary person and the
situation is ordinary, therefore the candle was lit.
--- Andy
"When someone comes to you and shows you are wrong, don't start an
argument, try to create a synthesis."