[comp.ai.neural-nets] Rule-based systems and model-based reasoning

bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Kort) (11/13/89)

In article <Nov.12.17.33.09.1989.3774@aramis.rutgers.edu>
tgd@aramis.rutgers.edu (Tom Dietterich) writes:

 > Rule-based systems (such as those described by Klatt) may attain
 > superior performance.  The challenge is to come up with learning
 > methods that can match the performance of hand-crafted rule bases.

I agree.  Large rule-based systems are brittle, unwieldy, and
difficult to evolve.  I expect that model-based reasoning will
eventually supplant rule-based systems.  At the present time,
model-based reasoning (also called deep reasoning) is an AI
frontier.  When I do diagnostic reasoning, I reason from a
mental model or from a mechanical or computer simulation model.
Most of the work is in the construction of the model.

One of the reasons that I cannot diagnose the trouble with my
Pontiac's carburetion system is that I don't have a clear
mental model of how it works.

--Barry Kort