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Subject: Seminar - Concepts Defined via Approximate Theories (SU)
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Date: Wed, 10-Dec-86 15:42:00 EST
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           Commonsense and Non-Monotonic Reasoning Seminar

	   CONCEPTS DEFINED VIA APPROXIMATE THEORIES

			John McCarthy

		   Thursday, December 11, 4pm
			 Jordan 050

Some important concepts for AI including "it can", "it believes" and
counterfactuals may be precisely definable in theories that approximate
reality in a generalized sense.  Useful approximate theories of action are
typically non-deterministic even when they approximate deterministic
systems.  The concepts are useful to the extent that the approximate
theory answers questions about the real world, but they often become
imprecise when attempts are made to define them directly in real world
terms.  The lecture will discuss the sense of approximation, give
some examples, and make connections with the previous discussion of
contexts.  Some of the material is discussed in my paper "Ascribing
Mental Qualities to Machines".