Creating abstractions using relevance reasoning
Alon Y. Levy · 1994
Reasoning with multiple levels of abstraction is a powerful method of controlling problem solving in complex domains. We consider the problem of simplifying a knowledge base by creating an abstraction that is tailored for a given set of queries. Our approach is based on associating formally an abstraction with some irrelevant detail that is removed from the knowledge base. We show how creat-ing an abstraction and determining its util-ity amounts to automatically deciding which aspects of a representation are irrelevant to a query. As a result, we derive a general al-gorithm schema for automatically generating abstractions for a query. As an instance of the schema, we describe a novel algorithm for automatically abstracting a KB by projecting out relation arguments.