On solving the qualification problem
Charles Elkan · 1995
ABSTRACT: The qualification problem may be the most fundamental difficulty in formalizing common sense knowledge in general, and in formalizing knowledge about action in particular. This position paper argues that the qualification problem is intrinsicallycomputational as opposed to representational. This does not imply that explicit, formal, knowledge has no role in the production of commonsensical behaviour, but it does imply that the qualification problem cannot be solved using currently available representation formalisms. For a future representation formalism to help in solving the qualification problem, it will be vital for it to possess a context mechanism. Artificial intelligence research has a history of wishful thinking. In the 1950s the hope was that the right heuristic search algorithms, if only they could be found, would suffice to explain