Inference with Recursive Rules

Recursiverules, such as "Yourparents'ancestors are your ancestors", althoughvery usefulfor theoremproving, naturallanguageunderstanding, questions-answe ring and information retrieval systems, presentproblemsfor many such systems, eithercausinginfiniteloopsor requiringthat arbitrarily many copiesof them be made. We have writtenan inference systemthat can use recursive ruleswithouteitherof theseproblems. The solution appearedautomatically from a technique designedto avoidredundant work. A recursive rule causesa cycleto be built in an AND/ORgraph of activeprocesses. Each pass of data throughthe cycleresultingin anotheranswer. Cyclingstops as soon as eitherthe desiredansweris produced, no more answerscan be produced, or resource boundsare exceeded.

Authors

• Stuart C. Shapiro Josephine Anstey

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