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From: VAL@SAIL.STANFORD.EDU (Vladimir Lifschitz)
Newsgroups: mod.ai
Subject: Seminar - Formal Theories of Action (SU)
Message-ID: <8701190754.AA04835@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Sun, 18-Jan-87 00:19:00 EST
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Posted: Sun Jan 18 00:19:00 1987
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            Commonsense and Nonmonotonic Reasoning Seminar


		     FORMAL THEORIES OF ACTION

			 Vladimir Lifschitz

		      Thursday, January 22, 4pm
		 	 Bldg. 160, Room 161K

	We apply circumscription to formalizing reasoning about the effects
of actions in the framework of situation calculus. An axiomatic description
of causal connections between actions and changes allows us to solve the
qualification problem and the frame problem using only simple forms of
circumscription. 
	In this talk the method is illustrated by constructing a
circumscriptive theory of the blocks world in which blocks can be moved
and painted. We show that the theory allows us to compute the result of
the execution of any sequential plan.