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From: rosa@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk ( U of Dundee)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: dear abby....
Message-ID: <1977@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 5-Mar-87 12:39:06 EST
Article-I.D.: cheviot.1977
Posted: Thu Mar  5 12:39:06 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 8-Mar-87 06:49:18 EST
References: <178@arcsun.UUCP> <549@franka.mntgfx.MENTOR.COM>
Sender: news@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk
Reply-To: rosa@cheviot (Rosa Michaelson - U of Dundee)
Organization: U. of Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K.
Lines: 22
Keywords: justification in expert systems

Dear Abby,
      My problem is that I think I may be schizophrenic..
When I say "expert system" I mean a program which advises
or searches for solutions in a restricted domain of data.  
Since I am British this program would be written at first 
in prolog. When others use the phrase "Expert System"
they mean some kind of all singing, all dancing REAL WORLD
EXPERT ... a human being not a program....
I have the same mismatch problem with the words "knowledge based",
"knowledge aquisition", "intelligent", and most
importantly with explanations...
If a friend wants an "expert system" to help diagnose faults
in cooking(say), I write a program to choose oven settings
and help out with sensible advice for drooping souffles.
When they ask for "the reason why" should I have written
a huge explanation database instead of relying on the
programming language internal logic control???????
Abby please help me decide if I should use a different,
more technical phrase like advice giving database program
instead of the confusing and misunderstood "expert system"
or join a less demanding profession like brain surgery?
yrs, a sad hacker.