The Language E is a simple declarative language
for describing the effects of action occurrences within a given
narrative, using an ontology of actions, time points and fluents
(i.e. properties which can change their truth
values over time). This paper shows how E may be extended to deal with
ramifications. More precisely, we show how
Language E domain descriptions can
include statements describing permanent relationships or constraints between
fluents, and how the model theoretic semantics
of E can be extended
in an intuitive way to ensure that the effects of actions are
appropriately propagated via such statements, whilst retaining E's
simple approach to the frame problem. This results in a simple
model of causality appropriate for many domains involving actions and
change.
This paper is available over the Web in postscript form: CEC.ps, or as a dvi file: CEC.dvi.
Sumbmitted to the AAAI Spring Symposium: Prospects for a Commonsense Theory of Causation, Stanford University, March 23-25 1998.
The paper is a summary of the first part of:
Antonis Kakas and Rob Miller,
Reasoning about Actions, Narratives and Ramifications,
Linköping Electronic Articles in Computer and Information Science,
Vol. 2(1997): nr 12.
http://www.ep.liu.se/ea/cis/1997/012/. October 16,
1997. Also posted and under public review in the News Journal of
Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence.
[See abstract page].