Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality (Artificial Intelligence) - Hardcover

Russell, Stuart

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262181444 ISBN 13: 9780262181440

Publisher: MIT Press, 1991

Synopsis

Like Mooki, the hero of Spike Lee's film "Do the Right Thing" artificially, intelligent systems have a hard time knowing what to do in all circumstances. Classical theories of perfect rationality prescribe the "right thing" for any occasion, but no finite agent can compute their prescriptions fast enough. In "Do the Right Thing", the authors argue that a new theoretical foundation for artificial intelligence can be constructed in which rationality is a property of "programs" within a finite architecture, and their behaviour over time in the task environment, rather than a property of individual decisions. "Do The Right Thing" suggests that the rich structure that seems to be exhibited by humans, and ought to be exhibited by AI systems, is a necessary result of the pressure for optimal behaviour operating within a system of strictly limited resources. It provides an outline for the design of new intelligent systems and describes theoretical and practical tools for bringing about intelligent behaviour in finite machines. The tools are applied to game planning and real-time problem solving, with surprising results.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Do the Right Thing suggests that the rich structure that seems to be exhibited by humans, and ought to be exhibited by Al systems, is a necessary result of the pressure for optimal behavior operating within a system of strictly limited resources.

About the Author:

Stuart Russell is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. This book builds on important philosophical and technical work by his coauthor, the late Eric Wefald.

About this edition

• Publisher: MIT Press
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0262181444
• ISBN 13: 9780262181440
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224