Abstract
Today’s computers -- their hardware and software -- provide us with a sufficient technological basis for building problem solving systems of considerable scope. Present hardware puts at our disposal “primary” memory capacities of over 107 bits at better than micro-second access times, “secondary” memory capacities of up to 1010 bits at sub-second access times, and logical circuitry that can operate at a rate of nanoseconds under the control of stored programs. Present software offers extensive linguistic and executive capabilities for flexible and convenient man-machine communication and for effective control of the information processes that are carried out by computer hardware.
This paper is based on a talk given at the 1st Annual Symposium of the American Society for Cybernetics, (ASC), Gaithersburg, Maryland, October 26, 1967; it covers material presented in the talk on “Reduction Procedures in Problem Solving” at the Symposium on Formal Systems and Non-Numerical Problem Solving, Case Western Reserve University, November 1968; it appears in the Communications of the ASC, Vol. I, No.2, July 1969, pp. 9-36.
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Amarel, S. (1970). On the Representation of Problems and Goal-Directed Procedures for Computers. In: Banerji, R.B., Mesarovic, M.D. (eds) Theoretical Approaches to Non-Numerical Problem Solving. Lecture Notes in Operations Research and Mathematical Systems, vol 28. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-99976-5_8
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