Research Area of

Reasoning about Actions and Change

Discussion sessions - Actions and Change

The following discussions have been held or are being held in the Newsletter and News Journal. In addition, there are of course the discussions about ETAI received articles.

Discussions Following Selected Workshops

During the months after an international workshop in our area, we may set up discussion sessions for the articles that were presented at the workshop, as a way of documenting and pursuing the discussions at the workshop itself.

FCS-98, Formalization of Commonsense Reasoning, held in London, England, January 7-9, 1998.

Topic Oriented Discussions

Approaches to Reasoning about Actions and Change. Situation calculus, approaches using explicit time, etc. This is a intended to be a semi-permanent session, where contributions advocating one approach or another can come in even at long intervals.

Theory evaluation panel, also called Methodology of research in actions and change, asking "what constitutes a good theory in this area?" This panel is not intended for a discussion of the pros and cons of specific theories or approaches, but for a discussion of evaluation criteria. This is a continuation of a panel at the 1997 NRAC. For off-line reading, use the monthly summaries in postscript for [October], [November], [January]. These summaries are excerpts from the summaries published in the Electronic News Journal and Reasoning about Actions and Change.

Ontologies for Actions and Change. Which underlying assumptions are made about the world that's being described by logics for actions and change? This is also a continuation of a panel at the 1997 NRAC. (More information and links to monthly summaries by clicking the title phrase).

Ontologies for Time. What are the alternative ontologies for time in terms of timepoints, intervals, and other similar constructs? This is a spinoff from the discussion about Ontologies for Actions and Change (previous item). Monthly summaries in postscript for [March], [April], [May]. These summaries are excerpts from the summaries published (March) or to be published (April, Mary) in the Electronic News Journal and Reasoning about Actions and Change.

Causation and Ramification. Current and earlier approaches to formal characterizing "indirect change" or "inferred change" are compared. For off-line reading, use the monthly summaries in postscript for [March, 1998].

Discussions with Authors of Selected Articles

Discussion with Wolfgang Bibel, on topics in his invited paper at IJCAI 1997. Monthly summaries in postscript are available in sections of the monthly issues of the Electronic News Journal and Reasoning about Actions and Change for [September 1997] and [January 1998].