Cauldrons: An Abstraction for Concurrent Problems Solving. Revision.
Abstract
The abstractions we have for serial programming are powerful: concepts like data types, variable binding, generalized operators, the subroutine. We do not yet have the same sort of powerful abstractions for distributed computation, but I believe that the place to look for them is the same place that we found many of our abstractions for serial computation--in our own minds. This research extends a tradition of distributed theories of mind into the implementation of a distributed problem solver. In this problem solver a number of ideas from Minsky's Society of Mind are implemented and are found to provide powerful abstractions for the programming of distributed systems. These abstractions ar the cauldron, a mechanism for instantiating reasoning contexts, the frame, a way of modularly describing those contexts and the goal-mode, a mechanism for bringing a particular context to bear on a specific task. The implementation of both these abstractions and the distributed problem solver in which they run is described, accompanied by examples of their application to various domains.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA194128
Entities
People
- Ken Haase
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology