Knowledge in Action: Logical Foundations for Specifying and Implementing Dynamical Systems,   ISBN:9780262182188

Customer Rating: 

It is rare that a book appears which presents a solution to a major outstanding problem. It is even rarer when a book presents a solution which is both theoretically sound and undeniably practical. But this is such a book. The frame problem, which went unnoticed for the first 70 years of logic, and unsolved for the next 30, here gets a solution.

This book is the distillation of Reiter's lifeswork. Unlike many other such books, however, it is not a mere cut-n-paste of conference papers and tech reports. Instead of being a pastiche, it is rather a continuous, sustained argument, persuasively and clearly presented. A masterpiece.

There is something here to infuriate everybody. Those who think that AI shouldn't be using logic-based methods will be infuriated because Reiter has here, for the first time, made them work. Those who think that first-order logic is the only true logic will be infuriated, because Reiter shows how 2nd order logic is key. Those who think that AI is too theoretical will be infuriated because this is a practical book. Those who think that AI shouldn't worry about being practical will be infuriated, because Reiter has shown that the best theory leads to the most practical solution. Those who are LISP fans will be infuriated because his methods lead inexorably to PROLOG. Read the book, be infuriated by it, and humbly learn from it. The master speaks.

If you've made it to this web page or this far in the review, you have to buy and read this book :-)