Knowledge servers: Applications of artificial intelligence to advanced space information systems

摘要

We have begun a transition from passive information systems which act only to facilitate the storage and retrieval of stereotyped data to far more active and responsive systems which can deal with widely differing forms of human knowledge. Edward Feigenbaum has coined the term 'knowledge servers' to describe this next generation of active information management systems. Among the functions of a knowledge server will be: the ability to store enormous varieties of knowledge; the ability to determine, through natural discourse, the needs of its users; the ability to summarize and pursue complex relationships in its knowledge; the ability to test and critique user hypotheses and suggest previously unseen connections resulting from those hypotheses; and the ability to communicate and collaborate with other autonomous knowledge servers. Because of complexity and variety of information relevant to future major space missions like the Space Station, these missions will act as a driving force and testbed for the knowledge server concept.