I need to create a conversagent agent. Apart from parsing, I need to make the agent capable of thought. For practicality reasons, I decided to eliminate the ability to do arithmetic (apart from logic) and the ability to understand time. The agent should also be able to memorize ideas. For example, a person tells it that a cat is an animal. Then another person tells it that all animals die. If someone then tells it that cats do not die, it should issue a contradiction. I totally understand that this is a complicated task, but I know that I need to finish it. Where do I start? What logical transformations are essential to the succes of this system? Any references on similar work? [EDIT] Please only crosspost at Logic Systems [Edited by - arithma on June 26, 2006 8:01:45 AM]

First, you need to research knowledge representation.

Then, inference.

I strongly suggest looking at prolog...

Edit: Sheesh I HATE cross posters. Read the forum rules. Cross posting is forbidden. DON'T do it again! (I'm certainly not in a good mood today, so it's not the day to go breaking the rules)! Closing this thread now.

You should investigate inference in First Order Logic systems. Look for 'resolution inference rule' within the literature. You'll probably want to impement either a theorem prover or production system (don't be misled by the names... they do what you're looking for). Frame systems and semantic networks are another view of the same approach. The problem with these approaches though is that they require the ad hoc application of conflict resolution rules.

Prolog is certainly a good recommendation as an implementation language if you head in this direction.

Cheers,

Timkin