Even the dumbest people can look at a situation from several different angles. But thats still a problem for even the smartest computer systems. The Real-World Reasoning project, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program, is designed to get computers to start examining situations in more than one way. Its part of a larger effort, spearheaded by the Agencys Information Processing Technology Office, or IPTO, to move toward machines that can think for themselves. Software has gotten a lot smarter in recent years -- computers are now much better at recommending books, guessing your chances for getting appendicitis, and even piloting a spaceship. But each of these efforts requires a different type of reasoning. And programs still stink at switching from one mode to another.
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,59799,00.html
