Truth Maintenance Systems

Many conventional reasoning systems assume that reasoning is the process of deriving new knowledge from old, i.e., the number of things a person or intelligent software believes increases without retracting any existing knowledge, since known truths never change under this form of logic. This is called monotonic logic. However, this view does not accurately capture the way in which humans think since our actions constantly change what we believe to be true. Humans reason nonmonotonically, which means they reason based on incomplete or uncertain information, common sense, default values, changing conditions, and other assertions subject to retraction or revision. Truth maintenance systems seek to emulate the human reasoning process by recording reasons for our beliefs and reasons for retraction or revision of those beliefs, as well as the beliefs themselves. They are particularly useful in keeping track of goals, sub-goals, decisions, tasks, assignments, and design documents on complex projects (such as the design, construction, and testing of a major commercial aircraft) being undertaken by large numbers of people who may work for different organizations in different parts of the world. This is the sort of situation where a decision may be reversed, and all the people who may have to react to that change may not be properly informed. Project management software using TMS can help avoid design problems or wasted effort that can result from this sort of oversight. Also known as Reason Maintenance Systems.


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Truth Maintenance Systems,Many conventional reasoning systems assume that reasoning is the process of deriving new knowledge from old, i.e., the number of things a person or intelligent software believes increases without retracting any existing knowledge, since known truths never change under this form of logic. This is called monotonic logic. However, this view does not accurately capture the way in which humans think since our actions constantly change what we believe to be true. Humans reason nonmonotonically, which means they reason based on incomplete or uncertain information, common sense, default values, changing conditions, and other assertions subject to retraction or revision. Truth maintenance systems seek to emulate the human reasoning process by recording reasons for our beliefs and reasons for retraction or revision of those beliefs, as well as the beliefs themselves. They are particularly useful in keeping track of goals, sub-goals, decisions, tasks, assignments, and design documents on complex projects (such as the design, construction, and testing of a major commercial aircraft) being undertaken by large numbers of people who may work for different organizations in different parts of the world. This is the sort of situation where a decision may be reversed, and all the people who may have to react to that change may not be properly informed. Project management software using TMS can help avoid design problems or wasted effort that can result from this sort of oversight. Also known as Reason Maintenance Systems.,