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PLANNING AND PREDICTION

We would like to treat the circumstances of the previous narrative from the point of view of planning. In that case we need to be explicit about the consequences of actions and other events. The difference between planning and narrative is that in narrative we know that events and actions will succeed. This allows us to make assumptions we otherwise could not make. We can also assume that all the important effects of actions are mentioned. When we plan we need to show that we have taken into account all the important effects.

Let us consider the purposes of Junior and Daddy and predict what actions they will take and what the outcome will be. Of course, Junior losing the ticket will be an unpredicted event. We just throw it in, but then we should be able to predict what Junior and Daddy will subsequently do. This seems more difficult than either planning or predication.



John McCarthy
Thu Jul 8 18:10:07 PDT 1999