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From: minsky@ml.media.mit.edu (Marvin Minsky)
Subject: Re: [Req] Can anyone tell me what kind of AI this is?
Message-ID: <1996Mar18.024041.29287@media.mit.edu>
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References: <4i9fv5$b9p@calvin.st-and.ac.uk> <314845D9.60D6@psu.edu> <4ieek9$nci@dec-alpha.fred.net>
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 02:40:41 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:37747 comp.ai.alife:5296 comp.ai.genetic:8346 comp.ai.fuzzy:7045

In article <4ieek9$nci@dec-alpha.fred.net> dwalker@miworld.net (Damond Walker) writes:
>In article <314845D9.60D6@psu.edu>, mss175@psu.edu says...
>>> 
>>>                 Deterministic controller
>>>                 /       |       \               \
>>> weighted links /        |        \               \
>>>               /         |         \               \
>>>         selfish      selfish       selfish        etc
>>>         sub-process  sub-process   sub-process
>>> 
>>> The sub-processes deal with small issues of behaviour (hungry, thirsty
>>> etc) and send requests of varying urgencies for actions to the controller
>>> (go to sleep[weak], wake up[STRONG] etc) which just gives in to the
>>> strongest ones.

This is the scheme named "Pandemonium" by Oliver Selfridge in the
paper, "Pandemonium: a paradigm for learning," published in the Symposium
on Mechanization of Thought Processes, Her Majesty's Stationery
Office, London, 1959.  The sub-processes were called demons, hence the
name for the system.  
