Expert Systems Inference = Modeling Connicts

Tim Menzies Dept. of Software Development, Monash University, Melbourne, [email protected] Abstract| Many expert systems tasks imply making assumptions. Where assumptions con ict, these assumptions must be managed in separate worlds. We describe an abductive device for managing such con icts. This device lets us manage the con icting assumptions, validate the (potentially) con icting theory, as well as perform expert systems inference across theories that generate con icts. We nd that con ict management is a general framework for building test engines and inference engines in knowledge-based systems.