The Question Type

                        The Question Type

 The question is a type of knowledge quite different from other types like
contradiction and procedural. For intelligent systems a question is used to
start a search engine looking for the answer to the question. This search
engine may include a physical search for food in the systems environment.

 Humans do different searches and may search for the definition of a word.
Take the question: What is the meaning of the word uru?

 Intelligent systems would rarely ask it that way. They would more likely
ask: What is uru? This is because words are looked at as objects of
knowledge and the first most important thing to know about a knowledge
object is its context.

 The answer to the question: What is uru? would be 'name', the context of
uru, because it is the name of a game. The intelligent system would then
recognize uru as the name of an intelligent system and could then have nine
other questions to ask about uru. What is the purpose of uru? What is the
value of uru? What is the operation of uru? And so on for all the rest of
the knowledge contexts.

 Some types of questions require an answer returned as new procedural
knowledge. Let's say you and your car are swept off the road by a flash
flood. As the car is tumbling over and over and you ask the question: What
am I going to do? Having never been in this situation before you will need
to develop a new understanding procedure in order to stay alive.

 The procedure: Don't panic. Stay calm. Wait for the car to stop tumbling.
Roll down a window on the leeward side. Climb out. Get to a bank. This
procedure can be developed in seconds and executed immediately and it
answers the question: What am I going to do? Which programs your doing
affector.

 Now there are some different types of questions like the 'trick question'
but it is most important to remember that the question is just another type
of knowledge.

 Dave.