PROBLEM SOLVER
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 2638 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
Someone who is supposedly able to offer a solution to a problem.
von FOERSTER writes:“… there are no problem solvers, because they do not have any problem in the first place. It is our problem they help us to solve, like any other useful tool, say, a hammer which may be dubbed a problem solver for driving nails into a board. The danger in this subtle semantic twist by which the responsability for action is shifted from man to a machine lies in making us lose sight of the problem of cognition” (1981, p.237).
Such a caveat is surely justified: as we all know, when some mistake had taken place, the (ir)responsible factotum was always inclined to tell us: “The computer made a mistake”. Of course, nobody believes that anymore nowadays.
Farther afield, no machine can give a correct answer if fed with an incorrect model of the question or situation. (“Garbage in, garbage out”).
As to her/his practical efficiency, the problem solver depends on the tools mastered: “… the challenge is to find algorithms that give reasonably good solutions reasonably quickly” (R. MATTHEWS, 1995, p.42). Recently, the arsenal of the problem solver has become enriched with new tools, as for example genetic algorithms and connectionist models.