Architectures that Maintain a Symbolic World Model

Symbolic world models are required by architectures which attempt to understand their environment and predict the effects of their actions. Allen Newell argues that symbol systems are necessary bases of cognitive architectures that approximate knowledge systems. Symbolic models typically take the form of global databases which maintain a list of objects, their properties and locations. The disadvantage of utilizing world models is that a sufficiently complex and dynamic environment can never be accurately modelled. Brooks avoids this difficulty by not requiring a world model to perform its tasks.
Back to List of Other Properties