Methodological Assumptions of the PRODIGY Architecture

1. Unified Architecture Hypothesis

   Intelligent behavior arises out of internal reasoning and is not simply a response to external stimuli. Such reasoning requires an internal world model and this hypothesis is an implicit corollary to the Physical Symbol Systems Hypothesis. As such, this hypothesis is consistent with most work in artificial intelligence. However, there are systems with no explicit representation such as the subsumption architecture which do not rely on this assumption.

2. Maximum Rationality Hypothesis

   PRODIGY is designed so that it achieves a maximum maximum rationality consistent with its goals and knowledge.

3. Deliberative Reasoning Hypothesis

   PRODIGY learns deliberatively, meaning that it may direct its activity to maximize utility.

4. Glass Box Hypothesis

   PRODIGY uses a uniform, declarative knowledge representation. Additionally, all knowledge may be uniformly accessed by all modules of the architecture.

5. Multiple Learning Methods Hypothesis

   PRODIGY does not subscribe to a universal learning method like Soar but rather uses a number of different learning mechanisms.

6. Environmental Consistency Hypothesis

   In PRODIGY, the environment is assumed to change much slower (if at all) with respect to the speed of the reasoning and learning mechanisms. Thus, environmental consistency is assumed.