Symbolic processing

Is Symbolic processing the messenger of a new era in computing, or is it the newest hype that may eventually survive only in the encyclopedia of information processing as another passing historical reference …? Neither of these extremes however would seem to be the likely fate for symbolic processing. In reality, this technology may become the next evolutionary plateau that will open sorely missing new avenues for increasing computing efficiency, improving programming productivity and enhancing the bandwidth of man-machine interactions. As such symbolic processing presents a set of new problems, proper and timely solutions of which will determine the extent of the impact symbolic processing may eventually have on the information processing industry as a whole. One such problem seems to be the limitations of current methods for knowledge acquisitions and knowledge representation. Given the human tendency of narrowing the gap between naturally intelligent and artificially intelligent systems, the presently used tools for knowledge acquisition and representation quickly became inadequate as the knowledge domain boundaries begin to expand. Obviously, much research needs to be done in this area. Another subject of major concern is the lack of formalism and semantics of symbols for representing complex objects, concepts and relationships. Such a formalism should allow to minimize, if not eliminate ambiguities, "shadow" effects and contradictions in representation and interpretation, and thus contribute to the coherency of inferences when large data/knowledge bases are processed. Meanwhile full explicitness of inferencing as the ultimate goal, may always remain elusive … Design issues in the field of symbolic processing are among the most debated subjects by researchers and practitioners. Current research toward the solution of critical problems involve the whole system design space - algorithms, languages, architecture and implementation. The effective solution of these problems supported by demonstrable practical results will further enhance the commercial viability and the broad based applications of the symbolic processing technology.