Utilizing cognitive mechanisms in the analysis of counterfactual conditionals by AGI systems

Abstract

We give a crisp overview of the problem of analyzing counterfactual conditionals, along with a proposal of how an artificial system can overcome its challenges, by operationally utilizing computationally-plausible cognitive mechanisms. We argue that analogical mapping, blending of knowledge from conceptual domains, and utilization of simple cognitive processes lead to the creative production of, and the reasoning in, mentally-created domains, which shows that the analysis of counterfactual conditionals can be done in computational models of general intelligence. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.