Search vs. knowledge : an analysis from the domain of games

Presented at the NATO Symposium Human and Artificial Intelligence, Lyon, France, October, 1981. CMU Technical Report CMU-CS-82-104. We examine computer games in order to develop concepts of the relative roles of knowledge and search. The paper concentrates on the relation between knowledge applied at leaf nodes of a search and the depth of the search that is being conducted. Each knowledge of an advantage has a projection ability (time to convert to a more permanent advantage) associated with it. The best programs appear to have the longest projection ability knowledge in them. If the application of knowledge forces a single view of a terminal situation, this may at times be very wrong. We consider the advantages of knowledge delivering a range as its output, a method for which some theory exists, but which is as yet unproven.