Sounds annoying, sure. Perhaps it gets better? For what it's worth, I believe the idea with multiple copies of an action label is non-determinism. If there are several outgoing links with the same label, then the choice of next state is not fully determined by the action: it could be any of those.
This can be used to represent randomness, but the idea of non-determinism in computer science is more general than that. It might be chosen according to some outside criteria. The most common case is nondeterminism in NP: NP indicates that there is a polynomial-time solution algorithm on nondeterministic turing machines, meaning Turing machines whose heads have multiple transition possibilities in their state transition diagrams, but "magically" make the correct transition to get the end result we need. On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Jim Bromer <[email protected]> wrote: > I am taking two Introduction to AI online courses and I am making quite a > few mistakes. Some of the mistakes are just plain mistakes. But some are > due to annoying cutsieness. Here is an example: > > True or False > State transition systems can represent actions that occur in parallel. > > Well of course they can, but since this is an introductory course the > answer has to be False. > Ok, got that one right. > > A state transition graph may have multiple outgoing/incoming directed > edges that are labelled with the same action. > > Well I had a feeling that was a trick question given the answer to the > first question, and the answer is...True. True? My best guess is that the > term label was not being applied to *some particular* labelled actions but > to the choice of actions at a particular state, whereas each state is the > resultant of the action so they are thought of as particulars (like > values)? Maybe there is some other reasoning behind this but if there is I > can't figure it out. > > This was from an introductory course in AI planning. AI Planning! I find > this stuff intensely annoying. We cannot use a state transition diagram to > diagram parallel actions? (That would be impossible for anyone to even > consider. Your mind can't handle it.) But it can be used to represent > multiple outgoing/incoming directed edges labelled with the same action? > Is the teacher kidding? Maybe you guys who have already been through this > see some error that I don't see, but I just don't see why the teacher > cannot just come out and explain the conventions that are applied to > terminology (like "state transition diagram") and save the quizzes for the > good stuff. Why challenge the students with the professor's mastery of > ambiguity? > > I make a lot of really dense mistakes in these courses. I don't want to > waste my time trying to outwit the teacher's challenges about computational > phlogiston. > > Jim Bromer > > > *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/7190161-766c6f07> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > -- Abram Demski http://lo-tho.blogspot.com/ ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
