3. Reasoning Goal Trees and Rule-Based Expert Systems
PROFESSOR PATRICK WINSTON: Ladies and gentlemen, the engineers drinking song. Back in the day, I've drunk quite a lot to that song. And as drinking songs go, it's not bad. I caution you, however, before playing this song in the presence of small children, audition it first. Some of the verses are sufficiently gross as to make a sailor go beyond blushing. It's an interesting song because there are an infinite number of verses. Here's the mathematical proof. Suppose there were a finite number of verses. Then there would be a last verse. And if there were a last verse, then some drunk alumni would compose a new one. Therefore, there is no last verse, the size is not finite, and there are an infinite number of verses. I play it for you today because I'm an engineer. I like to build stuff. I build stuff out of wood. I build stuff out of metal. I build stuff out of rocks. And I especially like to write programs. I don't know, sometimes people come to me ...