文档介绍：: .
Datand recognition at multiple levels of abstraction;
best-match and semantic forms of information retrieval; various kinds of exact reasoning and probabilistic reasoning; anal-
ysis and production of natural language; planning; problem solving; and unsupervised learning. Also considered are ways
in which current prototypes may be translated into an ‘industrial strength’ working system.
Ó 2006 Elsevier . All rights reserved.
Keywords: Intelligent database; Information compression; Multiple alignment; Database model; Relational database; Object-oriented
database; Hierarchical database; Network database
1. Introduction
The SP theory is a new theory of computing and cognition developed with the aim of integrating and sim-
plifying a range of concepts in computing and cognitive science, with a particular emphasis on concepts in
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0169-023X/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Elsevier . All rights reserved.
doi:.. Wolff / Data & Knowledge Engineering 60 (2007) 596–624 597
artificial intelligence. It is founded on the conjecture that all kinds of information processing, both natural (in
brains) and artificial (in computers), may be understood as compression of information by the matching and
unification of patterns. The name ‘SP’ expresses the idea that information compression promotes Simplicity in
a body of information (by the removal of redundancy) whilst retaining as much as possible of its non-redun-
dant descriptive Power.
The same two concepts lie at the heart of good science—where theories should, as far as possible, combine
simplicity with descriptive or explanatory power—and they are a touchstone of success in engineering where,
normally, we aim to create systems t