Goal Seeking Software
In this design, the user specifies an acceptable outcome. The computer program has a set of operations it can combine. Crucially, the software must be able to try out different combinations of the operations without causing harm. When it finds a sequence that produces the acceptable result, the program is done.
Goal seeking is fine when the computer can identify every possible undesired result, but this is rarely possible. People are far more skilled at recognizing undesirable outcomes than software is.
Also, producing software to identify every possible bad solution is at least as complex as simply finding a solution. See the article on the frame problem for more on this.
Read more about this topic: Software Brittleness Problem
Famous quotes containing the words goal and/or seeking:
“An older child, one who possesses a conscience, will be troubled with self-reproaches and feelings of shame for his naughtiness, even if he is not discovered. But our two-year-olds and our three-year- olds experience guilt feelings only when they feel or anticipate disapproval from the outside. In doing this, they have taken the first steps toward the goal of conscience, but there is a long way ahead before the policeman outside becomes the policeman inside.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“So was produced this tragedy
In a far tower of ivory
Where, O young men, late in the night
All you who drink light and stroke the air
Come back, seeking the night, and cry
To strict Rapunzel to let down her hair.”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)