Introduction To Expert Systems (3rd Edition) [Hardcover]

Peter Jackson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0201876868 | ISBN-13: 978-0201876864 | Publication Date: December 23, 1998 | Edition: 3

In May 1997, IBM's Deeper Blue defeated the world chess champion Gary Kasparov, showing that an artificial intelligence system can outplay even the most skilled of human experts. Since the first expert systems appeared in the late sixties, we have seen three decades of research and development engineer human knowledge to more practical ends, in a pioneering effort that has integrated diverse areas of cognitive and computer science. Today, expert systems exist in many forms, from medical diagnosis to investment analysis and from counseling to production control. This third edition of Peter Jackson's best-selling book updates the technological base of expert systems research and embeds those developments in a wide variety of application areas. The earlier chapters have been refocused to take a more practical approach to the basic topics, while the later chapters introduce new topic areas such as case-based reasoning, connectionist systems and hybrid systems. Results in related areas, such as machine learning and reasoning with uncertainty, are also accorded a thorough treatment. The new edition contains many new examples and exercises, most of which are in CLIPS, a language that combines production rules with object-oriented programming. LISP, PROLOG and C++ are also featured where appropriate. Interesting problems are posed throughout, and are solved in exercises involving the analysis, design and implementation of CLIPS programs. This book will prove useful to a wide readership including general readers, students and teachers, software engineers and researchers. Its modular structure enables readers to follow a pathway most suited to their needs, providing them with an up-to-date account of expert systems technology. Peter Jackson is Director of Research at West Group, a division of The Thomson Corporation and the leading provider of information to the US legal market. Peter drives the application of natural language and information retrieval technologies to the information needs of law and business. Previous appointments include Principal Scientist at the McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in Saint Louis, Missouri, and Lecturer in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Written for the computer science student or more advanced developer interested in expert systems, the new edition of Peter Jackson's Introduction to Expert Systems provides a truly magisterial tour of several decades of artificial intelligence (AI) and expert system research. This comprehensive book compiles past efforts to get computers to reason like experts as well as explaining how today's expert systems work.

The notable strength of this title is the author's impressive command of the computer science literature in the field of AI and expert systems. In chapter after chapter, the author reviews research-quality (and some production-level) projects that have attempted to reproduce human expertise using computers in such areas as medical diagnosis. Besides explaining essential expert system topics such as knowledge representation and the rules used for arriving at decisions, this book also provides numerous samples using the CLIPS programming language.

This textbook-style treatment of this subject features plenty of mathematical notation (such as the propositional calculus) and exercises at the end to stimulate your own thinking. For the general reader, the author's explanation of the history of AI (which has offered mixed results in the face of high expectations in the 1980s, for instance) is quite accessible and probably worth the price of the book. Rich with detail for the expert, this title shows off the best of expert systems--both in the past and today--as well as the reasonably bright prospects for the future of intelligent machines that think more like human experts. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Introduction to expert systems; representing knowledge; history of artificial intelligence (AI) research: Classical, Romantic, and Modern Periods; knowledge representation: STIPS and MYCIN applications; symbolic representation and LISP; rule-based and canonical systems; associative nets and frame systems: graphs, trees, and networks; object-oriented programming and its usefulness in expert systems; programming languages: LOOPS, Flavors, CLOS, CLIPS, C++, and PROLOG; uncertainty and fuzzy logic; knowledge acquisition; heuristic classification; strategies for problem solving; blackboard architectures; machine learning; police networks; case-based reasoning (CBR); hybrid systems; and the future of expert systems.

From the Back Cover

In May 1997, IBM's Deeper Blue defeated the world chess champion Gary Kasparov, showing that an artificial intelligence system can outplay even the most skilled of human experts. Since the first expert systems appeared in the late sixties, we have seen three decades of research and development engineer human knowledge to more practical ends, in a pioneering effort that has integrated diverse areas of cognitive and computer science. Today, expert systems exist in many forms, from medical diagnosis to investment analysis and from counseling to production control.

This third edition of Peter Jackson's best-selling book updates the technological base of expert systems research and embeds those developments in a wide variety of application areas. The earlier chapters have been refocused to take a more practical approach to the basic topics, while the later chapters introduce new topic areas such as case-based reasoning, connectionist systems and hybrid systems. Results in related areas, such as machine learning and reasoning with uncertainty, are also accorded a thorough treatment.

The new edition contains many new examples and exercises, most of which are in CLIPS, a language that combines production rules with object-oriented programming. LISP, PROLOG and C++ are also featured where appropriate. Interesting problems are posed throughout, and are solved in exercises involving the analysis, design and implementation of CLIPS programs.

This book will prove useful to a wide readership including general readers, students and teachers, software engineers and researchers. Its modular structure enables readers to follow a pathway most suited to their needs, providing them with an up-to-date account of expert systems technology.

Key Features

• 50 page appendix devoted to the CLIPS programming language, which is used as the main vehicle for examples and exercises
• New coverage includes case-based reasoning,connectionist systems and hybrid systems

0201876868B04062001

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Addison Wesley; 3 edition (December 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201876868
• ISBN-13: 978-0201876864
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book provides an excellent introduction to the subject., May 7, 2000

By 

Amit Konar - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction To Expert Systems (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

I read all the editions of Peter Jackson's Expert System book. All the editions were equally good with respect to the developments of the subject at that time.The current edition covers a wide disciplines of subject with a very simple but elegant style of presentation. I liked the book for its coverage and simplicity. I recommend the book for my graduate students specializing in knowledge-based computing. I wish you all to see the book once and recommend it to your colleagues.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, November 3, 2011

By 

sunfun - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Introduction To Expert Systems (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

This book is very useful for those who want to learn how to build an expert system, especially using CLIPS because is included a little guide for it. So it is not only theory but there are examples for different cases. Even if is a 1998 book it is still a good product, especially for education (it is recommended in many courses).

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant Sommer Holidays Reading, May 11, 2009

By 

ws__ (Hamburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introduction To Expert Systems (3rd Edition) (Hardcover)

Peter Jackson takes you by the hand through a vast and difficult subject. He explains even advanced topics in a surprisingly accessible form. But if you try to make some steps of your own and are not already well versed in that specific topic, be prepared to get lost immediately. If you are well versed, expect to be surprised by his elegant approaches.

This is an introduction through the breadth of Expert Systems. It is not a guide to get practical results fast. It doesn't please the mathematical minded readers. In fact it only contains very little explicit mathematics at all. But it delivers an enormous amount of material. The pages are filled to the rim with small but well readable print. The writing is moderately dense. "Introduction to Expert Systems" will keep you entertained for quite some time if you choose to read it all. For people in a hurry there are many shortcut tracks outlined and the chapters are quite selfcontained