---
title: "On the Problems of Time, Retrieval of Temporal Relations, Causality, and Co-Existence"
authors:
  - "Nicholas V. Findler"
  - "David Chen"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1971/56"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1971/0056.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1971
pages: "531-544"
track: ""
keywords:
---

# On the Problems of Time, Retrieval of Temporal Relations, Causality, and Co-Existence

Nicholas V. Findler, David Chen

*Proceedings of the Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 531-544.

## Abstract

Intelliqent question-an!'!•.-lerino nroaraMS no !'lOre than r.etrie.,e •ra···· nata: they !'lake ~e~uctive in~erences in or~er to return all vAli~ res~nns~c;. The., renort looical inconsistencies, oossihly at the nata inout n~Ase. C:i~ilarl•,, !'lOre in~ormation i!'! reC'luestecl from the uc;eT i ~ a question aske~ nrow•c; to he lll"hil"''uouc:. ~ question-answerinl"'' SVStem 0~ t~P. above tyr>P hilS heP.~ n~Sil"''ner'! llnn imolementen. 'Fiesir'!e!'! retTievinn exnlicit ann imolicit te..,noral r.elllti. o~c;, t~e sv"ltem ~isco•1er!'! potentially causal relAtionc:;hin!'! N~ich also Sllti . s~v r'!i~~er~nt ti..,e restrictions. Que"ltions concernino a aeneralizecl conceot of co-existence can also he answere~. It is hooerl that oroarams of a si~i. lar nature '"ill heco!"~ of l'IUCh nraamatic U!'!e to researc,ers in ohysics, c~emistry, bioloqv, ann so on, in e••aluatinl"'' comnlex, interrelated exnerimental nata. C:everal arlditional anolications ~or t~is tvoe o~ oroarams are mentionen, ranaino from nrohlems in criminoloqy to air traffic control. The Associative 'ie!'lorv, Paralle 1 Process inn Lanouaqe, ,&Jfi>'DJ,- II, '""'q ~ouncl rat~er sati!'l ~actory ~or the orniect. It is finally sunaestecl that the c;vc;te!" heino describer'! coulr'! serve as a comoonent to a comnlex coanitive l"ec~anis~.