Introducing ASK, A Simple Knowledgeable System

ASK, A S imple K nowledgeable System, is a total system for the structuring, manipulation and communication of information. It is a simple system in the sense that its development concentrated on clean engineering solutions to what could be done now with good response times. The user interface is a limited dialect of English. In contrast to expert systems, in which experts build the knowledge base and users make use of this expert knowledge, ASK is aimed at the user who wishes to create, test, modify, extend and make use of his own knowledge base. It is a system for a research team, a management or military staff, or a business office.This paper is designed to give you a feel for the general performance of the ASK System and overview of its operational capabilities. To this end, the movie you see will continue throughout the talk. Indeed, the talk itself is a commentary on this background movie. The movie is bona fide and in real time, it is of the ASK System in action. (Many of the illustrations from the movie are reproduced in the written paper.)