GPS and Decision Making: An Overview

GPS (the General Problem Solver) is a computer program conceived in 1957 by A. Newell, J.C. Shaw and H.A. Simon. Since then, the program has existed in seven different “running” versions each of which was designed to face a slightly different set of difficulties arising in the construction of a general problem solver--an ambitious objective to say the least. The most recent version of GPS is described in detail in Ernst and Newell (1969). However, more recently Quinlan and Hunt (1968) have constructed a problem solving program whose structure is quite similar to GPS. In addition, in the last few years several people (Banerji (1969), Ernst (1969), Sandewall (1969)) have looked at some of the mathematical properties of a GPS-like structure. Thus, the basic ideas contained in GPS have been under continuing investigation since 1957.