An expert system for an idiosyncratic domain: love, intimacy, and friendship

Abstract

Expert systems conceived and developed thus far have dealt with problems, such as medical diagnosis, circuit design, and mineral exploration, which have objective solutions. Humans, however, are also experts in reasoning about domains where the key concepts are not objectively fixed. We do form subjective, but sound, judgments about idiosyncratic--i.e., person-specific-- domains. One such domain is that of love, intimacy, and friendship. Despite the fact that our notions of love, intimacy, and friendship vary greatly and that these relationships have been the subject of poets, novelists, biographers, psychologists, and other students of human nature for centuries, there is enough of a common consensus to make communication and, very frequently, common judgments about this domain possible.