Heuristic Problem Solving

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gradually molded into form. New ideas are added. Old ones are removed. The organization of the piece is reshaped to make it flow better. Eventually, a polished form emerges that finally approximates the effect that the author intended.

One use of heuristics has been in the area of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is increasing in many areas especially the science professions. With artificial intelligence you try to program a computer to make decisions in ways that are similar to a human would. To do this the computer will need to find solutions that are good, but may not be the best. Which means that the computer may estimate which solutions are “closest” to the goal. As you add in more variables, the solutions will change depending on the variable. The computer then users what it learns as it adds new variables to come up with new possible resolutions to the problems

In order to better understand how these Heuristic methods have been used in the world today we have cited three examples. The first is the use of heuristics in the diagnostic tools that are found on computers. These tools attempt to help you solve the problems you are having with hardware, software or peripherals. First the computer finds out which part of the computer may not be working by having you pick the part not working from a list. If you pick peripherals, you would get a listing of all peripherals you have and then pick the one not working. If you pick you printer, then the computer will give you a list of common problems and if your problem is listed, you can pick it and the computer will give you a possible answer. If that doesn’t work, it will go back and repeat part of the proc...