Discovery Science

After two decades of research on automated discovery, many principles are shaping up as a foundation of discovery science. In this paper we view discovery science as automation of discovery by systems who autonomously discover knowledge and a theory for such systems. We start by clarifying the notion of discovery by automated agent. Then we present a number of principles and discuss the ways in which different principles can be used together. Further augmented, a set of principles shall become a theory of discovery which can explain discovery systems and guide their construction. We make links between the principles of automated discovery and disciplines which have close relations with discovery science, such as natural sciences, logic, philosophy of science and theory of knowledge, artificial intelligence, statistics, and machine learning. 1 What Is a Discovery A person who is first to propose and justify a new piece of knowledge K is considered the discoverer of K. Being the first means acting autonomously, without reliance on external authority, because there was none at the time when the discovery has been made, or the discovery contradicted the accepted beliefs. Machine discoverers are a new class of agents who should be eventually held to the same standards. Novelty is important, but a weaker criterion of novelty is useful in system construction: Agent A discovered knowledge K iff A acquired K without the use of any knowledge source that knows K. This definition calls for cognitive autonomy of agent A. It requires only that K is novel to the agent, but does not have to be made for the first time in the human history. The emphasis on autonomy is proper in machine discovery. Even though agent A discovered a piece of knowledge K which has been known to others, we can still consider that A discovered K, if A did not know K before making the discovery and was not guided towards K by any external authority. It is relatively easy to trace the external guidance received by a machine discoverer. All details of software are available for inspection, so that both the initial knowledge and the discovery method can be analyzed. S. Arikawa, K. Furukawa (Eds.): DS’99, LNAI 1721, pp. 1–12, 1999. c © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1999