Logic for Interaction (LINT)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Erich Grädel
• Subject Area: Theoretical Computer Science
• Term: from 2008 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 71963687

LINT is a collaborative research project aimed at developing mathematical foundations for interaction. Intelligent interaction involves agents in complex scenarios like conversation, teamwork, or games. LINT gathers logicians, computer scientists and philosophers from six European countries in an effort to lay the grounds for a unified account of the logic of interaction.While traditional logic has powerful accounts of truth, proof, and computa-tion, intelligent interaction between agents involves several further basic features that call for explicit investigation. One is dependence, e.g. strategic dependence of actions of an agent on actions of other agents, or informational dependence in observation and communication. Another is imperfect information, e.g. ignorance of moves of the opponent in a game. A third is the internal dynamics of intelligent agency, describing the stepwise moves of players and acts of getting or conveying information. A fourth and final crucial feature of intelligent interaction is its global dynamics, i.e. the process structure of conversation, games, and other core activities.A number of existing areas of logic, and some very recent developments, provide key leads into these four basic features of interaction. LINT is an effort to merge some of them at their most promising interfaces. It represents an opportunity to join forces between some of the most innovative and productive European groups in fundamental logical research of this newer kind, and create a lively theory-building environment based on different background motivations and skill-sets. Its concrete aims are:- to thoroughly investigate recent mathematical-logical theories of dependence;- to develop a uniform framework for handling imperfect information in logical games and other interactive systems;- to combine the two major existing approaches to the logic of interaction: ‘internal’ and ‘global’ dynamics;- to characterize the natural logical operations for proof and truth in frameworks specifically designed to deal with interaction.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Finland, France, Netherlands, Sweden
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Lauri Hella; Professor Dr. Gabriel Sandu; Professor Dr. Jouko Väänänen; Professor Dr. Dag Westerstahl