Research
Timothy L. Hinrichs is a researcher in Computational Logic: the branch of Computer Science concerned with the representation and processing of information in the form of logical statements, e.g. Prolog or first-order logic. He currently focuses on designing systems that tolerate and even embrace logical contradictions.People the world over reason about contradictions on a daily basis. Lawyers argue for and against defendants; politicians argue about plans for stimulating the economy; doctors argue over the right course of treatment for their patients. Disagreements pervade our society, and understanding those disagreements as well as their causes helps individuals make decisions.
In the digital world, contradictions are no less pervasive, and unfortunately computer systems today cannot differentiate one contradiction from another the way humans do. Systems built assuming contradiction-free information will often behave unpredictably when that assumption is invalid, which is the rule rather than the exception on the Web. Because logical languages are a natural formalism for describing and reasoning about contradictions, results in this area draw upon and contribute to Computational Logic.
