Zoo

The evaluation test generated for Zoo also contained a number of straightforward questions, both in terms of understanding what the question was asking and what the answer was. The question set also contained a number of more interesting questions, from the point of view of how to handle to them.

For example, consider the following question, which represents the one which ISAAC did the worst on (multiple evaluators asked this question in different ways):

• Why is the title, ``Zoo'', ironic?
• It means opposite things to the humans and the aliens.

The actual understanding of the question is not difficult; the sentence processor returns the following concept:

:IS-A BE-STATE

:SUBJECT TITLE-23

:STATE IRONIC-5165

ISAAC now uses this concept to search for an explanation of why the title (which is represented as the concept zoo) would be ironic. Unfortunately, ISAAC's understanding of   irony is severely limited as I never saw the need to include a sophisticated conceptualization of it. ISAAC views an ironic event as one which means opposite things to two different reasoners; obviously, this is not a complete definition. When given this question, then, ISAAC is severely limited on the quality of the answer. It simply discovers that there are two interpretations for the zoo concept in the story, one which is held by the humans and one which is held by the aliens. Since this fits the conceptual definition of irony, ISAAC returns that as the answer. The evaluator who developed this question did not give ISAAC credit for the oversimplified answer.

However, another evaluator asked almost the same question in a slightly different manner:

• When the inhabitants of Kaan return to their home planet, we learn that their perception of the visit to Earth differs in what way from the earthlings' perception of the same event?
• The aliens think that they are visiting dangerous worlds, the earth people think they are the viewers of dangerous animals.

This question was intended to capture the essence of what made the title so ironic. Since the question asked for specifics, ISAAC was able to respond with an answer which satisfied this evaluator. Even so, I simplified the question for ISAAC to understand it. The question became: How does the alien's understanding of their visit to Earth differ from the earth people's understanding of the visit? This modification did not, in my view, change the meaning of the question or make it easier to answer; it simply allowed the system to better comprehend what was being asked of it. The conceptual answer which is generated consists of two thought actions, one concerning the aliens and one concerning the humans. I combined them into the single answer which was ultimately given.

The final question to consider from Zoo is:

• Who got the best deal of all in this story?
• The aliens

This is another question which ISAAC had difficulty comprehending. I altered the question to be Who benefited most in this story? and the answer of ``The aliens'' was given. This was considered a subjective question by the evaluator--the evaluator expected the professor to be the ``correct'' answer (which many of the human students did respond with).