{"id":{"repo_id":"mit","oai_identifier":"oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/111866"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/mit/oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/111866","repository":{"repo_id":"mit","name":"MIT","base_url":"https://dspace.mit.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Story-enabled hypothetical reasoning","abstract":"Story understanding is a central competence that illuminates all other aspects of human intelligence. In this work, I demonstrate how our story understanding ability sheds light on our ability to think in terms of hypothetical situations. Using the Genesis story understanding system as a substrate, I develop a story-enabled hypothetical reasoning system that models several high-level human abilities, including judging actions in terms of moral alternatives, contextualizing stories by considering what could have otherwise happened, and deliberating about personality to decide what characters will do next. In developing this system, I built many new computational mechanisms and representations, including a program for answering what-if questions, a side-by-side story comparator, rules for making presumptive inferences, heuristics for evaluating personality fit, and a problem-solving approach for evaluating moral character. Together, they take Genesis's story understanding capabilities to another level and advance our understanding of human intelligence.","abstract_html":"Story understanding is a central competence that illuminates all other aspects of human intelligence. In this work, I demonstrate how our story understanding ability sheds light on our ability to think in terms of hypothetical situations. Using the Genesis story understanding system as a substrate, I develop a story-enabled hypothetical reasoning system that models several high-level human abilities, including judging actions in terms of moral alternatives, contextualizing stories by considering what could have otherwise happened, and deliberating about personality to decide what characters will do next. In developing this system, I built many new computational mechanisms and representations, including a program for answering what-if questions, a side-by-side story comparator, rules for making presumptive inferences, heuristics for evaluating personality fit, and a problem-solving approach for evaluating moral character. Together, they take Genesis's story understanding capabilities to another level and advance our understanding of human intelligence.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Holmes, Dylan Alexander"],"institution":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":"Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.","school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Patrick H. Winston."],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017","date_published":"2017","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:22:04Z","subjects":["Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["MIT theses are protected by copyright. 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They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission."]},{"key":"dc:rights.uri","label":"Rights URI","values":["http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111866"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Thesis: S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2017.","This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.","Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis.","Includes bibliographical references (pages 63-64)."]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Story understanding is a central competence that illuminates all other aspects of human intelligence. In this work, I demonstrate how our story understanding ability sheds light on our ability to think in terms of hypothetical situations. Using the Genesis story understanding system as a substrate, I develop a story-enabled hypothetical reasoning system that models several high-level human abilities, including judging actions in terms of moral alternatives, contextualizing stories by considering what could have otherwise happened, and deliberating about personality to decide what characters will do next. In developing this system, I built many new computational mechanisms and representations, including a program for answering what-if questions, a side-by-side story comparator, rules for making presumptive inferences, heuristics for evaluating personality fit, and a problem-solving approach for evaluating moral character. Together, they take Genesis's story understanding capabilities to another level and advance our understanding of human intelligence."]},{"key":"dc:description.degree","label":"Dc Description Degree","values":["S.M."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Story-enabled hypothetical reasoning"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Patrick H. Winston."],"dc:contributor.department":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science."],"dc:contributor.other":["Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 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Using the Genesis story understanding system as a substrate, I develop a story-enabled hypothetical reasoning system that models several high-level human abilities, including judging actions in terms of moral alternatives, contextualizing stories by considering what could have otherwise happened, and deliberating about personality to decide what characters will do next. In developing this system, I built many new computational mechanisms and representations, including a program for answering what-if questions, a side-by-side story comparator, rules for making presumptive inferences, heuristics for evaluating personality fit, and a problem-solving approach for evaluating moral character. 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