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These results may be viewed as a fundamental limitation on our ability to build general purpose devices for empirical inquiry and motivate the use of heuristic methods in Artificial Intelligence. However, they also suggest a weaker criterion of identification in which a team of scientists is employed and success of the team is equated with the success of any member in the team. Let us illustrate this idea in the context of functions.
Consider the collections of functions 0198-001.gif and 0198-002.gif in Proposition 9.1. Let M1 Ex-identify 0198-003.gif and M2 Ex-identify 0198-004.gif. Now, if we employed the team of M1 and M2 to identify 0198-005.gif and weakened the criterion of success to the requirement that success is achieved just in case at least one member in the team is successful, then under this changed criterion, the collection 0198-006.gif is identifiable by the team of M1 and M2. This idea can be extended to teams of n scientists, at least m of which are required to be successful.
We now formalize function and language identification by teams. Anomalies in the hypothesized programs are also incorporated in the definitions.
9.3 Definition (Smith [178]) Let m, 0198-007.gif and 0198-008.gif.
(a) A team of n scientists M1, M2, . . ., Mn is said to 0198-009.gif (written: 0198-010.gif) just in case f is Exa-identified by at least m of the Mi's.
(b) 0198-011.gif is the collection of 0198-012.gif such that some team of n scientists 0198-013.gif each function in Image-2002.gif.
9.4 Definition (Osherson, Stob, and Weinstein [140]) Let m, 0198-014.gif and 0198-015.gif.
(a) A team of n scientists M1, M2, . . ., Mn, is said to 0198-016.gif (written: 0198-017.gif) just in case L is TxtExa-identified by at least m of the Mi's.
(b) 0198-018.gif is the collection of 0198-019.gif such that some team of n scientists 0198-020.gif each language in Image-2003.gif.
For both 0198-021.gif and 0198-022.gif the fraction 0198-023.gif is referred to as the success ratio of the paradigm. As has been the practice, the cases a = 0 are simply referred to as 0198-024.gif and 0198-025.gif. Most of the results presented in the present chapter are for the case a = 0; other cases are considered in the exercises. Let us note that Definitions 9.3 and 9.4 fail to formalize one aspect of scientific practice that is central to

 
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