What is the difference between Cyc and an Expert System ?
The knowledge in Cyc is more densely interrelated, Cyc has more information about the common attributes of the world, and Cyc has a broader focus than any individual expert system. A typical expert system uses highly detailed knowledge about a single, tightly-focused domain. Cyc encodes general knowledge about many different domains, viewed from a variety of perspectives. Based on the bodies of information (microtheories) it uses in inferencing, Cyc may draw differing conclusions. Cyc may be thought of as a tool for building expert systems and other programs that use a rule-based knowledge representation. It supports and uses both forward and backward chaining and the dynamic creation of terms (Skolemization). Cyc has an integrated argumentation-based truth maintenance system to provide logical reasoning as well as supporting non-monotonicity.
