General Problem Solver (GPS) was a computer program created in 1957 by Herbert Simon and Allen Newell to build a universal problem solver machine. Any formalized symbolic problem can be solved, in principle, by GPS. For instance: theorems proof and geometric problems and chess playing. It was based on Simon and Newell's theoretical work on logic machines. While GPS solved simple problems such as the Towers of Hanoi that could be sufficiently formalized, it could not solve any real-world problems. A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Herbert Alexander Simon (June 15, 1916 – February 9, 2001) was an American political scientist whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, economics, management, and philosophy of science and a professor, most notably, at Carnegie Mellon University. ... Allen Newell (March 19, 1927 - July 19, 1992) was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie-Mellon’s School of Computer Science. ... A theorem is a proposition that has been or is to be proved on the basis of explicit assumptions. ... Geometry (from the Greek words Ge = earth and metro = measure) is the branch of mathematics first introduced by Theaetetus dealing with spatial relationships. ... Chess is an abstract strategy board game for two players that is played both recreationally and competitively. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος logos (the word), is the study of patterns found in reasoning. ... A model set of the Towers of Hanoi The Tower of Hanoi (also called Towers of Hanoi) is a mathematical game or puzzle. ...

The user defined objects and operations that could be done on the objects and GPS generated heuristics by Means-ends analysis in order to solve problems. It focused on the available operations, finding what inputs were acceptable and what outputs were generated. It then created subgoals to get closer and closer to the goal. Look up Heuristic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Means-Ends Analysis (MEA) is a long standing technique used at least since the 1950s as a creativity tool, most frequently mentioned in engineering books on design methods. ... Information processsing In information processing, input is the process of receiving information from an object. ...

The GPS paradigm eventually evolved into Soar. Soar (also known as SOAR) is a symbolic cognitive architecture, created by John Laird, Allen Newell, and Paul Rosenbloom at Carnegie Mellon University. ...

References

• Newell, A.; Shaw, J.C.; Simon, H.A. (1959). Report on a general problem-solving program. Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Processing. pp. 256-264.

• Newell, A. (1963). A guide to the general problem-solver program GPS-2-2. RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California. Technical Report No. RM-3337-PR.

• Ernst, G.W. and Newell, A. (1969). GPS: a case study in generality and problem solving. Academic Press. (revised version of Ernst's 1966 dissertation, Carnegie Institute of Technology.)