The Frame Problem

The frame problem, originating in artificial intelligence research, refers to the challenge of representing the effects of actions in formal logic without having to explicitly state all the obvious non-effects (for example, moving an object shouldn't change its color). While AI researchers have largely solved this narrow technical problem, philosophers have interpreted it more broadly as an epistemological question about how humans can reason about relevant information while ignoring irrelevant details without consciously considering everything that is not relevant.