ABSTRACT

The incredible progress in computing power and availability has created a tremendous wealth of information available at the touch of a few buttons. However, such wealth can easily provoke what is commonly described as ?information overload.? The massive number of connections produced by a single search of the Web, for example, can greatly overwhelm users of this new technology. The rapidity of Web searches is due to the synergy between progress made in network connectivity protocols, intelligent search strategies and supporting hardware. This paper will attempt to define the basic elements of machine intelligence in the context of corrosion engineering and examine what has been done or could be done to introduce artificial thinking into daily operations.

INTRODUCTION

The rapid development of accessible computing power in the 1980s has led to the use of computers and direct or indirect applications of machine intelligence in every sphere of engineering. In fact, the emergence of machine intelligence during the second half of the twentieth century is probably the most important development in the evolution of this planet since the origin of life two to three thousand million years ago [1]. However, efficient methodologies had to be developed in order to make use of so much new power for the actual support of human intelligence.

The adequate transfer and reuse of information covering corrosion problems and solutions involves the development of information processing strategies that can become very complex. A typical corrosion engineering task requires handling different types of knowledge and disciplines such as metallurgy, chemistry, cost engineering, safety and risk analysis. The expected corrosion behavior of engineering materials is thus only one component of the multi-faceted life cycle management of systems. While the increasing availability of computerized information is making the topic of software accessibility and portability increasingly important, the main question that will be discussed here concerns the very nature of these tools in term of their intelligence.

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