Andrew Dougherty is an autodidact mathematician and computer scientist who has contributed to the fields of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT). His work focuses on developing practical AI systems and exploring the theoretical foundations that guide AI development.

Andrew's primary research effort is the FRDCSA (Formalized Research Database: Cluster, Study & Apply) project, a weak AI initiative that aims to collect, integrate, and apply free/libre and open source software tools. Drawing from AIT principles suggesting that system size correlates with AI capability, Andrew has worked to create a comprehensive software archive and associated operating system package repository.

Over the past 22 years, Andrew has developed an ecosystem of over 1,000 open-source applications, 400 (unofficial) Debian GNU/Linux packages, 2,600 Perl5 modules, and 1,000 Prolog files.

Notable Projects

Free Life Planner (FLP): An AI-based life management system designed to help individuals with daily tasks including financial planning, health management, transportation, and emergency preparedness. The system is particularly focused on assisting those experiencing poverty, illness, disability, and homelessness.

Prolog-Agent: A situated agent that can navigate computing environments, process natural language, synthesize programs, and learn through experimentation and study.

Gourmet: A meal planning system that optimizes nutrition, taste, cost, and effort using AI techniques to automate and personalize meal planning.

Verber: A contingency planning and crisis management system that models potential action consequences and generates fault-tolerant plans.

Sayer and Thinker: Cognitive systems that analyze and interpret data structures and text using machine learning, natural language processing, and knowledge representation.

Andrew's work spans software engineering, personal assistants, knowledge management, multi-agent coordination, natural language understanding, and automated reasoning. His approach integrates symbolic and sub-symbolic AI techniques while maintaining a commitment to open source principles.

Theoretical Contributions

Andrew has contributed to AI theory, including proving corollary of Gödel's first incompleteness theorem that demonstrates the necessity of increasing program sizes in sequences of progressively more capable AI systems. This insight has informed his approach to the FRDCSA project.

Research Philosophy

Andrew's work is characterized by a focus on creating practical tools that address real-world challenges. His approach emphasizes developing comprehensive, open-source AI frameworks that can learn, reason, and adapt to solve complex problems. The FRDCSA project represents his ongoing effort to build a recursively self-improving AI system through the integration of existing software tools and technologies.

The project continues to evolve as Andrew works toward his goal of creating AI systems that can meaningfully assist with the practical challenges individuals face in their daily lives.