Converging on Common Knowledge

Converging on Common Knowledge

Dominik Klein, Rasmus Kræmmer Rendsvig

Proceedings of the Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence
Main track. Pages 1741-1748. https://doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2019/241

Common knowledge, as is well known, is not attainable in finite time by unreliable communication, thus hindering perfect coordination. Focusing on the coordinated attack problem modeled using dynamic epistemic logic, this paper discusses unreliable communication protocols from a topological perspective and asks "If the generals may communicate indefinitely, will they then *converge* to a state of common knowledge?" We answer by making precise and showing the following: *common knowledge is attainable if, and only if, we do not care about common knowledge*.
Keywords:
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Reasoning about Knowlege and Belief
Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems: Agent Communication
Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Non-classical Logics for Knowledge Representation
Agent-based and Multi-agent Systems: Agent Theories and Models