ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the knowledge representation and reasoning needed to pass reasonable person tests centred on needs. The test cases presented are Postal Rescue, Hab Malfunction, Spacesuit Breach, Cave, Hospital, Switch, Footbridge, Transmitter Room and Swerve. Key elements used to pass these test cases are approximate (not precise) quantifications of ‘moral force’, a lexical ordering between needs and wants (needs ‘trump’ wants) and ‘hectocritical’ weightings attached to risk assumption and desert (innocence). Needs can be prioritized along the lines of Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs.’
