the search problem is solvable

In response to the Edge Foundation's annual question for 2005 — "What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?" — Marti Hearst, a computer scientist at UC Berkeley, says The Search Problem is Solvable.

Advances in computational linguistics and user interface design will eventually enable people to find answers to any question they have, so long as the answer is encoded in textual form and stored in a publicly accessible location. Advances in reasoning systems will to a limited degree be able to draw inferences in order to find answers that are not explicitly present in the existing documents.

(via todd vallie)