The Melting Pot of Automated Discovery: Principles for a New Science

After two decades of research on automated discovery, many principles are shaping up as a foundation of discovery science. In this paper we view discovery science as automation of discovery by systems who autonomously discover knowledge and a theory for such systems. We start by clarifying the notion of discovery by automated agent. Then we present a number of principles and discuss the ways in which different principles can be used together. Further augmented, a set of principles shall become a theory of discovery which can explain discovery systems and guide their construction. We make links between the principles of automated discovery and disciplines which have close relations with discovery science, such as natural sciences, logic, philosophy of science and theory of knowledge, artificial intelligence, statistics, and machine learning.