First-Order Logic Programming

Stop guessing.
Start proving.

In a world of black-box AI, FOL is the white box: transparent, auditable, and composable. The future doesn't run on probability — it runs on proofs.

4+
Major FOL Systems
100%
Explainable
2050
Nobel Turing Target
Proof Depth

Black Box vs. Glass Box

LLMs — Black Box

Statistical pattern recognition

  • Trained on vast amounts of text
  • Outputs are probabilistic
  • Prone to hallucinations
  • Internal decision-making is opaque
  • Cannot explain reasoning chain

FOL — Glass Box

Symbolic reasoning with proofs

  • Based on explicit facts and rules
  • Every conclusion is traceable
  • Deterministic and auditable
  • Full explainability by design
  • Composable across boundaries

Robot scientists are more precise and record details with greater scrupulousness than a human. They automate not just execution but the entire scientific method — hypothesis, experiment, interpretation.

Prof. Ross D. King — University of Cambridge, Creator of Adam & Eve Robot Scientists

Industries That Need Guarantees

Finance & RegTech

Provable compliance, AML/KYC rules as logic, auditable transactions

Healthcare

Traceable decisions, drug discovery verification, clinical trial logic

Autonomous Systems

Safety invariants, verified decision trees, certified behavior

Cybersecurity

Verified policies, formal security proofs, access control logic

Smart Cities

Transparent governance, policy enforcement, resource allocation

Scientific Discovery

Hypothesis generation, experiment design, reproducibility

FOL Language Ecosystem

Lean Interactive theorem prover with dependent types. Used for formalizing mathematics and verified software. GitHub →
Coq Proof assistant for developing mathematical proofs and certified programs. Powers CompCert compiler. GitHub →
Isabelle Generic proof assistant with powerful automation. Used in seL4 verified microkernel. GitHub →
Z3 High-performance SMT solver from Microsoft Research. Powers program verification tools worldwide. GitHub →
Prolog Classic logic programming. Ideal for rapid prototyping of expert systems and knowledge bases. SWI →
Datalog Declarative database query language. Scalable, terminating, perfect for compliance and lineage. Soufflé →
% Example: FOL rule for compliant transfer
rule transfer_allowed(From, To, Amount) :-
    kyc_verified(From),
    kyc_verified(To),
    not sanctioned(To),
    Amount < daily_limit(From),
    jurisdiction_compatible(From, To).

% Every transfer runs through provable logic
∀ station (DebtPaid(station) → ReleaseCollateral(station))

Example :: Prof. Ross King's Proof of Concept

Nature 2004
Robot Adam — First Machine Scientific Discovery
First machine to independently make a scientific discovery in yeast genomics. Automated the entire scientific method: hypothesis → experiment → interpretation.
Science 2009
Robot Eve — Drug Discovery Automation
Validated drug-screening economics and demonstrated FOL-driven hypothesis generation for pharmaceutical research.
J.R.Soc.Interface 2017
DNA Computing with Logic
Physical nondeterministic UTM design using DNA (Thue rewriting) — hardware that only makes sense when planning is in logic.
npj 2021
Nobel Turing Challenge
North Star goal: AI that earns a Nobel-level scientific discovery by 2050. The through-line is symbolic rigor + automation.

Resources & Media