This talk is an introduction to Abductive Reasoning, the third major branch of logic alongside Deductive Reasoning and Inductive Reasoning. Abductive reasoning is actually the kind of reasoning that Sherlock Holmes typically employed, even when the character referred to it as “deduction”. In this talk, we’ll examine how to implement automated abductive reasoning using Parsimonious Covering Theory, and build systems that can infer causes from conclusions. This is the style of inference you’ll want to use to build automated diagnostic systems for health care, criminal investigation and many other fields. Indeed, many experts believe that abduction is core to most human reasoning and may well be a required element of an eventual Artificial General Intelligence. After this talk you’ll be ready to implement abductive reasoning with a modern tech stack, to solve your own complex problems.