Greg Detre
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
ask about cause � it�s raining vs es
gibt vs il y a
what�s the difference between a
clause and an object???
ask about Turing machine patterns
ask about aliens
jaynes� thesis
no, he didn�t have reservations about having children baptised � he thought it might immunise them :)
angels on the head of a pin � beginnings of nanotechnology :)
Usher � counted up genealogies of Bible
is evolution a sparse (i.e. universal) principle???
C&C commonalities with alien intelligences
same argument from inconceivability
got C&C from figuring out what�s wrong with Chomsky � universal language needn�t rest on LAD � explains the universals in Universal Grammar
NPs, verbs, clauses
that�s what you get if you have a processor with only 2 registers
can�t manage many pronouns at once
did he publish this anywhere???
can�t refer to 2 levels above in the parse tree and two to the left
Minsky: don�t make tristinctions � might think very differently if you had many registers
maybe having more STM slots makes it harder to learn � or it might just be expensive
what if language wasn�t serial???
see Duplication in SoM
how do you make a copy of a SemNet or a frame???
kind of like the problem of copying data structures which contain pointers???
uniframing + different arch roofs� - copying � needs to be done serially� - huh???
had to have serial processes before language if you were going to make copies of things, because I couldn�t imagine how a NN could make a copy � now he can, just by imagining a press that clunks down and leaves an imprint on a blank vector
prof - grew a new register
Albert Myer � very creative complexity theorist � first class went badly � forgotten what�s hard
problem of other minds � then how does it know to lie
if consciousness is epiphenomenal then the brain-structure will determine its function, even down to talking like a conscious person
argument against zombie argument � you can�t actually imagine a zombie, because you can�t explain how the brain works, so you can�t imagine it
not seen a theory of LTM that discusses how you could make two lists using the same list of Gods in the temple (a la Cicero)
count the size of the list first to make sure you haven�t missed any
one guy remembers as a linked list � Husserl, Phenomenology of Time Consciousness
memorise the alphabet backwards � in case you go too far in the dictionary :)
Boustroffidon � read till the end of the line then read in the opposite direction backwards for the next line � like an ox plough
Papert � learned lots of poems � as you say each line, you think the next line
Barbara: why don�t we have micro-sleeps to memorise important concepts � presumably that�s what you do when you concentrate to try and remember something?
Minsky wants to know whether the people who don�t sleep but have micronaps are for real
Nancy: what happens when we reflect?
all flat � Newell � every set of thinking is a set of productions + reactions to what�s happening on the level below
take a transcript of something you�ve been doing and think about it � if you�re self-reflecting, you need to have a model of yourself
is there anything special about high-level thinking or is it just about lower-level thinking?
Nancy: if you lack language, can you reflect?
feral children don�t appear to be able to solve hard problems
but they may have been put in the closets in the first place because their parents couldn�t stand them because they were retarded�
Nancy: apparently, Asperger�s syndrome kids take longer to start speaking, but jump to full sentences much faster
McCauley didn�t speak until he was 5 � first words were �what ails wee baby Jamie?�
Geschwind � demonstrating a catatonic patient � he�s normal but he can�t talk � �I can so� � �why haven�t you spoken?� � �I didn�t think I had anything important to say�
Jaynes � first psychology fiction � his mind threw up
why wasn�t there psychology between Aristotle and just before Piaget? his theory: that they didn�t realise that the mind wasn�t unitary, and it�ll take ages after that to figure out a mechanics for such a many-part system
maybe the reason that Confucius seems profound is that things got invented and forgotten before writing � is that when writing happened???
how expressive is Egyptian???
some types of science is cultural � e.g. Germans considered theoretical physics to be Jewish science because it had no applications � so all the Jews went to America and invented the atom bomb
Sherry Turke�s first book on the psychology of nerds
trichotomies are very rare � 2-party system
trichotomies are kind of 1.5D � well assuming you�re already trying to divide each dimension in half�
it takes children a year to get from two to three apparently - he said there are no natural triples around you
trichotomy � Peirce � three forms of conclusion � deduction, induction and abduction (what does that mean??? � do you have a case and a rule and an application of a rule as the three parts of them)
abduction � constructing a hypothesis � how�s that different from
syllogism � invert the socrates mortal triptych
Minsky: abduction is anything that isn�t the other two
make a hexagon out of 3 diamonds
things you find around you that have 3
stools, fork tines
Push: movies :)
beginning, middle + end
Hegel dialectic
Trinity
don�t do comparisons between three things � combine the two opposites � made of trans-frames � maybe smart people have triple-frames � or maybe an AI could get past dumbbells
why don�t we learn five before three???
look at Logoworks paper about kids and numbers
what�s missing from the Emotion Machine? what have we acquired since the chimps that makes us so much smarter?
Minsky in the past: an extra level, or an extra register
Bob: use words to refer to things inside your head
me: recursive feedforward models � i.e. you can plug a model (e.g. of a person) into a model (e.g. of the world)
syntax � apparently 2-year old children have the grammar for temporal order, but assume that you mean what�s most likely/common sense rather than what the grammar says
so apparently they understand the difference between �go out after I open the door� and �go out before I open the door� � but don�t behave differently till 4 � don�t understand this???
meta-Turing test
if a creature devises a test for intelligence for objects of its own creation, then its intelligent � so humans are intelligent because they created the Turing test
Fredkin was very impressed with squirrels � followed one round for a day � fell out of a tree numerous times :)
a mouse can apparently fall from practically any height � reaches a terminal velocity of c. 15 miles/hour
Hillis � threw the mice out of the window � out of pity, he put them in paper bags to make sure that the terminal velocity was slower � but a cat learnt to wait for the paper bags and tear them open before the mouse could get away
I want to write a program that sees analogies between chess boards � need to form new concepts, e.g. the sphere of influence of a piece, the value of each piece, pieces that are guarded by other pieces, areas of the board under attack, that the king is in check
maybe the key would be to find a compressed representation for the actual coordinates � using the Feldman grid compression???
RAAM
maybe
you have a billion neurons that just look for correlations in 3 or 4 inputs
you�re not going to have 10,000 ideas
so if you�ve got a 100b neuron budget, you might as well spend a lot on low-grade search to save you having to come up with all the ideas
learning the moves
Bob: reduce the system to the minimum system of complication � hexacon � 3x3 grid with just pawns � start with a trivial game and gradually make it more complicated
if you didn�t have the idea of diagonals, you�d never understand bishops
they�re all relative
the first Newell chess board was on a 6x6 board
learning the black and white colours is important � then you can learn that knights always end up on a different colour
checkers only has 32 squares � 64/2
horses jump
kings are important
Turing machine search
same problem with trying to find the conceptual primitives of space + time
interior grounding � one line, 3 or 5 points � higher levels move a piece around at a time � represents time and space � the frontal lobe
start with everything made of lines � one line �
that represents space or time � automatic terrific metaphor
thinks that people can do 2d but 3
refce: Drescher � example in Made up minds
unhelpful response
Metagame by Barney Pell, also John Orwand at MIT
trying to come up with a general AI to play any symmetrical chess-like program � the rules are described to the AI and it tries to play it well
central parameters � rarity, motility and the rank
treated tic tac toe as a board game � 3x3 game board, and have X and O pieces starting just off the board � each piece is only allowed 1 move of up to 3 places � used the same
all the chess people agree on: advancement, centre control (not in Go), mobility and king safety (not in checkers)
time is a dumbbell
I reckon if you�ve got memory, you�ve got future/hypotheticals for free � you couldn�t have past without future
Nancy: are there emotions without opposite?
we don�t use 3, but prefer 2 or 4, because you need one bits to represent a distinction, and 2 bits to represent 3 or 4, so you might as well go for 4, because you get the extra for free
Shannon: considered using ternary unit of information � said that e is a better choice than base-2 � because he�s using logs???
Google doesn�t cache pdfs
Fredkin: why don�t we just ask some billionaire to buy all the books, then we wouldn�t have to worry about copyright
in EM, he�s mostly quoting his friends or making them up :)
it�s weird that Scientology doesn�t pay tax but gets copyright on its work � Keith Henson is a political refugee in Canada because Scientology got a judge to convict him for putting their text online (usually the copyright sells for $3-400k)