[ExI] Savants and user-interfaces [was Re: [agi] WHAT SORT OF HARDWARE $33K AND $850K BUYS TODAY FOR USE IN AGI

[Vladimir Nesov]

Interesting: is it possible to train yourself to run a specially
designed nontrivial inference circuit based on low-base
transformations (e.g. binary)? You start by assigning unique symbols
to its nodes, train yourself to stably perform associations
implementing its junctions, and then assemble it all together by
training yourself to generate a problem as a temporal sequence
(request), so that it can be handled by the overall circuit, and
training to read out the answer and convert it to sequence of e.g.
base-10 digits or base-100 words keying pairs of digits (like in
mnemonic)? Has anyone heard of this attempted? At least the initial
steps look straightforward enough, what kind of obstacles this kind of
experiment can run into?

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 7:43 AM, Linas Vepstas <linasvepstas at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/6/30 Terren Suydam <mmmmbacon at yahoo.com>:
>>
>> savant
>
> I've always theorized that savants can do what they do because
> they've been able to get direct access to, and train, a fairly
> small number of neurons in their brain, to accomplish highly
> specialized (and thus rather unusual) calculations.
>
> I'm thinking specifically of Ramanujan, the Hindi mathematician.
> He appears to have had access to a "multiply-add" type circuit
> in his brain, and could do symbolic long division and
> multiplication as a result -- I base this on studying some of
> the things he came up with -- after a while, it seems to be
> clear  how he came up with it (even if the feat is clearly not
> reproducible).
>
> In a sense, similar feats are possible by using a modern
> computer with a good algebra system.  Simon Plouffe seems
> to be a modern-day example of this: he noodles around with
> his systems, and finds various interesting relationships that
> would otherwise be obscure/unknown.  He does this without
> any particularly deep or expansive training in math (whence
> some of his friction with "real academics").  If Simon could
> get a computer-algebra chip implanted in his brain, (i.e.
> with a very, very user-freindly user-interface) so that he
> could work the algebra system just by thinking about it,
> I bet his output would resemble that of Ramanujan a whole
> lot more than it already does -- as it were, he's hobbled by
> a crappy user interface.
>
> Thus, let me theorize: by studying savants with MRI and
> what-not, we may find a way of getting a much better
> man-machine interface.  That is, currently, electrodes
> are always implanted in motor neurons (or visual cortex, etc)
> i.e. in places of the brain with very low levels of abstraction
> from the "real word". It would be interesting to move up the
> level of abstraction, and I think that studying how savants
> access the "magic circuits" in thier brain will open up a
> method for high-level interfaces to external computing
> machinery.
>
> --linas
>
>
> -------------------------------------------
> agi
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-- 
Vladimir Nesov
robotact at gmail.com
http://causalityrelay.wordpress.com/