[Paleopsych] Towards a truly clever Artificial Intelligence

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Towards a truly clever Artificial Intelligence
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/information_technology/report-39894.html
The University of Reading 04.02.2005 
Craig Hillsley

[See you on Easter!]

    A pioneering new way of creating computer programs could be used in
    the future to design and build robots with minds that function like
    that of a human being, according to a leading researcher at The
    University of Reading.
    Dr James Anderson, of the Universitys Department of Computer Science,
    has developed for the first time the perspective simplex, or Perspex,
    which is a way of writing a computer program as a geometrical
    structure, rather than as a series of instructions.
    Not only does the invention of the Perspex make it theoretically
    possible for us to develop robots with minds that learn and develop,
    it also provides us with clues to answer the philosophical conundrum
    of how minds relate to bodies in living beings.
    A conventional computer program comprises of a list of instructions,
    and if one of those instructions goes missing or is damaged then the
    whole program crashes. However, with the Perspex, the program works
    rather like a neural network and is able to bridge gaps and continue
    running and developing even when it sustains considerable damage.
    "All computer programs can be written in terms of the Perspex.
    Essentially, it is a new, geometrical computer instruction that looks
    like an artificial neuron. Any existing computer program can be
    compiled into a network of these neurons".
    The Perspex links the geometry of the physical world with the
    structure of computations so, to the extent that mind is computable,
    the Perspex provides one solution to the centuries-old problem of how
    mind arises in physical bodies.
    "Perspexes exist in a mathematical space called perspex space. Perspex
    space can describe the ordinary space we live in, along with all of
    the physical bodies that make up our space, and all of the minds that
    arise from physical bodies. It provides a model that is accurate
    enough for a robot to use to describe its own mind and body".
    Perspex programs show the very human trait of periodic recovery and
    relapse when they are damaged; perhaps for the same reason. The
    Perspex tells us how mind can relate to body so the geometrical
    properties that govern a Perspex programs injury and recovery also
    apply to us because our bodies exist in space. We share a common
    geometry, and this has implications for our minds and bodies. For the
    first time, the Perspex makes computer programs prone to injury,
    illness, and recovery like a human being. And a computer program that
    continues developing despite damaged, erroneous, and lost data means
    that, in the future, we could have computers that are able to develop
    their own minds despite, or because of, the rigours of living in the
    world.
    The Perspex allows global reasoning to be attained with just one
    initial instruction. So a Perspex program can operate on the whole of
    a problem before it attends to the myriad of detail. This is very much
    like human strategic thinking. It arises from the geometry of the
    Perspex, not from the specific detail of the program that is being
    run. This tells us that strategic thinking can be a property of the
    way our brains are constructed and is not necessarily to do with the
    substance of what we happen to be thinking about. It might be that
    some people are better at strategic thinking than others because of
    the geometry of their brains."

References

   73. http://www.reading.ac.uk/
   76. http://www.innovations-report.com/reports/reports.php?typ=7&anzeige=0
   77. http://www.alphagalileo.org/
   78. http://www.netzgut.de/
   79. http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/information_technology/inhalt_6.html