Hi, > I see that Novamente has Context and NumericalContext Links, but > I'm wondering if something more is needed to handle the various > subtypes of context?
yeah, those link types just deal with certain special situations, they are not the whole of Novamente's contextuality-handling mechanism, by any means... > In summary, it's clear that context is a vital part of memory > processes used by NGI's, and I was wondering to what extent > context is emphasized in the design of Novamente. context is not emphasized in a unified way, but it comes up in a lot of places. For example, in the inference module there's a specific parameter called "context size" that controls the implicit sample space of the probability estimates used in inference.. Generally speaking, Novamente is intended to be able to deal with contextuality in all the senses you describe it, but not by a unified mechanism -- by a host of different mechanisms, some more useful for some kinds of contextuality, some for others... > It's difficult > to get a feel for it from the available documentation. Heh. That is certainly true. All will be clear in 2004 when the 1500-page beast (the Novamente-design book) finally appears in print ;-p Or at least, then the difficulty will shift to a difficulty with *understanding* what we're talking about rather than *guessing* it ;-) > I'd also > like to explore the idea of creating some more concrete words for > the various types of context that will be a necessary part of any > AGI. The word "context" is too generalized to perform the many > functions required of it. Agree/disagree? Am I reinventing the wheel? I don't think you're reinventing the wheel. Similar things have been discussed, e.g. the "situation semantics" of John Barwise and others, which tries to take formal semantics and make all meanings within it situation-dependent. But situation semantics is tied too closely to rigid logicist theories of semantics to really appeal to me. I think an adequate, general conceptual and mathematical model of contextuality has yet to be formulated.... I am not sure such a model is needed for AGI, but it would certainly be helpful. ben g ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?[EMAIL PROTECTED]
