Pei Wang writes: > Thanks for the interest. I'll do my best to help, though since I'm on> > vacation in China, I may not be able to process my emails as usual. Thank you for your response. I'm planning over the course of the rest of the year to look in-depth at all of the AGI projects that include a significant implementation component (that is, those that are not just books musing about the nature of intelligence -- I am also reading those in parallel but there are so many that I don't know if anybody could have a solid understanding of all of them). NARS is very well described so it's a good one to start with. I am working from your book "Rigid Flexibility" which I assume is the best source. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to justify the high cost of buying it new; I got it used from a vendor affiliated with amazon.com. Unless I hit some fundamental roadblock I can easily wait to ask any questions (I don't want to pick nits or ask dumb things anyway) until you're back from your vacation. One thing I'm curious about: peeking ahead, the book sketches a rather long string of increasingly-ambitious implementation stages (if I remember correctly, up to NAL-8). What stage is the current implementation? Thanks again! > > > As has been discussed recently here, you define intelligence as:> >> > > > > "Intelligence is the capability of an information system to adapt to its> > > > > environment while operating with insufficient knowledge and > > > resources."> >> > In later discussion about an adaptive system, you > > > introduce the phrase "it> > attempts to improve its performance in > > > carrying out the tasks". This would> > seem to be an important further > > > specification. Would it be accurate for my> > own understanding to > > > rephrase your definition to be:> >> > "Intelligence is the capability of > > > a task-performing information system to> > adapt to its environment while > > > operating with insufficient knowledge and> > resources"> >> > where> >> > > > > "task-performing" means that the system's purpose is the performance of > > > one> > or more simultaneously active "tasks" where a task is defined in > > > terms of a> > goal state and a (perhaps approximate) method for measuring > > > whether the goal> > state has been achieved? If "goal state" is not a > > > good way to describe> > tasks in the sense you intend, could you explain > > > a little bit about your> > definitions of "carrying out the tasks" and > > > "improve its performance"?> >> > Sorry if this seems like a trivial > > > issue, I'm just trying to understand as> > clearly as possible how you > > > define the goals for the NARS project.> > It is not a trivial point at > > > all, though I haven't had the pressure> (until now) to explain this > > > aspect of my definition publicly.> > I mostly agree with your > > > description, though rather not to modify the> definition in that way, > > > because to me "task performing" and "goal> achieving" have been mostly > > > implied by the notion of "information> system", so your description > > > sounds redundent to me.> > I touched this issue in my first book, though > > > plan to reserve it for> my other book, which will be less technical and > > > more philosophical. A> few people on this list who was associated with > > > Webmind Inc. should> had browsed my extended abstract years ago. The > > > relevent part of that> book is to put "intelligent system" into a larger > > > picture, within a> hierachy roughly like the following:> > 1. system: > > > things/events that should be analyzed as interalating> parts, with > > > internal structure and external function> > 1.1 information system: > > > systems whose structure and function can be> analyzed abstractly as > > > goal-achieving (or task-performing), without> depending too much on the > > > lower level description (using the terms of> physics, chemistry, biology, > > > ...)> > 1.1.1 intelligent system: information systems that are adaptive> > > > and work with insufficient knowledge and reources> > 1.1.2 instinctive > > > system: information systems that work with> sufficient knowledge and > > > resources> > 1.2 non-information system: systems whose structure and > > > function> cannot be analyzed abstractly, and have to be explained in > > > terms of> physics, chemistry, biology, ...> > I know the above > > > description is brief and controversal --- the working> definition of > > > "information" is no less complicated than that of> "intelligence". Since > > > you asked, I give the above position statement,> though I won't argue for > > > it, since it is not that crucial for AGI at> the current time.> > Another > > > topic is "goal" --- as you noticed, I don't follow the common> practice > > > of specifying "goal" as "goal state", because to me this is a> big > > > mistake of traditional AI. In the usual sense, a "state" is> indicated by > > > a COMPLETE description of the relevant part of the> domain/environment, > > > which cannot be obtained if insufficient knowledge> and resources is > > > assumed.> > Roughly speaking, in NARS a goal is a description, which is a > > > PARTIAL> description of the environment. Furthermore, a goal is usualy> > > > achieved/satisfied to a degree, which is not a matter of "yes/no".> Since > > > each goal in NARS is "satisfied" by a statement, the degree of> > > > satisfaction is related to (though not completely reduced to) the> truth > > > value of the statement. A more detailed and formal description> is in my > > > book, and I'm also working on a paper focusing on this aspect> of the > > > system. I'll post a draft when it is finished.> > Pei> > -----> This list > > > is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email> To unsubscribe or > > > change your options, please go to:> http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&;
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