Yes, what language to use when expressing memes is definitley one of the key
point in the construction of such a system. I think such a language needs to
fulfull the following criteria:

  - Enough expressive power
  - Algorithms for consistency checks, entailment etc.
  - Roubustness to random modifications

Just considering the need of expressive power, It would be tempting to
consider first or second order predicate logic. Sure, contemporary research
in logic reasoning systems tells us that even for quite limited logics,
there are pretty severe algorithmic limitations. I hope however that this
just reflects that current science is aimed too much at mathematical
completeness and soundness, which might not really be needed in a true AGI
system. Some kind of statistical or incremental deduction systems could
perhaps overcome this problem in the future, and we could settle for
concepts like probably consistent, probably sound and probably complete.

(note: I continue to use the term "meme" for the time beeing, but depending
on the other discussion I might change to "information unit".)

Actually, I think a meme consistency check algorithm could be based on meme
evolution itself. If we are to check that a certain meme is consistent, the
system then sets up an evolution that tries to create counterexamples that
would easily prove the meme to be inconsistent. While no counterexample is
found, the systems belief in the meme is strenthened. Has there been any
work done previously in statistical, example driven deduction?

(Note that many of my ideas of how an AGI should generate theories, is
analogously to how the scientific community generate theories according to
contemporary science philosophy. This is because I believe science to be a
macro-projection of the intellectual process in one human mind)

Since memes are created at random, the language they are expressed in also
needs an inherent roubustness. This could be the reason why it for example
would not be suitable to express memes as C++ classes or programs. Perhaps
99% of all randomly created C++ programs will crash the system, and it is
therefore not very practical. Logical formulas are appealing because of
this, because the worst thing that can happen is that a set of logic
formulas become inconsistent (which might be troublesome enough).

As of the predicates used in such a database, most of them would be created
randomly, and their identifier would just be a number. Some predicates
related to facts, such as sensor information and actuator settings would
however be hard coded into the system. For memeplexes to be of any use, they
need to be grounded to these fact predicates. However, I believe some memes
could exist without any direct connection to the hard coded predicates. They
could be favoured "parts" that the meta evolution uses when creating fact
grounded memeplexes.

I also think that a logic suitable for this purpose could have special
features that are just meant to support random mutations of memes. Some
years ago I was interested in a class of second order predicate logic with
formulas that could be "factored". For example (infix notation used):

factor(a, (b) -> (c))  => (a b) -> (a c)

I am not claiming that particular feature is of any interest, nor that it is
not. My point is that if we want to have a language for memes, we should
also consider what refactoring functions that could be defined upon such a
language. Probably roubustness is one of the most important parts in this
also.

PS: I sent my first mail to the mailing list, but did not receive it myself
(not even with my second mail adress that I use). Was the mail sent to the
entire list?

Regards.

/Robert Wensman




2007/6/14, Derek Zahn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:


Robert Wensman writes:

> Databases:
> 1. Facts: Contains sensory data records, and actuator records.
> 2. Theory: Contains memeplexes that tries to model the world.

I don't usually think of 'memes' as having a primary purpose of modeling
the world... it seems to me like the key to your whole approach is how you
represent them (the schema of database 2).  Could you elaborate a bit on
that?
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