Hmmm... I skimmed over the paper at
http://wpcarey.asu.edu/pubs/index.cfm and I have to say I agree with the skeptics. I don't doubt that this guy has made significant contributions in other areas of science and engineering, but this paper displeases me a great deal, due to making big claims of originality for ideas that are actually very old hat, and bolstering these claims via attacking a "straw man" of simplistic connectionism. The idea that engineering control theory could be applicable to the brain is hardly original. As one among many, many examples, James Albus has published a lot of stuff along these lines since the 1970s http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/personnel/albus/publications.htm including a great talk at the recent AAAI BICA symposium focusing on brain theory specifically http://binf.gmu.edu/~asamsono/bica/albus.htm Also, Stephen Grossberg's brain theories, going back to the 60s, have posed a strong role for controllers and analogues of engineering style control theory in the brain. The simplistic "connectionism" this author argues against **is** a real point of view held by some theorists, but it's hardly a consensus ... it's kind of an unpopular, 20-years-old, worn-out meme by now... And his proposed alternative is simply far less fleshed out that Grossberg's , Albus's or many other theorists' ideas with similar (but deeper and broader) conceptual foundations... Double thumbs down: not for wrongheadedness, but for excessive claims of originality plus egregious straw man arguments... -- Ben G On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:37 AM, BillK <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 3:06 PM, Mark Waser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Yeah. Great headline -- "Man beats dead horse beyond death!" >> >> I'm sure that there will be more details at 11. >> >> Though I am curious . . . . BillK, why did you think that this was worth >> posting? >> > > > ??? Did you read the article? > > ----------------------- > Quote: > In the late '90s, Asim Roy, a professor of information systems at > Arizona State University, began to write a paper on a new brain > theory. Now, 10 years later and after several rejections and > resubmissions, the paper "Connectionism, Controllers, and a Brain > Theory" has finally been published in the November issue of IEEE > Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics – Part A: Systems and > Humans. > > Roy's theory undermines the roots of connectionism, and that's why his > ideas have experienced a tremendous amount of resistance from the > cognitive science community. For the past 15 years, Roy has engaged > researchers in public debates, in which it's usually him arguing > against a dozen or so connectionist researchers. Roy says he wasn't > surprised at the resistance, though. > > "I was attempting to take down their whole body of science," he > explained. "So I would probably have behaved the same way if I were in > their shoes." > > No matter exactly where or what the brain controllers are, Roy hopes > that his theory will enable research on new kinds of learning > algorithms. Currently, restrictions such as local and memoryless > learning have limited AI designers, but these concepts are derived > directly from that idea that control is local, not high-level. > Possibly, a controller-based theory could lead to the development of > truly autonomous learning systems, and a next generation of > intelligent robots. > > The sentiment that the "science is stuck" is becoming common to AI > researchers. In July 2007, the National Science Foundation (NSF) > hosted a workshop on the "Future Challenges for the Science and > Engineering of Learning." The NSF's summary of the "Open Questions in > Both Biological and Machine Learning" [see below] from the workshop > emphasizes the limitations in current approaches to machine learning, > especially when compared with biological learners' ability to learn > autonomously under their own self-supervision: > > "Virtually all current approaches to machine learning typically > require a human supervisor to design the learning architecture, select > the training examples, design the form of the representation of the > training examples, choose the learning algorithm, set the learning > parameters, decide when to stop learning, and choose the way in which > the performance of the learning algorithm is evaluated. This strong > dependence on human supervision is greatly retarding the development > and ubiquitous deployment of autonomous artificial learning systems. > Although we are beginning to understand some of the learning systems > used by brains, many aspects of autonomous learning have not yet been > identified." > > Roy sees the NSF's call for a new science as an open door for a new > theory, and he plans to work hard to ensure that his colleagues > realize the potential of the controller model. Next April, he will > present a four-hour workshop on autonomous machine learning, having > been invited by the Program Committee of the International Joint > Conference on Neural Networks (IJCNN). > ----------------- > > > Now his 'new' theory may be old hat to you personally, but apparently > not to the majority of AI researchers, (according to the article). He > must be saying something a bit unusual to have been fighting for ten > years to get it published and accepted enough for him to now have been > invited to do a workshop on his theory. > > > BillK > > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -- Robert Heinlein ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=120640061-aded06 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
