apr25mfpj

The MindForth Programming Journal (MFPJ) is both a tool in developing MindForth open-source artificial intelligence (AI) and an archival record of the history of how the AI Forthmind evolved over time.

1 Mon.25.APR.2011 -- Return to General MindForth Coding

We may shift our attention away for a time from the treatment of English articles and concentrate instead on further work in the implementation of neural inhibition.

2 Tues.26.APR.2011 -- Linking Subject with Related Knowledge

One of our techniques for learning what to do next in MindForth artificial intelligence (AI) is to run the program and check to see what is the most glaring problem that we encounter. Currently we notice that the AI fails at first (but only at first) to retrieve its own self-knowledge when we prompt such retrieval by entering "you" or "you are". The AI has been answering "I AM I", which shows a failure to activate "ANDRU" as the name of the AI, or "PERSON" and "ROBOT" as nouns which should come to mind when the robotic person thinks about itself.

MindForth is already a so-called "artilect" of sufficient mental complexity that the AI is not stuck in a rut of answering "I AM I" interminably when called upon to describe itself. The mechanisms of neural inhibition prevent more than a few instances of "I AM I" and enable the mind-in-software to generate "I AM PERSON" and "I AM ROBOT" as responses more to our liking. We need to know, however, why the AI initially makes the error of repeating "I AM I" a few times before inhibiting the unwanted response and before generating the more informative responses.

Our initial troubleshooting indicates that entering "you" as input to the AI properly activates the "I" concept so that the AI can at least utter "I AM I" in faulty response, but obviously the software mindgrid is not letting go of the "I" concept quickly enough to let a noun like "ROBOT" or "PERSON" complete the response. The problem may seem like a simple issue of setting activation-levels for concepts in the AI, but many of the settings are interdependent within the totality of the AI program.

We must keep in mind some special techniques for troubleshooting the AI Mind behavior. We may examine older versions of MindForth to see not only if the problem was absent in the past, but also when and why the problem emerged. We have also the option of running the JavaScript version of the same AI Mind to see if the same problem is present. We also have extreme options like making the AI program halt at any stage in its thinking.

When we test MindForth by inserting a "QUIT" command into the BeVerb module just after the calling of the VerbAct module, we discover that nouns like "ANDRU" and "ROBOT" and "PERSON" are all left with only twenty-three points of activation, while the "I" concept has thirty-nine points. Further testing shows us that the InStantiate module is setting an "act" of forty (40) just after speaking the "I" pronoun. Therefore, even if the concept of "I" is initially psi-damped, the ReEntry process leaves the "I" concept with an activation of forty.

We solve the current problem of failure to link subjects with related knowledge by inserting into the InStantiate module a test to set conceptual activations to zero during the ReEntry of concept-words that have just been thought.

Table of Contents

• 1 Mon.25.APR.2011 -- Return to General MindForth Coding

• 2 Tues.26.APR.2011 -- Linking Subject with Related Knowledge

apr15mfpj

The MindForth Programming Journal (MFPJ) is both a tool in developing MindForth open-source artificial intelligence (AI) and an archival record of the history of how the AI Forthmind evolved over time.

1 Fri.15.APR.2011 -- New Coding After 25 February 2011

We are developing some ideas today about the difference between responding to "Who are you?" and "What are you?" in the AI Mind. In our AI coding towards the end of 2009, we were using too many flag variables to keep track of the asking of a who-query or a what-query. Then towards the end of 2010 we were having substantial success with the use of neuronal inhibition to obtain the proper variation in multiple answers to the same question, such as "What are you?" Inhibiting each currently given answer made the AI able to summon successively different answers, such as "I am code" and "I am software" and "I am a robot." Now we want to go deeper into the machine psyche and enable the AI to respond differently to queries of "what" and queries of "who". We want to achieve this goal without the use of cumbersome query-flags.

One idea that we have had today is that we can differentiate between who-queries and what-queries by letting each one predispose either an "EnDefArt" module for the English definite article, or an "EnInDefArt" module for an English indefinite article. For example, we would like a "What are you?" query to engender a response with an indefinite article, such as, "I am a robot." On the other hand, we would like a "Who are you?" query to engender a response with the definite article, as in, "I am the robot."

Even with the new article modules, we will still need a way for the input of "who" or "what" to send a signal to the appropriate module. Instead of having mindgrid-wide, blanket query-flag variables as we did in late 2009, we may now be able to make use of the "statuscon" variables that we dreamed up in our MFPJ work of Fri.12.SEP.2008. For each of the new article modules, we will devise a "statuscon" variable so as to "prime" that mind-module to respond properly to the "who" or "what" inquiry. Say, using this "statuscon" technique may even enable proper answers to a compound query like, "Who and what are you?" We might get the AI to respond, "I am Andru and I am a robot." The main thing is, by shifting away from the mindgrid-wide query-variables and by using instead the "statuscon" variables, we may achieve a tighter integration between specific English words and the proper response to them.

2 Sat.16.APR.2011 -- Implementing Article Conditions

First we declare the variables defartcon and indefartcon for setting the definite or indefinite article condition. We run the artificial Forthmind, and it still works. Then into the EnArticle module we insert code to test the status of the new variables before saying "A" or "THE". The mechanism is rough now at first, but we ask "Who are you?" and the AI Mind responds "I AM BRAIN". When we ask "What are you?" the AI says, "I AM A BRAIN."

Table of Contents

• 1 Fri.15.APR.2011 -- New Coding After 25 February 2011

• 2 Sat.16.APR.2011 -- Implementing Article Conditions