Arthur T. Murray/Mentifex FAQ

Correct medication is obviously essential to the correct operation of the most brillian organic minds. What would be the analog to such medication in an AI one hopes will achieve brilliance?

Yes, if one redefines "useful".

anyone who is serious about simulating real intelligence (rather than doing it artificially) should consider reading the ancient indian scriptures - the ayurvedic literature.

i understand from [different] people who have read these sources that 1) there are 27 separate and distinct nervous systems of the brain, each of which is described in a chapter of this ayurvedic literature, which is, according to some sources, tens of thousands of years old (!!!)

and 2) that intelligence simulations will prove successful when an entire nervous system is simulated, not just one part.

also, here's a clue, which if you grok quantum mechanics you may appreciate: PHASE MATTERS.

for example, the layout of the nerve paths and the lengths of the nerve paths from the eyes to the visual cortex are spread out from BOTH eyes across the entire cortex.

thus you end up with a diffraction grating effect, where the pulsing of signals from the eyes at aroung 12 cycles per second causes phase transitions in the visual cortex.

we know that "changes" are noticed by our eyes, and in fact if you stare at the same space without moving for long periods of time - over five minutes - you end up with tunnel vision and eventually everything disappears!!!

our eyes jiggle slightly. they flick across images. in other words, phase transitions are induced.

in short, i believe that any attempt to produce "artificial" intelligence that relies on static analysis is doomed to failure before it begins.

by introducing "dynamic stability" at the risk of also introducing chaos and howling feedback is there any possibility of success.

and yes, it would be necessary to provide psychological and psychiatric support of such systems!!!

i'm happy to go into a bit more detail on this subject if anyone's interested.

I've got an alternate theory of the mind.  This is my text book. 


 int
main(int argc, char ** argv) 
{
	state_t state;
	while (1) { 
		sense(&state);
		do_smart_stuff(&state); 
		effect(&state);
	}
	return 0; 
}

 Exercises.
1) the student should recode it in the language of their choice. and then 
think about how AI's coded in lisp would feel about AI's coded in Visual
Basic.  Then write an essay about racism as it applies to AI's.

 2) you may also want to change "while (1)" to "while (not_dead)" since 
if the AI were immortal it might take over the world and kill humanity.

 3) the student should then code sense(), do_smart_stuff(), and effect().
	 do_smart_stuff should use semantic networks and spreading activation, 
and be careful not to read any papers about their limitations or other 
approaches to AI.

 5) when the AI quickens or becomes sentient ask it how it feels about
being an AI.

 REMEMBER: do not perform any testing on your AI that might show it
working or not working, or if the concept is even feasible.  do not
perform any testing or publish any results which explore the system's
behaviour in microworlds or uncontrolled environment.

 Also, gloss over any of the difficult bits and assume the architecture
works.  Try to avoid rigorously defining the concepts and neologisms
you use; it will only confuse the people learning basic programming by
coding the main() loop in C#. 

 Finally, try not to read any associated literature in the field which
might show how lacking this theory is in terms scholarship, research
methods, and logic.  Because if you do "they" will indoctrinate you
into their shadowy secret world of underground AI research.  and AI
research is too important to all of us to leave only to the subset of
people who are willing to use logical and rigorous reasoning in
pursing knowledge.

 *cough*

 If you want to buy a book on AI, try _Artificial Intelligence: A
Modern Approach_ by Russell and Norvig.  it gives a good intro to most
of the major approaches and lots of refs. 

Good news! The Mentifex AI project is no longer in failure. Since the original publication above in 2004, now four years later in 2008 there is an updated version of the Arthur T. Murray/Mentifex FAQ describing how the worst bugs have been eliminated from Mind.Forth AI for robots and from the Javascript tutorial AI Mind with the result that Mentifex AI now demonstrates primitive but real thinking and a working implementation of the Mentifex Theory of Mind for top-down AI. (We have performed testing on the AI to show that it is working and that the concept is feasible -- the architecture works.) The JavaScript and Forth AI Mind user manuals have been updated for the teaching of genuine artificial intelligence in schools for the gifted, progressive high schools and top-notch universities. The 2002 AI4U textbook of artificial intelligence has been expanded on-line into a Wikipedia-based free AI textbook as featured prominently on the Textbook Revolution website of free textbooks. As if MindForth and Mind.html were the Adam and Eve of AI, offspring AI projects such as http://AIMind-i.com by Mr. Frank J. Russo are evolving and speciating into a launch of the Technologi cal Singularity and creating
AI For You.