--- On Wed, 9/3/08, Pei Wang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > TITLE: Embodiment: Who does not have a body? > > AUTHOR: Pei Wang > > ABSTRACT: In the context of AI, ``embodiment'' > should not be > interpreted as ``giving the system a body'', but as > ``adapting to the > system's experience''. Therefore, being a robot > is neither a > sufficient condition nor a necessary condition of being > embodied. What > really matters is the assumption about the environment for > which the > system is designed. > > URL: http://nars.wang.googlepages.com/wang.embodiment.pdf
The paper seems to argue that embodiment applies to any system with inputs and outputs, and therefore all AI systems are embodied. However, there are important differences between symbolic systems like NARS and systems with external sensors such as robots and humans. The latter are analog, e.g. the light intensity of a particular point in the visual field, or the position of a joint in an arm. In humans, there is a tremendous amount of data reduction from the senses, from 137 million rods and cones in each eye each firing up to 300 pulses per second, down to 2 bits per second by the time our high level visual perceptions reach long term memory. AI systems have traditionally avoided this type of processing because they lacked the necessary CPU power. IMHO this has resulted in biologically implausible symbolic language models with only a small number of connections between concepts, rather than the tens of thousands of connections per neuron. Another aspect of embodiment (as the term is commonly used), is the false appearance of intelligence. We associate intelligence with humans, given that there are no other examples. So giving an AI a face or a robotic body modeled after a human can bias people to believe there is more intelligence than is actually present. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------- 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=111637683-c8fa51 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
