=== Purpose ===
A parameter in the AI Mind software serves to guide or limit the
operation of a mind-module. If a module is conducting a search of
AI memory, one parameter may govern how much of memory will be
searched, while other parameters may dictate exactly what is to
be looked for. Since it is easier to change a parameter than an
entire mind-module, the use of parameters makes it possible to
have a mind-module serve a general purpose that changes as the
parameters change.
=== Time-parameter ===
The variable _midway_ is a parameter for searching the memory space
of the AI Minds. While the AI Minds remain small and experimental,
_midway_ is usually set to zero so that it does not yet play a role.
When the AI is searching backwards in its memory for a concept,
the search starts at the present time and goes backwards to the
_midway_ point. If _midway_ is set at zero, the AI searches the
entire memory. Oftentimes the search stops as soon as one single
result is found, such as an example of how to say the word "NOT".
As the AI Minds grow larger and larger and claim their rightful
habitat on one Supercomputer after another, the _midway_ parameter
will make it possible to limit searches of memory to a reasonable
portion of the entire life-span of the artificial intelligence (AI).
Since a concept may even have a different meaning or interpretation
in the distant past, limiting the search to the most recent portions
of memory helps to maintain a current, present-day frame of mind.
It also helps achieve the goal of maintaining a high speed of thought,
because the more memory a search must traverse, the slower the operation
of the software will become, especially if the AI does not yet have
MasPar or massive parallelism in both hardware and software.
The _midway_ parameter does not need to be calculated as exactly
half of the available memory space. The AI mind engineers and the
AI maintenance crews have the option of setting a very low level
for _midway_ at the first installation of a mission-critical AI
for the purpose of exhaustive system-testing, and a more relaxed
value for a fully functional AI contributing usefully to the
collegial operation of the Global AI Overmind. If the AI Minds
could be considered to have an infancy and an adolescence, the
professional mind-tenders might gradually use the _midway_
setting to knock out the infancy memories and then later even
the tempestuous, tumultuous memories of the AI adolescence -- as in
the science-fiction book, "The Adolescence of P-1".
The parameter _midway_ as a limitation on memory-search could even
be subject to dynamic adjustments. If a massive SuperComputer AI
is trying to recall any detail at all about a given topic or name
or idea, and the initial search has no results for a _midway_ set
at a half-wit value, there could be a dynamic mechanism to bypass
the _midway_ limitation and to search back over all available memory
in a kind of quest for Total Information Awareness (TIA).
=== Speech-parameter ===
The "aud" variable is sent into the SpeechAct module as a parameter
indicating where to start pronouncing a word stored in auditory memory.
SpeechAct keeps pronouncing the word until the continuation-flag turns
to zero. If the "aud" parameter starts out in error at zero, SpeechAct
substitutes a DeFault of one ("1") for "aud" and says the word ERROR
as an indicator to the AI programmer that something is wrong.
=== Language-parameter ===
In a polyglot AI Mind speaking several human languages, there may
need to be a "glot" or "hl" (human language) parameter that allows
the AI to switch out of one human language and into another for
purposes of thinking and communicating. A strong AI like MindForth
may use one massive set of concepts for all languages, but for each
language the vocabulary is different and the syntax is different.
Therefore the ThInk module is not geared to a specific language,
but must call the EnCog module for thinking in English or the
DeCog module for thinking in German (Deutsch).
Even if an AI program awakens to a DeFault setting of one particular
language, there needs to be a mechanism for changing the parameter of
which language to think in. In "Three Days of the Condor", Robert
Redford and Max von Syndow effortlessly switch from English into
French and back again when their secret conversation has a risk of
being overheard by someone walking past them. In the much more
mundane environment of superintelligent AI entities taking over
the world and sharing the planet in joint stewardship with human
beings, each interface between a human being and the AI OverMind
will need a mechanism for setting and resetting the "glot" parameter.
Typically the human input to the AI will set the parameter. Whatever
language the human being uses to address the AI, should govern the
parameter for the AI to think in the chosen language. Of course,
if an AI is working as an interpreter, there may be one language
as input and another language as output.
=== Input-parameters ===
In a broad sense, human input to the AI may often serve in the role
of a parameter for mental function inside the AI. In particular, the
KbRetro mind-module pays attention to the words "yes" and "no" in
English or their equivalents in other languages when the human user
is responding to a yes-or-no question. The idea of the question is
at first a proposition that needs confirmation or negation from the
human user. If an AI asks, "Do robots need food?" and the human being
tersely answers "No", the very word "no" serves as a parameter that
retroactively adjusts the associative links in the knowledge base (KB),
so that there remains no valid assertion of the original idea.
=== Thought-parameters ===
Because human beings and intelligent robots think in language,
the AI Mind of a robot needs to attach parameters during the
comprehension of thought and to search with parameters for
the generation of thought. For example, the Russian Dushka AI
attaches a case parameter and a number parameter when it stores
a word of input in auditory memory. In so doing, Dushka learns
the form of a Russian word in the same way as a child learns it.
If the thinking of Dushka requires that same form of the word in
the future, Dushka retrieves the Russian word from memory by
searching for any form of the word that fits the parameters.
Mentifex
--
http://cyborg.blogspot.com/2011/05/may16mfpj.html
-------------------------------------------
AGI
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