It’s kinds hard to make much of this. The idea of a system specifying its own goal sounds interesting, but there’s no explanation – and ditto of how “capturing future histories” might relate to simple (what I would call) adventurous targeting of a goal, and then trial and error.. Any more info re this method?
From: Jean-Paul Van Belle Sent: Saturday, April 20, 2013 8:05 AM To: AGI Subject: RE: [agi] Causal Entropic Forces The dummy's version (for people like me :) is here: Physicist Proposes New Way To Think About Intelligence http://www.insidescience.org/content/physicist-proposes-new-way-think-about-intelligence/987 Long quote: " Alexander Wissner-Gross, a physicist at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cameron Freer, a mathematician at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, developed an equation that they say describes many intelligent or cognitive behaviors, such as upright walking and tool use. The researchers suggest that intelligent behavior stems from the impulse to seize control of future events in the environment. This is the exact opposite of the classic science-fiction scenario in which computers or robots become intelligent, then set their sights on taking over the world. The findings describe a mathematical relationship that can "spontaneously induce remarkably sophisticated behaviors associated with the human 'cognitive niche,' including tool use and social cooperation, in simple physical systems," the researchers wrote in a paper published today in the journal Physical Review Letters. [...] The mathematics behind the research comes from the theory of how heat energy can do work and diffuse over time, called thermodynamics. One of the core concepts in physics is called entropy, which refers to the tendency of systems to evolve toward larger amounts of disorder. The second law of thermodynamics explains how in any isolated system, the amount of entropy tends to increase. A mirror can shatter into many pieces, but a collection of broken pieces will not reassemble into a mirror. The new research proposes that entropy is directly connected to intelligent behavior. "[The paper] is basically an attempt to describe intelligence as a fundamentally thermodynamic process," said Wissner-Gross. The researchers developed a software engine, called Entropica, and gave it models of a number of situations in which it could demonstrate behaviors that greatly resemble intelligence. They patterned many of these exercises after classic animal intelligence tests. " -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Robert Levy [[email protected]] Sent: 20 April 2013 05:09 To: AGI Subject: [agi] Causal Entropic Forces "Recent advances in fields ranging from cosmology to computer science have hinted at a possible deep connection between intelligence and entropy maximization, but no formal physical relationship between them has yet been established. Here, we explicitly propose a first step toward such a relationship in the form of a causal generalization of entropic forces that we find can cause two defining behaviors of the human “cognitive niche”—tool use and social cooperation—to spontaneously emerge in simple physical systems. Our results suggest a potentially general thermodynamic model of adaptive behavior as a nonequilibrium process in open systems." PDF: http://www.alexwg.org/link?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexwg.org%2Fpublications%2FPhysRevLett_110-168702.pdf Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZB8TNaG-ik AGI | Archives | Modify Your Subscription -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN This e-mail is subject to the UCT ICT policies and e-mail disclaimer published on our website at http://www.uct.ac.za/about/policies/emaildisclaimer/ or obtainable from +27 21 650 9111. This e-mail is intended only for the person(s) to whom it is addressed. If the e-mail has reached you in error, please notify the author. If you are not the intended recipient of the e-mail you may not use, disclose, copy, redirect or print the content. If this e-mail is not related to the business of UCT it is sent by the sender in the sender's individual capacity. AGI | Archives | Modify Your Subscription ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
