On Mon, 18 Nov 2002, maitri wrote: [snip] > This led me to the feeling that for true NLP to occur, a computer would need > to have visual references to draw upon that it has categorized and learned > from, and the ability to "imagine" or construct images composed from these > learned experiences. [snip] > So what follows is given this type of information, could it be fed into a > computer that could "learn" from it about people, shapes, colors, gravity, > etc, just as the child did. And thru this experience, derive a better > understanding of the words used in speech. I know this will be a long and > arduous path, but I can't see why it will not be possible. I also > considered what you said about a blind person. Helen Keller could > communicate without being able to see or hear. So it would seem to > represent that these are not necessary for language processing. But from > another point of view, we cannot say for certain that she was not forming > some type of image(I use this term loosely as her way of understanding > something would be beyond us and may not correlate directly to an "image") > when she received a sentence. Her "image" may have been instead a "feeling" > image instead of visual image. She new what a car felt like, so when we say > car, she might have thought of the feeling of a car.
Right, a deaf-blind person may still experience some level of mental visual experience because a substantial part of the brain is devoted to visual processing - far beyond what is present in the eye. But my point was that many deaf-blind people acquire knowledge symbolically, and that I don't believe that vision is essential. I would rather plug it in later. > On last note on Cyc, i really wish you guys would be working on beneficial > interests that were non-defense related. I have deep fears about the > direction of our country and military. The last thing we need is even > greater military superiority right now. I would differ with you to the degree that I believe that the USA needs a different kind of military superiority to deal with terrorism. We accept government and commercial sponsors. Darpa has been especially supportive because they see promise in our research/progress and know that it is not yet commercially self-supporting. -Steve -- =========================================================== Stephen L. Reed phone: 512.342.4036 Cycorp, Suite 100 fax: 512.342.4040 3721 Executive Center Drive email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Austin, TX 78731 web: http://www.cyc.com download OpenCyc at http://www.opencyc.org =========================================================== ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/
