Alan Grimes wrote: > Ben Goertzel wrote: > > Here is an excerpt from the previous draft of the in-process Novamente > > book. These are the introductory sections of the chapter on Psynese, > > prior to the technical bits of the chapter. They contain some > > Novamente terminology that will be opaque due to lack of context, but > > they should give you a better flavor for the Psynese concept... > > It seems like you are trying to hybridize George Boole's _The Laws of > Thought_ with a notion from the third book of Guliver's Travels -- that > of a bag of things people would lug around in order to communicate. > > I mean no disrespect here. Its just that technology people tend to loose > their historical perspective in this age of fads and 18-month product > cycles.
Well, the excerpt was out of context. I'll be more interested to hear your critique of Psynese after the whole Novamente book is published and you can read it in context. As for the "Laws of Thought" reference -- I remember very much enjoying that book, when I discovered it at age 15 or so! Novamente does incorporate some of the insights from Boole's early work, in that its architecture lies somewhere in between conventional symbolic AI systems (which are more strongly Boolean in nature) and neural-net and evolutionary-programming systems (which are less so). As an aside, I don't really consider myself a "technology person." I'm an decent programmer and I do use the computer a lot, but my approach to AGI was formed largely from many years of studying philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, physics and mathematics. Nietzsche, Peirce and Leibniz were far more influential on me than Boole though (and everything Boole said was already there in Leibniz, albeit not so clearly stated). Computer technology is one means of implementing mind, and I believe it will ultimately be a better means than neurons, glia and the like. But computer technology was not the starting point of my AGI work -- although my AGI designs have adapted more & more thoroughly to existing computer tech, thru successive efficiency and testability oriented revisions. -- Ben G. ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?[EMAIL PROTECTED]
