On 5/8/07, James Ratcliff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
More simply even that that, Pei, when it comes across a task and a choice of options, if it sees no benefit > 5% (arbitrary setting or 0%) does your system choose randomly between between the choices?
It depends on the type of the task. If NARS finds multiple options for a given task, and the options are not mutual-exclusive, it doesn't "choose" among them, but distributes resources among them, so as to pursue them in parallel, with different speed on different paths, depending on several factors (likelihood, relevance, confidence, etc). If the others are mutual-exclusive, it choose the best it can find (by likelihood, relevance, confidence, etc), and if they are close enough in those aspects, it will choose the first one it located.
Doesnt this make the system non-deterministic...
NARS does use random number generator for resources allocation, but it is not where the non-deterministic behaviors come from. NARS is non-deterministic in the sense that for the same input task, the system's processing and consequence may be different. This is because a concrete input task is not treated as an instance of a task class by an algorithm designed for that class, but on a case-by-case manner, according to the current internal state of the system. In a "life cycle" of the system, since its internal states never repeat, each occurrence of the same task may be handled differently, and doesn't follow a deterministic algorithm. The system's behavior is still predictable for simple and familiar tasks, but such predictions are usually imperfect, and the accuracy is a matter of degree. The system is deterministic on a different scale: if after one "life cycle", the system is reset to the same initial state, and is given the exactly same experience as in the "previous life", its behaviors will exactly repeat those of the "previous life". Therefore there is nothing magical about this system in technical details --- just a groups of algorithms working together, though designed differently from conventional computer systems. When we say that the mind is "non-deterministic" or has "free will", what we mean is that it is adaptive, flexible, and context-sensitive, but not that it is fundamentally unpredictable and incomprehensible. Pei ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=fabd7936
