John, I just thought of this. I wonder how relevant the experiences of sensory deprived individuals are to a comparison of the capabilities of "dis-embodied" intelligences? Someone like Helen Keller who maybe only had kinesthetic and taste senses, could maybe be analogous in some way to a developing dis-embodied intelligence? Maybe not, just a thought...
On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 2:21 PM, Matthew Taylor <[email protected]> wrote: > John, > > Just to make sure that all your questions have been addressed directly: > > On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 2:55 AM, John Blackburn > <[email protected]> wrote: > > "performs with true intelligence" is a pretty bold claim. If this is > > the case, how come there are no very convincing examples of HTM > > working with human like intelligence? The Hotgym example is nice but > > it is really no better than what could be achieved with many existing > > neural networks. Echo state networks have been around for years and > > can make temporal predictions quite well. > > People define "intelligence" in different ways. If you take for > granted that the neocortex has "true intelligence", then HTM might be > called an implementation of "true intelligence" algorithms based upon > the fact that it acts upon incoming data with the same basic > principles as the neocortex. We are trying to lift the intelligence > out of the brain and into software, one step at a time. > > So, while NuPIC's performance might not seem all that impressive when > other technologies can do similar things, we have lots of room to grow > [1] and a lot more work to do. All of this upcoming work should > increase the capabilities of the HTM system we are implementing. The > fact that we are somewhat on-par with some other ML techniques at this > point is encouraging to me. > > > I recently presented some > > time sequence data relating to a bridge to this forum but HTM did not > > succeed in modelling this (ESNs worked much better). > > I had a little time to work on your bridge tilt data [2], but not > enough to make it useful. I still think this problem presents a > relevant challenge for HTM, and I think with more time and effort, > someone might be able to create a real solution. I, unfortunately, > have other projects I have to work on. :( > > > So outside of > > Hotgym, what really compelling demos do you have? I've been away for a > > while so maybe I missed something... > > My current favorites are location-based anomaly demos like these: > - https://github.com/nupic-community/mine-hack > - https://github.com/numenta/nupic.geospatial > > I am also working on a new tutorial, coming within a couple weeks > (hopefully). > > > I am also rather concerned HTM needs swarming before it can model > > anything. Isn't that "cheating" in a way? It seems the HTM is rather > > fragile and needs a lot of help. The human brain does not have this > > luxury it just has to cope with whatever data it gets. > > Swarming is hard to explain. In the brain, input data to the neocortex > comes from sensory organs, which have been tuned by millions of years > of evolution to have very specific characteristics that process > incoming light, sound, movement, etc. into certain patterns of nerve > excitations. These patterns get generated outside the cortex, but they > are still important to attempt to replicate in some ways. All data in > "reality" must be represented to the cortex somehow outside of that > reality. In NuPIC, this is what encoders so. They translate data > coming into them into a representation similar to a vector of nerve > excitations. > > Anyway, swarming is a very rough way to simulate evolution in the > sensory organs. It randomly sets up encoders with different parameters > (also spatial pooling and temporal memory parameters) and tries to > find the best possible set of configurations for the specific data > that is being processed. Your cochlea have had millions of years to > come to that perfect set of configuration parameters ;). Swarming is a > brute-force attempt to resolve some set of parameters for a specific > input data set. It is not always right, it takes a long time, and it > sometimes requires manual intervention, but it definitely very useful > for finding groups of configurations that work well for certain types > of data. > > > I'm also not convinced the neocortex is everything as Jeff Hawkins > > thinks. I seriously doubt the bulk of the brain is just scaffolding. > > I've been told birds have no neocortex but are capable of very > > intelligent behaviour including constructing tools. Meanwhile I don't > > see any AI robot capable of even ant-like intelligence. (ants are > > amazing!) Has anyone even constructed a robot based on HTM? > > While I know nothing about bird brains, except that they have a > cerebral cortex that has some similarities to the mammalian cortex, I > do know that hierarchy in the neocortex is a generally accepted theory > in neuroscience. > > We could still learn a helluva lot from the lower levels of the brain > (imagine a flight vehicle that could control itself as efficiently as > a fly), that just isn't what we're trying to do at Numenta. > > > Personally I don't think a a disembodied computer can ever be > > intelligent (not even ant-like intelligence). IMO a robot (and it must > > BE a robot) needs to be embodied with sensory-motor loop at the core > > of its functionality to start behaving like an animal. > > You don't need to have physical interaction with the world to have > behavior. There are millions of actions that can be taken on the > internet that all have consequences, change the landscape for the > actor, and present different possible actions in return. The most > obvious example is video games, but the internet in general is a very > large universe with no physical structure, but endless virtual > structures to interact with. > > [1] https://github.com/numenta/nupic.research/wiki/Current-Research-Tasks > [2] https://github.com/nupic-community/bridge-tilt > > Regards, > > -- *With kind regards,* David Ray Java Solutions Architect *Cortical.io <http://cortical.io/>* Sponsor of: HTM.java <https://github.com/numenta/htm.java> [email protected] http://cortical.io
