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From: ba672@lafn.org (Arthur T. Murray)
Subject: Brainiac in futuro (Was Re: Brainiac in memoriam)
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References: <5994meINNgl5@ADEN.AI.CS.YALE.EDU> <850699908snz@longley.demon.co.uk> <58qfeg$eti@ux.cs.niu <1996Dec16.031825.13256@la
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 21:03:26 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:42938 comp.arch:73711 comp.robotics.misc:11279 comp.speech:11812 sci.cognitive:14300


In a previous article, mcdermott-drew@cs.yale.edu (Drew McDermott) says:

>|> In article <nagleE2Ip9L.9J9@netcom.com>, John Nagle 
<nagle@netcom.com> wrote:
>|> >ba672@lafn.org (Arthur T. Murray) writes:
>|> >>Brainiac?  Mirabile dictu!  Someone remembers the old Brainiac?!!
>|> >>Being twelve years old at the time I received the toy Brainiac at
>|> >>Christmas in 1958.
>|> >

> Amazing!  I had one too, in 1960 I think.  I think we've stumbled
> on an important strand in the history of AI research.

|> >      Now there was a frustrating machine.

> I remember staring at the pieces (the masonite, the screws,
> the wires) in befuddlement, thinking, Where's the brain?
> Then enlightenment dawned:  in any intelligent system
> there is no intelligent component.  To this day I consider
> this a key insight of AI research, one that a surprising
> number of researchers fail to grasp.  (I have in mind people
> that require that the methods their programs use are "semantic,"
> not merely "syntactic"; or "are AI" as opposed to "OR"; or some
> other empty distinction.)

>                                         -- Drew McDermott


And to create an intelligent system we need only to simplify each
component module into its simplest possible form:  Robot eyes and
visual memory of a tiny array of photoreceptors;  phonemic memory
instead of full-blown acoustic memory; a robot barely aware of us
but able to experience a quickening of consciousness in its mind:

  /^^^^^^^^^^^\  Machine Perception Architecture  /^^^^^^^^^^^\
 /visual memory\           ________   semantic   /  auditory   \
|      /--------|-------\ / syntax \  memory    |episodic memory|
|      |  recog-|nition | \________/<-----------|-------------\ |
|   ___|___     |       |    |flush-vector      |    _______  | |
|  /image  \    |    ___V____V___  word-fetch   |   /stored \ | |
| / percept \<--|-->/ conceptual \--------------|->/ phonemes\| |
| \ engrams /   |   \ mini-grids / for thinking |  \ of words/  |
|  \_______/    |    \__________/  in language  |   \_______/   |

http://www.newciv.org/Mentifex/ run periodic Mentifex Web search.
http://www.complex.com.pl/~venom/science.html escape of the Meme.
