Supplying knowledge to Asa H

1.  Some basic concepts should be hardwired in like:

touch, force senses
light/color sensors
temperature sensors
sound sensors
time sense, clock and calendar
hunger sense
etc.

2. Some should be hand coded in ("innate") like:

calls
seek recharger and plug in
disk copy/ replication
grasp and lift sequences (note that there is need for output knowledge too, like human "muscle memory")
etc.

3. Some concepts would be taught to early AIs (but then recorded for future generations of AIs) like:

soft and hard
drop
push
approach
collision
weighing
work
etc.

4. Much would subsequently be learned by the (now independently living) AI.  Again, these concepts could be recorded for future generations of AIs.

We can't just upload Ava (see my blog of 25 June 2012) onto the web and let it use web inputs as senses and in turn use the web to act on the world.  Such a "baby Ava" would flail about, probably destroy itself (as a lone human baby would) and probably harm us too.

Teaching Asa H concepts/vocabulary

In chapter 1 of my book Twelve Papers (www.robert-w-jones.com, book) I describe how Asa H was taught words like

move
stop
fast
slow
obstacle/object
turn
collision
recharge

and sensory examples of each.

With Lego NXT sensors I believe I can teach Asa H words and concepts (meanings) like

touch
see
force
left
right
hear
say
approach
revolve
push
grasp
lift
drop
hunger
color
hard
soft
weigh
hot
cold
light
dark

I can also teach letter and numeral recognition, as well as recognition of some common objects in Asa H's environment.  But Lego NXT sensors may be too limited, too few, to give Asa the 800 or more examples I think I need in order to begin to deal with natural language. (I do have webcams as well, of course, and Lego has used these too.)

Or, can computer speed and a small number of sensors substitute for the large volume of sensory input humans get?

The need for multiple software development methodologies

There is not one single best programming methodology, one best set of practices.  Different software systems are deployed in very different environments with very different demands.

NASA spacecraft need the most bug-free software possible.  The methodology employed by the On-board shuttle group in Clear Lake Texas is well suited to developing such systems.

Banks, internet commerce, etc. need highly secure software systems.

The home computer market, games, entertainment, etc. require software that is economical throughout its entire lifecycle.

Experimental (exploratory) programming needs to be quick and easy to adapt and change.

Each of these environments calls for a different set of methodologies, tools, and practices.  We should not be looking for (or try to teach) one single best practice.

Reference materials

I judged a science fair last weekend.  There were far too many references to web resources and far too few references to books and journal articles. There was a perpetual motion experiment with references to the "Newman motor."

Open mindedness

You should study lines of research that are the opposite of your own.  They may contain data and ideas that you've missed.  In AI this means read Hubert Dreyfus, John Searle, Roger Penrose, Keith Chandler, etc.

Asa H is a universal Turing machine

By limiting time shifting to one time step only (to provide "state"), disabling extrapolation, and by requiring the dot product match to be (nearly) perfect (within roundoff error) it is possible for Asa H 2.0 to simulate a universal Turing machine of the sort in Minsky's book.(Computation, Prentice Hall, 1967)

Data Logging for Asa H

In order to become smarter Asa H must know more.  I have used synchronized files from multiple data loggers (measurement computing model USB-503) to input hours worth of observations to Asa H 2.0 via a USB port. (Almost 200,000 values can be logged.)

Divided consciousness?

Is divided consciousness (see Divided Consciousness, E. R. Hilgard, Wiley, 1986) a result of highly parallelized computation?  Will it occur in AIs?

Atheists in TV fiction

It's good to see television heroes and heroines that are atheists:
Alicia Florrick, "The good wife"
Temperance Brennan, "Bones"
Gregory House, "House MD"