Transfer of consciousness

Asa H learns a web of concepts like those outlined in my post of 14 Nov 2017 (plus some I don’t know how to translate into words). A part of this web is Asa’s consciousness*, see for example my blog of 21 July 2016. While it is possible to copy Asa, the entire web, to another computer** it is not possible to transfer the consciousness from one Asa agent into another, different, Asa agent. Two different Asa agents will have learned somewhat different concept webs and consciousness will not be able to make sense of it all.

* I realize that among experts there is no consensus on what “consciousness” is or how it works.

** But its not easy to port Asa programs from Windows to Macs to Linux to Android to NXT to eV3 to Vex etc.

More robot parts

The “Mi robot” components from Xiaomi are compatible with Lego and can be used to supplement/expand on Lego mindstorms sets.

ThinkGizmos' “ingenious machines” sets contain pieces that can be pinned directly onto UBTECH's Jimu components or Vex IQ plates or you can drill out the holes to accept Lego pins and connect up with Lego beams.

A.s.a. H.'s moral development

In a community of Asa agents if one mobile robot "A" exerts too large a force and causes pain/damage to another robotic agent "B" then "A"s utility measure is reduced and "A" learns not to use such force on others in similar situations in the future. The society of agents also learn to "help" or "cooperate" such as when 2 or more agents can move a target together but not individually. Moving an obstacle away from the docking/recharging station, for example. Asa's "morality" consists of a set of such concepts (each with relatively high learned utility) distributed across the different levels of the  hierarchical memory. Things like helping/cooperating, not causing harm, valuing life and intelligence/thought, etc.

Laser target fusion

I see that Curtis et al of Colorado State University claim a record production of 2 million fusion neurons per Joule of laser light from a nanowire target array. (Micro-scale fusion in dense relativistic nanowire array plasmas, Nature Communications, published online 14 March 2018) This appears to be based on my electron space charge ion heating mechanism. (R. Jones, Ind. J. Phys., 55B, 397, 1981)

A concept of causality

I have been using the word “cause” during some recent A.s.a. H. Training experiments. As a result Asa has formed the concept: cause=(force), cause=(low battery), cause=(walk), cause=(roll),... The corresponding concept of  "effect" might then be: effect=(acceleration), effect=(slow), effect=(move),... Asa understands causality as a high level generalization, a summary of numerous lower level processes. This is in contrast with some philosophers who believe that causality is a  fundamental primitive concept.

Healing of mechanical life

Asa H robots can do a limited amount of self repair. If two lego bricks become loose this will signal a pain and pushing on the bricks may reseat them. If one agent, perhaps a mobile robotic arm, is damaged another can be sent to act in its place. One portable sensor system can be carried about rather than another  (broken) one.*

I have tried to make the Asa robots more modular so that damaged modules might be replaced with newer ones. Such capability is rather limited given the commercial components I am working with.

* Alteratively, the development of an easy electrical connect/disconnect might allow for replacement of faulty sensors alone while retaining the old computer interfacing circuitry, etc.

File backup and maintenance issues

I have paper and electronic copies of most of the programs in my AI code library. After losing my Case-Based Reasoning (paper) file during the ESU remodeling a few years ago I never did recover some of my  CBR programs. I may have had electronic copies on floppy disc or on the hard drive of my old DELL PC that died days after I bought my current HP desktop.* I have boxes of floppy discs, some of which can't be read anymore. Data files generated during experiments have not been maintained at all.

* I actually had a total of 3 older PCs that all died within a week or two at that time.