From: J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Date: Sat Jun 30 2001 - 20:19:27 MDT
> If these methods are tied to some real "comprehension" (suitcase
> term) of natural language, they are going to trounce most humans
> in the "debate" arena.
>
> Robert
Thanks for the link!
Here are yet more references to machines that (presently and really) design
and manufacture other machines with virtually no human help:
http://www.jordanpollack.com/softwaremarket/bio.html
Jordan B. Pollack, who looks somewhat like Eliezer S. Yudkowsky, is a
computer scientist and prolific inventor who solves problems in complex
systems of hardware, software and people. Best known in scientific circles for
some publications in artificial intelligence, cognitive science, machine
learning, and artificial life, he also has over 20 years of practical
experience in all computers great and small. On the Internet, he founded one
of the first ftp-based digital libraries, Neuroprose, as well as the usenet
group comp.sys.laptops.
Dynamical & Evolutionary Machine Organization
http://www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu/
DEMO attacks problems in agent cognition using complex machine organizations
that are created from simple components with minimal human design effort. We
study recurrent neural networks, evolutionary computation, and dynamical
systems as substrates. We build working systems to test our theories. Here are
some of our themes.
The Golem Project: Evolution of machines
http://golem03.cs-i.brandeis.edu/index.html
The field of Artificial Life examines "life as it could be" based on
understanding the principles and simulating the mechanisms of real biological
forms. Just as airplanes use the same principles as birds, but have fixed
wings, artificial lifeforms may share the same principles, but not the same
implementation in chemistry. Every feature of living systems seems wondrous
until it is understood: Stored energy, autonomous movement, and even animal
communication are no longer miracles, as they are replicated in toys using
batteries, motors, and computer chips.
Complex biological forms reproduce by taking advantage of an arbitrarily
complex set of auto-catalyzing chemical reactions. Biological life is in
control of its own means of reproduction, and this autonomy of design and
manufacture is a key element which has not yet been understood or reproduced
artificially. To this date, robots - a form of artificial life - are still
designed laboriously and constructed by teams of human engineers at great
cost. Few robots are available because these costs must be absorbed through
mass production that is justified only for toys, weapons, and industrial
systems like automatic teller machines.
In the Golem project (Genetically Organized Lifelike Electro Mechanics) we
conducted a set of experiments in which simple electro-mechanical systems
evolved from scratch to yield physical locomoting machines. Like biological
lifeforms whose structure and function exploit the behaviors afforded by their
own chemical and mechanical medium, our evolved creatures take advantage of
the nature of their own medium - thermoplastic, motors, and artificial
neurons. We thus achieve autonomy of design and construction using evolution
in a limited universe physical simulation, coupled to off-the-shelf rapid
manufacturing technology. This is the first time robots have been robotically
designed and robotically fabricated.
Further reading
H. Lipson and J. B. Pollack (2000), "Automatic design and Manufacture of
Robotic Lifeforms", Nature 406, pp. 974-978.
R. Brooks (2000) From Robot Dreams to Reality, Nature 406, pp. 946-947
N. Forbes (2000) "Life as it could be: Alife attempts to simulate evolution",
IEEE Intelligent Systems, December 2000, pp. 1-6
M. Mitchell (1996) An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms, MIT Press
C. Adami (1998), Introduction to Artificial Life, Springer Verlag
P. Husbands, J. A. Meyer (1998), Evolutionary Robotics, Springer Verlag
S. Nolfi, D. Floreano (2000), The Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of
Self-Organizing Machines, MIT Press
---------------------------
According to Barnaby J. Feder, at the Sacrmento Bee (I just got back from
Sacramento. What a boring drive. 400 miles of nothing but 400 miles.)
Artificial intelligence has already arrived, and is now a regular academic
discipline. It's already embedded in many everyday products, and it helps
businesses sort through and make sense of huge databases.
Jordan B. Pollack says the concept of machines surpassing humans in
intelligence "scares people" but Raymond Kurzweil said, "Once a technique
works, it's no longer considered A.I."
τΏτ
Stay hungry,
--J. R.
Useless hypotheses:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism
Everything that can happen has already happened, not just once,
but an infinite number of times, and will continue to do so forever.
(Everything that can happen = more than anyone can imagine.)
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