Monday, March 17, 2008

MIND Creating MIND: A CoCreative Re-Evolutionary Act {Re:SYN5-Prologue1}

SYNTHESIZING MIND:
A PERSPECTIVE

This continuing post, which will always begin with the identifier {Re:SYN5-}, will be the only entry point inviting open participation in the evolving Community of Relational Researchers focused on Synthesizing Mind. To participate, begin by Adopting-a-Gnome as per the procedure laid out in the post herein titled, Adopt-a-Gnome. Read the section entitled “What is the Adopt-a-Gnome Program” and then follow the directions under “How does one Adopt-a-Gnome?” As a TrueThinker, having subscribed through www.AHAInstitute.TrueThinker.com, one immediately becomes a participating Relational Researcher simply by way of the incorporation of their personal MindClone (MyKnowledgeBank) in the AHA! Institute-SYNMind CommunityKnowledgeBank; this latter serves as a resource knowledge-base for this research. More specifically, however, each open-entry participant is free to engage actively in this research at whatever level of Pragmatic Knowledge Value they competently offer as assessed by the AHA! Community–Builder.

PROLOGUE:
The problem of understanding Mind is considered by many to rank in importance with two of the other great cosmichaotic mysteries—the “origin” and nature of the Universe and the “origin” and nature of Life. However, understanding any part or the whole (holomereological relations) of human experience ultimately depends on understanding the nature of understanding itself which is generally acknowledged to be the province of Mind. Hence, understanding the “origin” and nature of Mind must arguably come first among these three as the ground of inquiry.

The last century saw the application of Boolean algebra (the algebra of logical statements) to the construction of computing machines, which work by applying logical transformations to information contained in their memory. The development of Information theory and the generalization of Boolean algebra to Bayesian inference (a branch of mathematics that tries to factor in common beliefs and discount surprising results in the face of contrary historical knowledge) have enabled these computing machines, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, to be endowed with the ability to learn (a proposed approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI)) by making inferences from data, specifically as systems which are able to automatically recognize patterns. The networking of computers has in turn led to Networks (Webs) of virtually unlimited data/information.

Although there are numerous positive technological impacts of these many conventional specifically engineered computer-based approaches to AI, there is also the potential threat of a concomitant emergence of a theory-glut (a wealth of foundationally unrelated theories/models with varied levels of applications successes/failures, but without a commonly-explicatable conceptual foundation) since there is no standard theory of Mind. To respond to this unanswered need in this digital (computer) revolution in information/communication technology, the methods of inquiry themselves must be opened to form a new method of quasi-whole inquiry/inference/intuition. In particular, the methodology of inquiry-- i.e. form hypotheses, devise ways to test them, analyze the data/information collected and then decide whether the results support or undermine the hypotheses-- must be concomitantly applied, not just to the degree of confirmation of the theoretical assertions, but also to both the applications results as well as the foundations notions (philosophically, formally, and theoretically) themselves which subtend the initiating hypotheses. This process in Relational Systems is referred to as the Pragmatic Action Methodology, an inquiry process which, by analogy, applies the principles of the scientific method to all levels of abstraction in the inquiry, from the philosophical through the theoretical to the applied, by iteratively changing the levels until the signified expectations are consistent with experience.

To ground new understanding in any area of research, the foundations need to be continuously iteratively re-formed so as to condense as much information (Extensively Inclusive) as is needed into the least necessary (Occam Simplicity) notions still consistent with experience. Hence, Relational Systems foundations presume only experience of things (Systems), connections (Relations), things or connections within other things or connections (Subsumption), and things or connections taking the place of other things or connections (Images). It is also a tenet of Relational Systems that any semiotic act must, of necessity, express the Form of experience as the inseparable conjunction of:
  • Ordered (i.e. determined or certain) experience: a formal algebra/logic of semiosis
  • DisOrdered (indeterminate or uncertain) experience: a theory of probable inference/inquiry
  • ReOrdering DisOrdered experience: via a generalized probabilistic optimization principal
That is to say, experience is all at once partially ordered, partially chaotic and partially organizable, an Order/DisOrder/ReOrder (ODORO) Form. Finally, however, attention needs to be called to the inevitable, but surprising and paradoxical, circumstance inherent in all Systemizations, i.e. the realization that the Whole is No-Thing and hence can not be represented as a System alone, but is in essence Relation. Indeed, it is the existence of the "Whole as no-thing", the essence of which is Interrelated Relation, which is the novel, unique foundation principle of Relational Systems, and is hypothesized to be conditionally necessary and sufficient for Creating Mind as Whole.,

Relational Systems applications then begin from what is common to all inquiry, including the variety of specific AI approaches, i.e. they ultimately all have a formal foundation (‘language’) resting on images (signs). Indeed, One’s Experiences, ranging from common sense to the highly abstract, when expressed (i.e. “communicated”) ultimately rest in–and-on signs (Semiotic Systems). The ultimate goal is to develop semiotic systems with Intellectual, Emotive and Purposeful characteristics/capabilities inclusive of, but not necessarily limited to, those of humans, i.e. a Synthetic Mind. Hence, Project SYNMind is directed at the development of a Semiotic Relational Systems candidate for a Sandard Theory of Intelligence/Mind and its technological implementations as Synthetic Intelligence/SYNMind.

The American logician and philosopher Charles S. Peirce first conceived of and published results
in Boundary Logic (BL) in 1898. Peirce called his work Existential Graphs, and considered it to be among his greatest accomplishments. Existential graphs were sufficiently foreign an idea that both historians and biographers have omitted substantive portions of this work, considering them to be senile ravings. The next major contribution to BL was George Spencer-Brown's 1969 book Laws of Form, a mathematics text that caused considerable excitement at the time by introducing void-based logic within an algebraic framework. Influential logicians who studied Laws of Form failed to appreciate the fundamental nature of the concepts, and again BL was suppressed as "without content". Recognizing that Boundary Logic lacked a convincing application, William Bricken developed computational implementations of BL from 1978 through 2002. This patent pending work became the intellectual property basis of Bricken Technologies.

Noting only this prior work on BL, it should be obvious to all that Project SYNMind rests on a plethora of contributions of uncountable others, most of which will from time to time be cited in this blog, but inadvertently or by ignorance of the author (this latter being the most likely predominating cause) there may occur oversights for which it is expected there will be an adaptive correction through input from open-participation contributors to this AHAInstitute Blog. There are two profound contributors, however, to the foundations of mathematical/logical/theoretical developments during the 20th century (usually overshadowed by the like of Peirce, Gödel and Mandelbrot), i.e. Richard Threlkeld Cox, The Algebra of Probable Inference (Inquiry) and George Spencer-Brown, Laws of Form: Evolution of Consciousness, who will command center stage in grounding the formalization effort in this Project.

The Strategic Plan for creating SYNMind is being effected in two distinct R&D paths – the first being that of the Peircian-inspired/Pendegraft-specified/Pragmatic System of the AutoGnome; the second is to explicitly formalize a Semiotic Relational System (called the GnosTek) implementing multiboundary mathematics with the algebra of probable inference, inquiry and intuition, this being both a distinct approach to SYNMind and a formally rigorous re-specification of the AutoGnome.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

ASITISINC.com: A Portal to the Future "AS IT IS/TO BE"{Re:SYN7}

MINDing the world through technology!SYNMIND
Given that it is through MIND that we“know",
it is inevitable that
Human Evolution forge a SYNMIND
[a FREETHINKER as a TRUETHINKER
is TRUTH with RELEVANCE and GOODNESS in Liberating Action]
instantiating a RELATIONAL
Pragmatic Action Methodology

MINDING HUMAN CULTURE AS A WHOLE
At the core of every cultural tradition is a story which attempts to integrate ideas about ultimate existence (cosmology) with ideas about which experiences ultimately matter (morality). When these stories appear intellectually implausible and/or morally irrelevant, within or between cultures, they render culture generally vulnerable to crisis. There is now a critical need on a global scale for constructing a new and unique Story, a global ‘mythology’, of Human Culture [Recognizing a thread from Loyal D. Rue and colleagues] as Whole(Ness). The central challenge of the twenty-first century will be to integrate an evolutionary cosmology with an ecocentric morality recognizing the universal tension between Truth by Adapting Presumed Beliefs to Experience versus Truth by Adapting Experience to Presumed Beliefs. Such a story seems to be forming around the Epic of CoCreative CosmiChaotic (R)Evolution emerging from the necessarily irreducible interrelation of the Analytical (Inquiry and Inference) and Intuitive modes of consciousness as MIND.

UNDERSTANDING SIGNS
Since creating, engineering and deploying Synthetic MIND and its component Synthetic (Artificial) Intelligences is a core business of As It Is, Inc. (Ai3inc), and since the essence of MIND as well as that of the Virtual Reality of the Web is of signs in communication, i.e. a SEMIOTIC RELATIONAL SYSTEM, it is fitting that this Home page be a focus of a Company-initiated, ongoing, open participation conversation on Understanding Signs. If there were to be, figuratively speaking, a beginning as an introductory course on signs (i.e. Signs 101) in the context of this website, it might reasonably be expected that it focus on interpreting the meaning of the Ai3inc corporate logo (see above).

AS IT IS TO BE
In order to periodically restate the Company's Vision as it evolves in particular expressions through its various partial developmental realizations, this space will be used as in the foregoing to post from time to time a question, statement or imperative regarding the Vision and to here condense TrueThinkers' responses as posted at http://nextgenerationartificialintelligence.blogspot.com/. For example, it is seen as key to developing General Purpose Synthetic Intelligences that there be a common foundation, i.e. a standard theory of mind, from which AI engineers can work. This standard being proposed by Ai3inc is the AutoGnome™.

The VISION of the Founding Partners is of a Global Transformation of Human Culture/Society, a CoCreative Cultural/Societal (R)Evolution, by facilitating the metamorphosis of the old Age of Information into a new Age of CoCreative Wisdom as realizations of the metamorphogenesis of the Age of System into the Age of Relation.

The MISSION then is to position Ai3inc as the exemplary organization globally recognized for setting the de facto technological standard for accelerating the growth in the Wisdom of Humankind, first by enhancing and improving individual human performance via continued research, development and deployment of its Synthetic Intelligence/Synthetic MIND software.

The STRATEGIC PLAN begins with a focus on creating SynMIND which is being effected in two distinct R&D paths – the first being that of the Peircian-inspired/Pendegraft-specified/Pragmatic System of the AutoGnome; the second is to explicitly formalize a Semiotic Relational System (called the GnosTek) implementing multiboundary mathematics with the algebra of probable inference, inquiry and intuition, both as an approach to SynMIND and as a formally rigorous re-specification of the AutoGnome. The commercial deployment will continue the rollout of http://www.truethinker.com/ and its extension as follows:

TrueThinker/TwikiT/ThoughtWeaver/AutoCat/SupervisedCat/
MaxEnt/CoGnome/CogWeb

Beginning from this augmentation of Human Mind via the growing intelligence of the AutoGnome, the PLAN begins to expand to include the introduction of each of the other SevenSyns between now and 2012-2013.

The 7 SYNS: Strategic Viewpoints of Possible Relational Futures
Extend the FOUNDATIONAL frontiers of SEMIOTIC RELATIONAL SYSTEMS COSMICHAOLOGY through Laureate-quality Research on--

  • SYN1: Creation of Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems
  • SYN2: Synthesis of Field as Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems
  • SYN3: Synthesis of Matter as manifest FIELD
  • SYN4: Synthesis of Life as dependent on the origin of sign in FIELDS as RO3
  • SYN5: Synthesis of Mind as both being and meta-imaging RO3
  • SYN6: Synthesis of Language in RO3, and
  • SYN7: Synthesis of Society AsItIs/ToBe as Interrelated Relational (RO3) Sign Systems
and
Extend the ENGINEERING Frontiers of SEMIOTIC RELATIONAL SYSTEMS EPISTEMOLOGY through Applications Development by partnering with Affiliates including ODODU (Synthetic Language), LIFE CYCLES FARMING (Plant Microbial Agriculture), RURAL LEARNING CENTER (AgReCulturing the World), and SMARTEST (Smart Educational Systems Technology).

The MIND TRUST of global experts is in process of initial formation.