Tag Archives: cognitive modeling
03 Aug Exformation vs. Subtext
Many of us humans like to congregate and communicate. Much of our communication, including this blog, is intended to be shared widely and to persist beyond the moment, whether we are attempting to share the thought of the moment, or change the course of human history. When we congregate, whether for a TED talk, a […]
01 Aug Section 6 Intro – Language and Dialog
Dialog: Is this something limited to humans – to sentient beings? Natural Language, its components, acquisition, and use are the subjects of this sixth section of the Understanding Context blog. Here, you will find theories about communication and cognition, along with descriptions of computational approaches to analyzing and automatically generating human language and dialog using computers. […]
14 Jul Understanding Subtext
If human interaction were simple and straightforward, computers would have been able to do a credible job of imitating it years ago. Examples of simple interaction machines, including the Rogerian Psycho-therapist named Eliza and the question answerer named Watson, show that computer algorithms can do pretty well at some interaction tasks. If all human interactions […]
21 Jun The Coming Revolution
Another Revolution in Computing – Knowledge Processing Where cognition and computation converge…the brink of the coming revolution? As James Bailey puts it, “The reason today’s electronic computers seem benign is that the true electronic revolution has not happened yet.” Bailey compares our current phase of computerization to the stage of history “when muscle tasks were […]
20 Jun Allusion of Clarity
Speaking to an associate at work I told him that a certain tool allows us to perform a complex technical change “with impunity”. My intent was to point out that without the tool, the change would create major ripple effects, breaking large amounts of code that would need to be fixed. He said that he would restate […]
19 Jun Did You Change Your Mind?
Change is a Constant There is a beautiful song from the by the Rascals that asks: “In a world that’s constantly changing, how can I be sure?” When confronted with the dirty little uncertainties that swirl around everyday life and interpersonal relations, anyone’s mind may experience turmoil. How do we resolve it? What mental processes keep us from […]
15 Jun Natural Intelligence
The Gross Anatomy of Smart The biology of understanding is not fully understood. But there are some things we can infer from what we know about how the brain works that may help us in modeling smarter systems. I love looking inside the brain for clues on what it does so I can help design […]
13 Jun The Mind and its Brain
Mind-Brain Dualism While brains can be weighed, minds are weightless. Despite some differences of opinion about what all to put on the scale, we can get usable numbers about brain weight and changes in brain weight due to certain phenomena such as changes in age. Of course, the mind and brain may be one and the same – there […]
12 Jun To Choose or not to Choose
Leg-room, anyone? The CEO of a major Airline recently stated that a-la-carte pricing of flight upgrades (such as extra baggage, preferred seating and food) is better because Americans demand “choice“. I remember my knee-jerk reaction: “Yeah – and they are choosing discount airlines that don’t charge for what was once part of the bargain.” It […]
