Tag Archives: cybernetics
15 Aug MIPUS and Association Neurons
Association Neurons ==> Coordination Association Neurons are tied to motor neurons, though they are much more numerous (30 to 1 ratio). They have multiple roles depending on where in the nervous system they are found. Innovateus has a convenient primer on this category of nerve cell. To understand the importance of association neurons, consider the plight […]
13 Aug MIPUS the Robot Assistant
MIPUS Graphical Study Aid I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine: His name is MIPUS. The main intent of the Understanding Context blog is to investigate mechanical models of cognition. What do robots have to do with language understanding (my main focus), you may ask. As you can see in the illustration, […]
11 Aug Emotion – The Perturbable Mr. Amygdala
Fear and the Amygdala Have you ever been asked not to be so emotional, or on the contrary, to show more emotion? Or have you been asked to suppress a specific emotion, such as fear? I recall a scene from an Indiana Jones movie in which, after a scene of amazing heroics, a pilot tells […]
09 Aug Emotional Intelligence
What Does it Take to Think In describing the role of the hippocampus, we discussed the correlation of various sensory inputs to form a cohesive picture of our physical surroundings. The direct links between the amygdala and the central gray matter demonstrate the importance of emotional feedback or emotional intelligence in cognitive processes. Dr. Travis […]
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 […]
02 Jul Centers of Attention and Consciousness
Can software be conscious? I remember when PC software began to appear that would keep listening after you closed the main program (TSR or Terminate but Stay Resident). Most of those functions migrated to Operating Systems. Operating Systems have grown to occupy a huge footprint on the computer and perform a vast array of functions. Might it be […]
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 […]
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 […]