Agents in the Society of Mind EEL 6938 William Walters

The Society of the Mind Marvin Minsky –M.I.T. Professor –A.I., cognitive psychology, mathematics –Common sense reasoning Book –Concept of how the mind works –Organization of book

Agents and Agencies Mind is made up of many small processes, each small process is an agent Agents have no intelligence Agents can only do simple task An agency is many agents put together Agencies appear to have intelligence

Cup of tea Agents –Grasping –Balancing –Thirst –Moving Millions of things going on and no one thinks about them

Common Sense Making machines do common sense tasks are the most difficult Children learn common sense early –Don’t use same block –What if tower sways Is tower too tall Is foundation insecure Was last block placed too roughly

Blocks Why Blocks 1960’s built builder

Conflict Conflicts go to higher agents and weaken them

Reward Snarc, maze and predator Couldn’t solve complicated problems Only learn last steps before reward Reinforcement learning not for complicated problems Beavers and dams

Memory K-Lines Bicycle example

Knowledge-Tree Jack is flying his kite

Emotion Can intelligent machines have emotion? Can machines be intelligent without emotions? Thoughts and emotions intertwined –Anger –Thirst –Hunger –Fear

Language Agency Agents –Polynemes – long-term memories – Isonomes – short-term memories

Ambiguity I wrote a note to my sister. –Comment –Banknote –Musical Sound The astronomer married the star. John shot two bucks.

Old Agents and New Agents Old agents know less than new ones Old agents are the foundation the new Losing old agents

Confusion of Agents

References Minsky, Marvin. The Society of the Mind, Simon and Schuster, New York