Robotics Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
Neuron Nets
How can a set of (hypothetical) neurons be arranged so as
to form concepts? Considerable theoretical and experimen-
tal work has been done on this problem by Uttley, Rashevsky
and his group, Farley and Clark, Pitts and McCulloch, Min-
sky, Rochester and Holland, and others. Partial results have
been obtained but the problem needs more theoretical work.
4.
Theory of the Size of a Calculation
If we are given a well-defined problem (one for which it is
possible to test mechanically whether or not a proposed an-
swer is a valid answer) one way of solving it is to try all pos-
sible answers in order. This method is inefficient, and to ex-
clude it one must have some criterion for efficiency of calcu-
lation. Some consideration will show that to get a measure
of the efficiency of a calculation it is necessary to have on
hand a method of measuring the complexity of calculating
devices which in turn can be done if one has a theory of the
complexity of functions. Some partial results on this problem
have been obtained by Shannon, and also by McCarthy.
5.
Self-lmprovement
Probably a truly intelligent machine will carry out activities
which may best be described as self-improvement. Some
schemes for doing this have been proposed and are worth fur-
ther study. It seems likely that this question can be studied
abstractly as well.
6.
Abstractions
A number of types of “abstraction”' can be distinctly defined
and several others less distinctly. A direct attempt to classify
these and to describe machine methods of forming abstrac-
tions from sensory and other data would seem worthwhile.
7.
Randomness and Creativity
A fairly attractive and yet clearly incomplete conjecture is that
the difference between creative thinking and unimaginative
competent thinking lies in the injection of some randomness.
The randomness must be guided by intuition to be efficient.
In other words, the educated guess or the hunch include con-
trolled randomness in otherwise orderly thinking. [9]
In addition to the above collectively formulated problems for study,
we have asked the individuals taking part to describe what they will
work on.
