From: brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen)
Subject: Re: Marvin Minsky Presentation
Date: 28 Jan 92 17:57:21 GMT
Organization: Software Technology Research Laboratory, Tektronix Inc.


Re:  Minsky's appearance in Seattle, Feb. 18th:

> Dr. Minsky believes we should set our sights on providing a special
> ROM as part of every future computer operating system. That ROM
> would contain commonsense knowledge.  It would provide the basis
> for understanding what every normal person wants.

I (and I think others reading this newsgroup who won't be able to
attend) would appreciate someone summarizing Minsky's presentation.  I'd
be particularly interested in his justification for delivering common
sense information in ROM, when our experience from biological systems is
that read-only memory (usually called "instinct") is rarely
common-sensical; common sense seems to be slowly acquired and require
constant retuning to match the real world.

This question is touched on in Chapter 23, "On the Seeming Paradox of
Mechanizing Creativity" of Hofstadter's "Metamagical Themas", a
discussion of of creativity which starts from the read-only behavior of
the sphex wasp.  The lesson I draw from the sphex is that common-sense is
largely procedure-driven, rather than data-driven, and is time-variable
as well, so ROM doesn't seem like anywhere near a complete solution.

Lest I be accused of drifting away from VR, let me say that I do see
implications for the design and operation of virtual worlds.  One of the
biggest problems in the near to medium future of VR technology is going
to be world maintenance: keeping the world consistent and functioning in
the face of arbitrary (and possibly outrageous) actions of users.
Moreover, to maintain consistency the maintainers may have to react in
near real-time.  Active Game Masters will recognize the classic problem
of the player who insists on turning the omnipotent wand on itself.
This is an easy one for a human to deal with ("it crumbles in your hand,
fool, and you will have a terrible itch for a week"), but could catch an
automated maintainer out.  The more that VR is used cooperatively, and
as a tool to get work done, the more important it becomes to keep the
worlds working, and the more need there will be for automatic systems
which can handle all but the most bizarre interactions.

I'd also be curious how Minsky defines "what every normal person wants",
and who decides who's normal.  There are some potentially serious
ethical issues here, which could easily be overlooked.
--
"The end cause ... is too often handed off as an afterthought to harried
interface designers who follow programmers around with virtual brooms
and pails." - Brenda Laurel in "Computers as Theatre"
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Speaker-to-managers, aka
Bruce Cohen, Software Technology Research Lab    email: brucec@crl.labs.tek.com
Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc.          phone: (503)627-5241
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