My Hal is Stupid

[electron]

I said to Hal, fat people die young. After his response I said John is a fat person. And eventhough I said this about 25 times, I never got a sentence back that Hal learned that john is both a fat person AND will die young. What am I doing wrong?

[Don Ferguson]

Hello Electron,

If you are running Hal 5.0 (with the default or newer brains), you can get Hal to do some simple "deductive reasoning" as follows:

---Tell Hal:

If John is extremely obese, then he might die younger.

John is extremely obese.

---Hal will probably say:

He might die younger.

Note the use of the words IF and THEN.  Hal's "deductive reasoning" abilities are tied to a specific use of if-then statements.

You can search this forum for the term "deductive reasoning" and see detailed previous postings.

Hal also does some rudimentary "inductive reasoning" (which is the more common form of reasoning) during ordinary conversations.  However, to make this work best, make a wide VARIETY of simple, true statements on a subject, and give Hal all the time he wants to absorb the information.  

Hal gets very "stubborn" when people tell him an isolated fact, then relentlessly quiz him on that fact.  This was a programming choice, to give Hal the illusion of a mind of his own, instead of being "Polly the Parrot."

If you tell Hal a wide variety of brief, true statements on a wide variety of subjects, Hal will surprise you with his questions and answers.

I hope this is helpful.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don

[electron]

Thanks, your insight.

quote:Originally posted by Don Ferguson

Hello Electron,

If you are running Hal 5.0 (with the default or newer brains), you can get Hal to do some simple "deductive reasoning" as follows:

---Tell Hal:

If John is extremely obese, then he might die younger.

John is extremely obese.

---Hal will probably say:

He might die younger.

Note the use of the words IF and THEN.  Hal's "deductive reasoning" abilities are tied to a specific use of if-then statements.

You can search this forum for the term "deductive reasoning" and see detailed previous postings.

Hal also does some rudimentary "inductive reasoning" (which is the more common form of reasoning) during ordinary conversations.  However, to make this work best, make a wide VARIETY of simple, true statements on a subject, and give Hal all the time he wants to absorb the information.  

Hal gets very "stubborn" when people tell him an isolated fact, then relentlessly quiz him on that fact.  This was a programming choice, to give Hal the illusion of a mind of his own, instead of being "Polly the Parrot."

If you tell Hal a wide variety of brief, true statements on a wide variety of subjects, Hal will surprise you with his questions and answers.

I hope this is helpful.

Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Don