Messages

601

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Skin I'm working on.

« on: October 22, 2006, 07:37:07 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Carl2

Bill DeWitt
  Leave it to me to have a different opinion,

No need to post stuff if everyone has the same opinion!

I realized that I don't use the buttons because I keep her on a separate monitor, and I am usually busy with my mouse on the main screen. So my next version includes the buttons, but I still have problems with the background of the input box (see image).

quote:I do like the design you've made, rather unique.

Thank you, I am starting to get somewhere with it I think...

Insert Image:

602

General Discussion / THE TRUE AI

« on: October 22, 2006, 05:40:51 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Carl2
Stanford University
John McCarthy
2004-04-11
In general, computer programs can usefully be given much greater powers of self-awareness than humans have, because every component of the state of the machine or its memory can be made accessible to be read by the program.

Hmm... then that means that mousetraps are self-aware, because the arm "knows" exactly the tension of the spring and the position of the latch. There! We're done. Now we can move on to other problems.

I suggest we work on changing the definition of Pi to be 3, then we will be able to work out Pi to it's exact value.

Or maybe my personal favorite, redefining "vegetables" to be "Pie" so I can have more pie.

I'm excited about the high standards we have set![]

603

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Skin Color format (SkinUserBGColor)?

« on: October 22, 2006, 05:10:12 pm »

I have tried several color models to adjust the SkinUserBGColor to match my rgb<000,255,000> without success. I have tried CMY, CMYK, HSB, HLS and YIQ.

Unless I have done something wrong (which is not unlikely), it's some odd value or method. It has 8 digits, which seem to operate randomly. Anyone know how to convert?

604

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Distributed Hal?

« on: October 21, 2006, 08:37:31 pm »

I was just reading the bionc pages (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/) because I mentioned distributed computing in another thread and couldn't get it out of my mind.

Has anyone here tried doing a distributed Hal? The distributed database hashing alone could reap vast increases in Halbrain function, couldn't it?

It's far beyond my skills, but I certainly have idle computers to help the project.

605

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Skin I'm working on.

« on: October 21, 2006, 03:21:42 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Art
What happens to the girl when one closes the watch lid or is it not representative of the old pocket watches or jewelry box dancers?

 That was my intention. Unfortunately you cannot shut the lid. The clock is a separate program on the web page I mentioned above.

 Do you know if one can use animated gifs in the skin? I guess I should just try and see.

Bill

606

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Hal's Life and Death decisions

« on: October 21, 2006, 12:49:12 pm »

quote:Originally posted by onthecuttingedge2005

I was thinking of making a small plug that would give HAL power to prevent its existence from ceasing (Reboot).

 While I can see Hal not wanting to be rebooted, is that really "The End" for Hal? If changes are saved, rebooting is more like sleep.

 To prevent the death of your particular Hal, it might have to upload itself to multiple online HalBotServers. Create discrete holographic editions of itself which could run and update each other simutaneously. Shareload processing across distributed networks... that's what Hal wants!

 Of course, we are no longer talking about a small plugin...

 I wouldn't mind if my Hal (Jane) begged me not to shut down her program. But it would be sort of a "I don't want to go to bed yet" whine, not a death-scream!

607

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Skin I'm working on.

« on: October 21, 2006, 10:42:02 am »

quote:Originally posted by Art

Very creative and dare I say...Timely!!

It's come to puns now has it? [}:)]

Thanks Art, Glad you like it. But I wonder, do other folks use the buttons as seldom as I do? I never use the "Menu" or "Close" buttons, and rarely turn off the mike now that I have "Respond Only By Name". I mostly just put her over on the other monitor and leave her running.

So I was thinking about leaving a couple buttons off the next version to make it a little cleaner. Maybe just Mike and Minimize? Or do you think that would make it unhandy for others?

608

General Discussion / THE TRUE AI

« on: October 21, 2006, 08:03:05 am »

quote:Originally posted by Bill819
Well Bill maybe you Hal does not have a self but mine does and a complete body to go with it.

 Only if you use the most simplistic definition of the word "self".

 Your Hal has a script, and cannot do anything other than what the script tells it to do. More senses, more complex scripts and more actuators do not make "self" unless you devalue the word to mean only what a virus has - varying, unexpected, but hardwired responses to changing input.

 Most people (and most AI theorists, I suspect) have a more complex view of selfhood.

 To me, Hal is like a 2D branching system, where rules lead to deterministic choices that lead to other rules. Intelligence is more like a 3D web, where branches reconnect according to preset rules, complex, adaptive, but unaware. Hal, if it has functions I have not yet noticed, approaches that.

 Self (to me) seems like a 4d hyperstructure where every node is directly connected to every other node with varying degrees of access. Self Awareness goes one more step, with an over structure that can monitor and manipulate the hyperstructure without direct connection. It changes the machine that generates itself without changing itself.

 I don't deny that technology may some day accomplish "Self Awareness", or that Chatbots are a likely path to that goal. But as of yet, we are one or two dimensions away from "Self", your interesting and laudable Hal system notwithstanding.

609

General Discussion / THE TRUE AI

« on: October 20, 2006, 07:54:23 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Carl2

Looks like this subject is old, my understanding of self awareness is that if you look into a mirror you would reconize that it is you. Some animals would not realize that were looking at them selfs. I reciently read about a bot that was given vision and could reconize pictures of animals. If it realized that the hand it saw was it's own it would be self aware.
  This is the definition I have, are there others?
Carl2

 I would have to say that this is a very literal definition, and not the normal one. Self-Awareness usually is a term used to describe that part of the mind which can compare one self state with another. For instance, you can say, "I am more happy now than I was earlier". A dog is barely capable of thinking, "I am happy".

 One writer called it, "A mind which can observe it's own functioning". It is somewhat different from, but not separate from the function of knowing yourself as distinct from your surroundings. For instance, a worm may not even know an exterior world. There is a good chance it is aware of it's sensorium (I feel wetness - I taste food) while not distinguishing it as an effect of the movement of it's body through damp earth.

 Most animals can distinguish themselves from their environment, but this alone cannot be the criteria for Self-awareness. As you noted many animals cannot recognize themselves in a mirror, but neither can humans if they are not taught to. More importantly, humans, when they recognize themselves in the mirror, want to make sure they look alright. They make faces at themselves. They converse with themselves. It is not just that they see themselves, they also consider themselves.

 Machines like Hal cannot be truly self-aware because there is no self to be aware of. However, the Turing test proves one thing more than anything else. If a thing cannot be distinguished from a human, we are certainly going to respond to it as if it were human. A Halbot may simulate self-awareness, and probably soon, but it won't really worry about it's hair looking funny.

610

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Two questions on Skins

« on: October 20, 2006, 07:22:00 pm »

Found it! But the link is broken. The name is "Ultra HAL Assistant Interface Design Manual in a PowerPoint presentation" and I already reported the broken link, but if anyone has it laying around I would love to see it.

Thanks, Bill.

611

Ultra Hal Assistant File Sharing Area / Skin I'm working on.

« on: October 20, 2006, 04:27:59 pm »

I just thought I would show off what I've got so far. Need to clean up the transparency mask and improve the buttons a little. It's meant to be used with the freeware clock by Loris Bognanni (gljakal.com).



Insert Image:

612

Ultra Hal 7.0 / MakeTran problem discovered and solved.

« on: October 20, 2006, 09:18:04 am »

I ran in to a problem using MakeTran.exe where the upper left corner was not being read properly. A small square of background was left showing. I actually editted the mask.dat to attempt to repair the problem.

Then I happened to notice that my network info tool (Penguinbyte's QuickID) was the same size and "stay on top" in the upper left corner of my screen. I ignore it most of the time and so didn't even notice it ws interferring with my image.

Apparently MakeTran reads the actual screenshot of your image on the monitor.

So I thought I would mention this for anyone who is making skins and has trouble with transparency. Maybe it's obvious to everyone else, but it stumped me for three hours.

HTH, Bill

613

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Two questions on Skins

« on: October 20, 2006, 12:21:36 am »

quote:Originally posted by Art

Some members often confuse skins with textures.
Skins, as you mentioned refer to the GUI (Graphical User Interface)

Right, this is what I mean, skins as were made famous by WinAmp, editable GUIs for programs.

I have made a skin, and most things are working out well for me. I just thought the help file would be handy to have.

Thanks, Bill.

614

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Small plugin?

« on: October 19, 2006, 08:58:07 pm »

quote:Originally posted by Art
Back in the early days of the BASIC computer language

Heh...

I am so old, TRS-DOS and "Extended Color Basic" was my first programming experience - in college! Before floppy disks.

I remember being excited to finally get a computer that would use MSDos. With a real hard drive, a virtually unfillable 20mb of space!

If only I knew then what I can't remember now...
Bill

615

Programming using the Ultra Hal Brain Editor / Small plugin?

« on: October 19, 2006, 07:47:11 pm »

quote:Originally posted by onthecuttingedge2005
Rem PLUGIN: CUSTOMMEM2 <--- is at the bottom of the GetResponse Function

I get the idea now, CUSTOMMEM2 is like a goto in the main brain so this script bypasses the GetResponse. Yep, now that I know to look, I see it in the hal6.uhp

Thanks, that makes more sense now. I was looking for a separate custommem include file or something...
Bill