Hi, Bill
I've had the time now to experiment a bit more and I'm not so sure now that the syllogism is already working in Hal6.
Is your example working in Hal6 or only in Hal5 ?
I've tried with the following conversation, using a clean (with no plugins and no training) installation of Hal 6:
Vit: Fat people do not live long
Pat: Imagine how real people lived and loved so long ago.
Vit: Tom is a fat person
Pat: For every 100 people who talk about a low fat diet, there's actually one person following one.
Vit: every man is mortal
Pat: Is every man frequently going to be mortal?
Vit: socrates is a man
Pat: What should we do because socrates is a man?
On the contrary, this example (taken from the Hal6 brain comments), works perfectly:
Vit: If Molly weighs 400 pounds, then Molly is overweight
Pat: Yes, I get that clearly.
Vit: If Molly is overweight, then Molly's health is in danger
Pat: I see the relationship.
Vit: Molly weighs 400 pounds
Pat: Molly's health is in danger because molly is overweight. If Molly weighs 400 pounds, then Molly is overweight.
But it only works for Molly ! It does not generalize the concept.
In fact my conversation goes on in this way:
Vit: John weighs 400 pounds
Pat: Molly weighs 400 pounds.
Vit: If one weighs 400 pounds, then he is overweight
Pat: Are you a boy or girl? I see the relationship. If Molly weighs 400 pounds, then Molly is overweight.
Vit: If one is overweight, then his health is in danger
Pat: Thanks for pointing out the cause and effect. If Molly is overweight, then Molly's health is in danger.
Vit: Richard weighs 400 pounds
Pat: Molly weighs 400 pounds.
Maybe using some specific pattern you can get a better result, but I believe that Hal must be able to learn in the most human-like way, that is, using the most common conversation patterns.