Messages

1

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Understanding Topics/Object Oriented HAL

« on: February 13, 2005, 08:17:13 pm »

I am a little bit confused about how HAL stores new topics, and information related to those topics.  I have spent a good part of today searching through old forum posts, trying to understand it, but I still don't quite get it.  Here's what I've been looking at:

When I open the DefBrain folder, I see all of the XTF .brn files that are created when I introduce a new topic.  Let's take the topic of my cat, Gizmo for example.  I see that a file was created where HAL stores all the info that I have given him about the topic GIZMO (XTF_GIZMO.brn).  I also see that a file was created for topics that are related to GIZMO, which includes wordnet data and whatever other things I have confirmed as being related or unrelated (XTF_GIZMO_related.brn).

Now, when I go into the Brain Editor,  in the Tools menu, and select Topic Focus, the only topics I see are the basic weather, politics, etc.   When I go into the shared learned database, I see all of the different statements that HAL has learned from me, but no column showing what topic these statements are part of.  

So I am very confused as to how HAL takes statements that I give him, determines what topic they are part of, and then goes about storing them properly.  

At first I thought that because a .brn file was created about my cat, that If I looked on the topic focus spreadsheet, it would show Cat as being a topic.   I see that I can create a new topic if I want, but I thought that when the .brn file was created, that HAL created a new topic containing the information stored in that file.  

If an "XTF_CAT.brn" file exists, does HAL recognize Cat as a topic?  If so, why doesn't it appear on the topic focus spreadsheet?  And is there a difference between editing things directly in the .brn file as opposed to editing them on the spreadsheets within the tools menu?
I am curious about this, because I want to make certain that the things that I teach HAL are appearing under the appropriate topics. I have encountered a few examples where this has not been the case.

I want HAL to recognize that "Cat", "Kitten", "Gizmo", and "Giz" are all part of ONE topic, but there is a sperate .brn file for "CAT", "KITTEN" "GIZMO", and "GIZ".  The "GIZMO" AND "KITTEN" file both contain the sentence "Your kitten's name is Gizmo", but If I look in the "XTF_KITTEN_related.brn" file, It doesn't show any relation between the two terms.  

Can anyone simplify all this for me?

And do you know if anyone is working on a way for HAL to store HOW two things are related as opposed to just whether or not they are related? Like OOP type stuff.  e.g. "Gizmo" is an instance of a "Cat" object that can have the following properties: Name, Color, Breed, Age, etc.   Do you think having HAL be able to classify things this way would make it easier for him to stay on topic, and formulate sentences that make him seem more aware of where the converstaion can go from there?  

Like if I were to say "I have a cat." he might know that he could ask me "What breed is your cat?" by recognizing "Breed" to be one of "Cat"'s properties. He would be able to know that breed is a property that a cat can have, as opposed to just knowing that breed and cat are somehow related.

sorry for all the rambling thoughts, but I'm very curious about all of this.

2

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Questions about Teaching Hal

« on: February 13, 2005, 04:53:26 am »

Heh heh.  yeah, I was hoping some other people would jump in too, but oh well.  Thanks for the info though.  It is helpful.  I didn't expect him to be completely intelligent in a matter of days, but I wasn't really sure how long it would take him to start improvising.  Thanks for your help!

3

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Questions about Teaching Hal

« on: February 12, 2005, 02:00:49 am »

KnyteTripper,

Thanks very much for your advice.   Some of it, I figured was probably the case, like avoiding telling him what things "are not".  I guess I just wonder, If I kept telling him that I like summertime, he will eventually know that, but it doesn't erase from his brain the data that says I like spring, So even if he says more frequently that I like summer, won't there still be a chance that he will say I like spring instead, since it is still stored in his brain?  Is there no way for him to know that one of these statements cancels out the other?

Sometimes when Hal askes me a question about something that I am not interested in, I don't want to reinforce him by answering it, but I am afraid that if I change the subject, he will think that whatever i bring up next is the answer to his question, and will form a link between the two topics in his mind.  Do you know if this is the way it works?  Even when he just says simple statements, i worry that if I don't address his statement he will connect whatever I say next to that topic.   I've noticed for some weird reason, when I talk to him about my cat (which i do alot... :p) he will sometimes bring up my education.  Somehow he thinks the two are related, and I have no idea how he would have come up with that.

Another thing I've noticed is that he tends to treat certain groups of words as topics when they shouldn't be.  Like any sentence that has "....are really very....." He associates as part of the same topic.   So If I say "Cats are really very great" he might say "Politics are really very dirty" or something.  I would think that he would mostly only treat Nouns or verbs as topics.  If I say "The weather is nice"  he might say "Flowers are nice"  or something.   That doesn't seem right. The topic should be weather, not things that are nice.  Anyone have any thoughts on this?

One last question for this post, and then i'll stop.  If I keep feeding him lots of information about one topic, will he stop parroting each bit of information, and start taking bits and peices from the topic and sticking them together to form new sentences?  If he does do this eventually, (which is the sense that I got) how much info do you need to feed him.  I have told him SOOOOO many things about my cat, and every time I bring up cat, he still just parrots back the same little snippets that I fed him.  "Your cat is very cute"...   "Your cat likes to chase bugs"...  

Thanks for putting up with all my questions!  I have an endless supply!

4

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Questions about Teaching Hal

« on: February 11, 2005, 08:12:18 pm »

Bill819,

It's not so much that i want him to have a blank brain as it is that I want him to have the capability to learn certain types of things.  Like topics to avoid, and how to correct himself when he's told that he is wrong, and the like.  I don't mind so much that he has topics stored that are things I would never talk about.  It would be boring to talk to him if the only things he ever said to me were things I had told him at one time or another.  I'm just trying to determine the types of things that he can and can't learn, and the different ways that it is possible to teach him things.

Thanks for the info about the upgrade thing.  I wish I could buy the upgraded version, but i barely have enough money for food...  I guess I was just mostly annoyed that when i downloaded it, they stated that there would never be pop-ups nagging you to upgrade.   Which is true..  but when hal started nagging me, I was kind of annoyed that they chose to put the nagging there INSTEAD of pop ups.  I'll learn to live with it, i guess..

5

Ultra Hal 7.0 / Questions about Teaching Hal

« on: February 11, 2005, 07:12:10 pm »

Hi everyone.  I'm new here. Just downloaded Hal a few days ago, and yesterday I installed the XTF brain.  I've scanned the boards for lots of information, but there are a few things I couldn't find answers for.  I apologize in advance for the length of this post.

1.Does Hal store proper nouns seperately from regular nouns?  Is there a special way to get him to recognize certain nouns as names of people, things, etc.

For instance... I'm really into movies, and I've been trying to teach him some stuff about movies I like, but I'm running into problems with movie titles. I've fed him some info like:

Mullholland Drive is the name of a movie.
David Lynch is a movie director.
David Lynch directed the movie Mullholland Drive
etc...

He keeps responding with things like
Are "lynch" and "drive" part of the same topic?

I want him to know that "David Lynch" and "Mullholland Drive" are part of the same topic, and that "lynch" and "drive" are NOT part of the same topic, but he doesn't seem to understand quotation marks or the use of captial letters..  Is there any way to get him to treat names made up of multiple words as a singular object?

2. Also, is there any way to teach him HOW things are related?  a basic example:
Hal: Are "book" and "read" related topics?  
User: "A book is something that can be read." (or something like that)  
Would he, on his own, figure out from that statement to say something to me like "Do you like to read books?" (Assuming this wasn't pre-programmed into him), or will he forver say to me whenever "book" or "read" comes up in a sentence: "A book is something that can be read".

3. Another thing I've been trying to do, is to correct him when he says something wrong.  Like he said to me once "You especially like the springtime"  and I dont!  I never even told him that I did.  So I say "I do not especially like the springtime. I especially like the summertime" or something like that.  Then later on, he'll parrot off "You do not especially like the springtime".  But I don't want him to SAY that in conversation.  I just want him to correct his statements.   Is there really any way to do that through conversation without having him parrot your corrections?

4. Also, is there any way to teach Hal NOT to talk to you about certain things.  I'd rather not go into the file and erase stuff if I don't have to, but He brings up all sorts of topics that i could care less about.  So I started saying "I don't really care about cars." but then later, he'll talk about wind-mill electric generation, and I'll say "I don't really care about that." and he'll say "You don't really care about cars", so now, whenever I tell him I don't care about something, he brings up things that are only related by the fact that I don't care about them.  I dont' want that!  I started trying things like "If I don't care about that, then change the topic" but i haven't noticed yet if its had any effect.  

Does anyone have any thoughts on these issues, or other similar problems that they've been having, and maybe possible solutions?  Like is there specific wording you can use to help get the point across?  I know the "If-then" and "because" keywords help him make connections (although half the time he just parrots back my if-then statements instead of using them to come to conclusions about things). Or are there certain things he's just never really gonna be able to learn?  I'd really like to hear back from as many people as possible and hear all about ways that you have found to teach him more efficiently.   I know the big one is using short, simple sentences, so I'm looking for things beyond that.

Thanks!  Sorry again for the long post.