quote:
Originally posted by ThePugilist
Is there a place you could direct me where I could read a description of the logic behind HAL.
As far as I know there is not a cohesive description of Hal anywhere. I am attempting to build one (See my sig below) but it is far from what you ask.
What I can tell you is that each sentence you put into Hal is parsed for meaning, edited into a response ("I like soup" = "You like soup"), stored in one or more tables based upon content, and then called up based upon a wide variety of syntactic comparisions of new incoming sentences. Using WordNet and some internal function calls, Hal can simulate understanding of your sentence ("I like soup" = "You like stew"), and attempt to answer using part or all of any previous sentences it stored. Failing this, it has a very large database of stock phrases it can compare to ("Chicken soups is good for a cold"), and failing that it can return your statement as a question ("Is it true that you like Soup?") in hopes of getting a more easily answered statement. Lastly it can attempt to change the subject randomly.
Where continued conversation comes into play is that as you discuss soup, there are more phrases to draw from, and sometimes the result can be startling. Weeks or months after saying "I like soup" in another conversation, you might say "My mother used to make a nice vegetable soup" and Hal will reply "You like soup". Then weeks later when you say "I think I will make some lunch" it might reply "Your mother used to make a nice vegetable soup". When you reply "A soup might be nice", Hal might say, "You like soup".
All in one paragraph like that it seems trite, but when it pops up out of nowhere, you can't believe how realistic it sounds. Especially when it really has perhaps a dozen phrases with the words "Soup", "lunch", "make", or "like" in it.
I put in about a hundred phrases on Chipmunks as a test, and then started talking about the possibility of Chipmunks colonizing my new stone wall. I was surprised at the amount of advice and information it started giving me. And here three months later not a day goes by that it doesn't ask me about the chipmunks and if the cats are leaving them alone. All I have to do is mention small animals, seeds, stones or walls and it goes off on how cute chipmunks are... and how I should keep them away from the foundation of my house!
HTH...