Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2011 8:30 
  PM
  Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Self 
  Interest Ontology
  
  Dear SIO-interested posters,
  I found this 
  posting on the ISRE list, which describes how certain emotions are tied to 
  self interest in a conversation.  I think this could shed some light on 
  Doug's view of "interest" in a way that fits the SIO:
  
  
    If there is a topic, it means there is a conversation. 
    The conversation is with another person, with whom one is in some kind of 
    relationship. One or the other party in the conversation will feel anger if 
    the tenor of the conversation implies that there is something defective or 
    unworthy or wrong or culpable or immoral or stupid or the like about that 
    person. 
  
  RC:> Note 
  how this addresses the PERSON not the topic of conversation, and it addresses 
  the manner of communication instead of the underlying 
  concepts.  
  
  
    
    Religion and politics are topics that frequently 
    instigate anger since opposing opinion often implies defect, unworthiness, 
    wrong-headedness, culpability, immorality, stupidity, etc. Such imputations 
    of unworthiness lead to a sense of deprivation of one?s right to attention, 
    respect, consideration and the like from the other party. The basic premise 
    here is that all there is the relationship between the parties and that the 
    relationship between the parties is usefully and importantly understood to 
    be based in large part on the degree of attention, respect, consideration, 
    etc. that the parties provide each other. 
    Conversation about any topic that leads to a sense of 
    loss of these benefits from the other party can thus engender anger. Anger 
    is an evolutionarily programmed response to this kind of loss. The emotion 
    creates an action-readiness to engage in acts that punish the other party so 
    that he/she does not again act to deprive the angered person of relational 
    benefits (attention, respect, etc.).
    For 
    elaboration of these ideas, see:
    Theodore 
    D. Kemper, ?Power and Status and the Power-Status Theory of Emotions,? in 
    Turner and Stets, Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions 
    (2006).
    Theodore 
    D. Kemper, Status, Power and Ritual Interaction. Ashgate 
    (2011).
  
  RC:>These 
  ideas should be reflected somehow in Doug's initial ontology, though so far we 
  have no concept about distinguishing among the 
  selves involved in the conversation.  
  HTH,
  -Rich
  
  Sincerely,
  Rich 
  Cooper
  EnglishLogicKernel.com
  Rich AT 
  EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
  9 4 9 \ 5 2 
  5 - 5 7 1 2
  
  -----Original Message-----
From: 
  ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
  On Behalf Of Rich Cooper
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 1:42 PM
To: 
  '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Semantics of Natural 
  Languages
  Let me propose that it is SUBJECTIVITY i.e. 
  a
  proper 
  understanding of self interest, that I
  think is 
  missing.  
  We have been 
  seduced by the 'unreasonable success
  of 
  mathematics' in solving problems in a
  supposedly 
  objective world, as Somebody said.  We
  need to 
  overcome our self satisfaction at how well
  math has 
  worked and look in a different direction.
  -Rich
  Sincerely,
  Rich 
  Cooper
  EnglishLogicKernel.com
  Rich AT 
  EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
  9 4 9 \ 5 2 
  5 - 5 7 1 2
  -----Original Message-----
  From: 
  ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
  On
  Behalf Of 
  Rich Cooper
  Sent: 
  Wednesday, August 31, 2011 1:30 PM
  To: 
  '[ontolog-forum] '
  Subject: Re: 
  [ontolog-forum] Semantics of Natural
  Languages
  Hi 
  John,
  Thanks for 
  the links, but that isn't what I am
  interested 
  in; I'm more focused on WHY Cyc (and
  other 
  approaches to developing massive knowledge
  bases) is 
  thought by so many to have failed, e.g.,
  Genesereth 
  for example.  
  Before the 
  Cyc project started, the common view
  given full 
  imprimaturitan status in the research
  community 
  was that it was KNOWLEDGE that was
  lacking for 
  full AI, and only THAT was keeping AI
  from 
  universal suffrage.  
  I am looking 
  for opinions by people who might know
  as to WHY 
  that assumption was clearly so wrong.
  Knowledge is 
  NOT enough, and that has been clearly
  demonstrated 
  by Cyc's lack of demonstrated value
  in 
  universality of intelligence.  
  Small, 
  highly focused projects, such as the blocks
  world and 
  its successful linguistic manipulation
  as per Terry 
  Winograd's (admitted) kluge, and the
  surprisingly 
  good results from very simple (also
  kludged) 
  chatbots such as Parry, and the
  Somebody's 
  Prize demonstrating lack of scalability
  of said 
  chatbots, shows SOMETHING.  But what KIND
  of 
  something?
  More study 
  of Cyc seems to belong to the same
  viewpoint as 
  theocratic studies of angel densities
  and 
  pinheads, the viscosity of ether, and mappings
  of magnetic 
  fields in thousands of points.
  Instead, the 
  Einsteinian approach of novel - dare
  I say 
  subjective -interpretations (in his case, of
  the 
  Michelson-Morley results) seems to be what is
  most clearly 
  lacking at this point in time.  
  Why DON'T 
  huge hunks of deduced, induced, abduced
  and reduced 
  knowledge suffice?  What is still
  lacking?  Why don't gobs of special purpose
  functionality, coupled with gobs of knowledge, do
  the 
  trick?
  Why DO 
  simple approaches work so well at small
  scales?
  Why DON't 
  simple approaches scale well?  
  Why DOESN't 
  a simple chatbot with Cyc on its back
  suffice to 
  convince observers in a Turing test?
  In the 
  fifties or so, game theory was developing.
  Turing came 
  up with a biological explanation of
  what would 
  be called the hox genes to form complex
  biological 
  strata.  Lately, we have learned that
  there are 
  only some 20,000 genes which are
  adequate for 
  making a human bean, but that leaves
  out a LOT of 
  so called JUNK DNA, meaning genetic
  structures 
  we still don't have a clue about.  
  Those are 
  the kinds of new ideas that need to be
  reduced to 
  practice.  And that is why the patent
  form, with 
  one advance teaching AGAINST prior art,
  seems 
  interesting to me as a model of how to take
  the next 
  steps.  
  -Rich
  Sincerely,
  Rich 
  Cooper
  EnglishLogicKernel.com
  Rich AT 
  EnglishLogicKernel DOT com
  9 4 9 \ 5 2 
  5 - 5 7 1 2
  -----Original Message-----
  From: 
  ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
  On
  Behalf Of 
  John F. Sowa
  Sent: 
  Wednesday, August 31, 2011 11:41 AM
  To: 
  ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Subject: Re: 
  [ontolog-forum] Semantics of Natural
  Languages
  Rich,
  Some 
  comments:
  JFS
  >> 
  About a dozen years ago, I was talking with
  Mike 
  Genesereth,
  >> who 
  said "Lenat is probably the only one who
  doesn't know 
  that
  >> Cyc 
  has failed."
  RC
  > That is 
  the kind of thinking that all of us show
  in one form 
  or
  > 
  another.  We seem stuck in our structured ways
  after the 
  first four
  > decades 
  or six, unable to overthrow the past
  beliefs and 
  institute
  > new 
  untried ones.
  Genesereth 
  has been one of the strongest
  proponents 
  of classical
  logic-based 
  AI.  He has been teaching at Stanford
  for years 
  in
  close 
  collaboration with the same people
  (McCarthy, 
  Feigenbaum,
  Fikes, etc.) 
  as Lenat.  Any success stories from
  Cyc would 
  have
  provided 
  more attention (and funding) for all
  kinds of 
  projects
  that used 
  logic-based AI.  But Mike G. was being
  realistic.  I
  would 
  qualify his comment, but I certainly
  couldn't 
  refute it.
  In my 1984 
  book, I tried to take a balanced view
  of the 
  strengths
  and 
  limitations of logic-based systems.  My view
  then (and 
  with
  more input 
  since then) has been that logic-based
  systems 
  are
  important, 
  especially for applications to comp.
  sci., but 
  that
  NLP systems 
  must include logic-based approaches as
  a proper 
  subset:
    1. 
  Large numbers of applications in computer
  systems, 
  database
       systems, programming systems, 
  and
  hardware/software design,
       require a foundation in formal 
  logic.
    2. 
  Natural languages can be used in very precise
  ways 
  (for
       example, along the lines of controlled 
  NLs),
  but 
  they
       can also be used in very scruffy, 
  very
  informal 
  ways.
    3. 
  The overwhelming volume of NL speech and
  documents 
  use
       highly informal, often ungrammatical, 
  and
  "innovative"
       language.  (I'm using "innovative" as 
  a
  neutral 
  term
       for what many people would call 
  "incorrect".)
    3. I 
  also agree with the comment by Alan Perlis
  that 
  you
       can't translate informal language to 
  formal
  language 
  by
       any formal algorithm.
    4. I 
  believe that you can interpret highly
  informal 
  language
       by computer, but that you need to use 
  huge
  amounts 
  of
       background knowledge (i.e., 
  extralinguistic
  information)
       to do so.
    5. 
  Point #4 is acknowledged by classical
  logic-based 
  AI projects
       such as Cyc.  But they assume that you 
  need a
  long 
  gestation
       period that depends on hand-coded 
  logical
  representations
      (e.g., formal ontologies and knowledge 
  bases).
    6. 
  The scruffies, such as Roger Schank, disputed
  that 
  claim
       from the early days (1960s).  But they 
  didn't
  have 
  the
       facilities for acquiring, storing, and 
  using
  such 
  large
       volumes of information.
    7. 
  The hardware today is more than adequate to
  store 
  and
       process the huge volumes of 
  information
  needed to 
  support
       point #6.  One example is the IBM 
  Watson
  project, 
  but
       there are other projects that have 
  achieved
  comparable
       success with more modest hardware 
  resources.
  The
       VivoMind applications I summarized are 
  among
  them.
  > I don't 
  see much of anything discussed about Cyc
  past 
  the
  > 
  precursors I mentioned anywhere in the public
  literature;
  > I'm not 
  referring to tutorials about Cyc, but
  about 
  analyses.
  For the 
  research publications, see
      http://cyc.com/cyc/technology/pubs
  For free 
  downloads of the ontology and supporting
  software:
      http://opencyc.org/
  I believe 
  that there are many useful applications
  of Cyc and 
  OpenCyc,
  but I also 
  believe that a different architecture
  is necessary 
  to
  achieve 
  something that could be called natural
  language 
  understanding.
  That is what 
  I have been discussing in talks,
  publications, and emails.
  John
   
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