As MindForth and the JavaScript Mind.html tutorial AI move beyond
the severe constraints of their primitive proof-of-concept format
into a more natural, infantile state of mind, the vocabulary
hard-coded into the English bootstrap (enBoot) sequence must
change by being enlarged to meet various needs and considerations:

switching from default plural-forms to default singular-forms;

increasing the cns memory-size from 1024 to 2048;

English word-frequency lists;

logic;

machine reasoning;

KB-Traversal;

robotics;

emotion;

consciousness;

AI Mind exhibits in museums;

Public appeals for information.

---- e.g., whereabouts of top name on FBI Ten Most-Wanted list;

---- e.g., missing or kidnapped children;

---- e.g., solicitation of UFO sighting reports.

Since it was most important to demonstrate spreading activation in
the earliest AI Minds, they had one simple thought structure of the
syntax subject-verb-object (SVO) and they used only plural nouns.
In the current phase of mind-expansion, we shift to treating
a singular noun as the typical, default phenomenon and plural
nouns as a secondary phenomenon. Therefore we need to rewrite the
enBoot sequence with a primary emphasis on the singular noun.

The rewrite of the enBoot sequence is the first compelling reason for
increasing the size of the psychological memory of the MindForth AI.
Although http://AIMind-i.com went for a larger memory rather early in
its existence as an evolutionary offshoot of the original Forthmind,
MindForth was more in need of debugging and testing than of a large
memory workspace. Since a lot of the testing involves waiting for
the AI to fill up its available memory and go into Rejuvenate mode,
it would have been counterproductive to increase the cns memory
any earlier than necessary. Now it is indeed time to increase the
memory space, because an enlarged "vault" of unerasable, innate
knowledge does not leave much room for thinking new thoughts into
memory.

We have made a comparative study of frequency lists available
on the Web, in order to make sure that MindForth knows the top
words on any typical list, the words so common in the minds of
English-speakers that the more of them an AI knows, the more
likely the AI is to understand things said to it by a human user.
However, with each successive enlargement of the enBoot, the
lists of most frequent English words will matter less and less,
because of diminishing returns in the utility of each extra word.
It matters a lot to take English word frequency into account at
the outset of AI evolution, but it very quickly becomes more
important to incorporate special vocabulary for special purposes.

The ability to think logically requires special vocabulary such as
"if" and "then" and conjunctions like "or" and "and". If we expand
our notion of logical thinking to include some vocabulary from
computer programming, we will try to include some vocabulary that
computer programs use, like "else" or "switch" or "assert".

Machine reasoning builds upon logic to move our AI Minds into
areas of competition with human minds -- into deduction,
abduction and inference. For machine reasoning, the AI needs
to know not only words of logic but such words as "why" and
"because" in order to understand and contemplate knowledge
in not merely logical but also creative ways. We all know
and fear in advance that the pathway of machine reasoning
leads to superintelligence on the part of machines. When we
demonstrate the stirrings of machine reasoning in our AI
Minds, we give human society one final chance to say "No!" and
to stop artificial intelligence from taking over the world.

KB-Traversal is a compelling reason for changing and expanding
the English bootstrap sequence of the AI Mind. KB-Traversal
reactivates a rotating sequence of concepts in the "vault" of
the untouchable, innate knowledge-base (KB). As we add more
concepts into the enBoot knowledge base, we have more variety
and more versatility in the chains of thought that the AI will
initiate during KB-Traversal. We have a chance to engage and
captivate human users more bondingly or more intriguigingly
by giving the AI more conversational gambits with which to engage
the interest of the human user. As the great Dmitri von Hagen once
drew on a napkin for Mentifex at the Seattle Center: lim --> ***
(the stars are the limit), and we can deliver AI Minds conversant
in any subject to any client for any special purpose.

Since we want the AI Minds in software to appeal to robot-makers
who may install the artificial intelligence in hardware, we need
to ground the AI software in the rudimentaty vocabulary of robots.

The English bootstrap ought to include some emotional vocabulary,
such as the verbs "love" and "hate", adjectives like "angry", "sad",
"happy" and so forth. Then, even if the disembodied mind of a
primitive AI cannot experience emotions itself for lack of the
physiological accompaniments to emotion (tears, smiles, etc.),
then the growing AI Minds will at least be able to discuss
emotions with human beings who do indeed experience emotions.

Whether the primitive AI Minds are conscious or not -- which
will always be a matter of report from one consciousness to
another -- the question will come up, and so the AI Minds must
be able at least to talk about consciousness.

Previously...

Previously...

For discussion of MindForth, visit the Usenet newsgroups
comp.lang.forth
comp.robotics.misc

For discussion of Win32Forth, visit the Yahoo win32forth group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/win32forth/messages

According to the O.B.S. news agency the EU funded
CRONOS Project is set to announce progress on Robot body and cognition ...

Stephen Reed of the promising Texai project offers a glimpse into
ambitious Cycorp where he used to work ...

At Derek's AGI Blog, nothing new since 9.SEP.2008 ...

Now, Steve Reed of TexAI... What are Steve's work practices?
How often does he work on his AI, and how intensely? Is it like
a passing skirt to most guys, a passing fancy, or is Steve really,
truly dedicated to creating AI? And is Steve pretty chipper
about AI, or is he basically despairing -- another McKinstry
in the offing, so to speak.