Glossary of AI User Manual and Textbook Terms
artificial intelligence (AI). The ability of a machine to think
and understand like or beyond an intelligent human being.
knowledge base (KB). A body of information not simply held in a
file or database, but associatively known in the working memory
of a mind that may discuss the KB and answer questions about it.
linguistic superstructure. A syntax tree or forest of such trees
lying flat within the mindgrid but logically equivalent to a vertical
hierarchy of control nodes towering over the plane of the mindgrid.
mentifex-class AI. An early artificial intelligence based on the
theory of mind and the top-down hierarchical structure used
in the Mentifex AI project as found on the World Wide Web.
mindgrid. The cortical sheet of the neocortex visualized as
an associative plane of vertical concept-fibers, horizontal
associative fibers, and vertical memory channels, together
constituting a lattice or grid of the orthogonal, maspar pathways
of signal-propagation and information-flow in the
artificial mind.
seed AI. An artificial intelligence such as a mentifex-class AI
that spreads across the World Wide Web and provides examples
of AI source code to be torn apart (reverse-engineered) and
built back up again in a genealogy of mutating, proliferating
species of AI evolution as if from the seed of a new life form.
slosh-over effect. The accumulation of neuronal activation from more
than one source, resulting in the transfer of activation to yet another
time-bound target. In an AI Mind, the activation from a subject-noun
combines with the activation on a related verb to slosh over onto
a properly associated direct object, so that a chain of thought may snake
its way across the mindgrid and not detour into spurious associations.
Technological Singularity. Popularized by Vernor Vinge in 1993,
a term referring to a single point in time when so great and
sudden a change occurs due to the technology of artificial
intelligence, that we may not see in advance beyond that
point and we may not reliably predict what the future holds.