PSI-Theory - 2008/01/18 19:39With Prof. Dörner's PSI-Theory, consciousness can be explained as follows: If a being is able to reflect upon its memories and its plans, it has a consciousness. That is, if you can think about what you have experienced and what your plans are, you have a consciousness. What is in memory? Essentially all experiences, all perceptions, that have not been forgotten. What is in a plan? What you intend to do.
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Raúl
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Re:PSI-Theory - 2008/01/18 20:12Hi Peter, Thanks for your contribution. I didn't happen to know the PSI Theory. Is it a specific theory about consciousness or a more general approach to cognition? Could you please provide any bibliographic source about PSI? By the way, what does PSI stand for?
Is there any concrete explanation for the reflect operator (if I can say operator)?
Unfortunately Prof. Dörner published in german almost exclusively. You can find a one of his few english texts here. Even though the title may be a little misleading, you will find the essentials of the Psi-Theory well covered.
The Psi-Theory is really a comprehensive theory on the human mind. Dörner's book about it, call "Bauplan für eine Seele" in german means quite appropriately "Blueprint for a Soul".
"Psi" is no more than the greek letter ψ.
"reflection" essentially means to think about something. It is not simply an operator (Raising the question, what is an operator). Rather than looking to the outside, self-reflection means looking at the inside of ones brain. Dörners thinks that human language is mandatory for self-reflection. He claims, you can only think about yourself if you can speak a language.
I'm preparing an english language Wikipedia entry on the Psi-Theory. I'll let you know, when it's ready.
My company is developing artificial intelligence software for natural language processing using the Psi-Theory. And I'm very glad to know Prof. Dörner personally.
please find a short overview of the Psi-Theory in Wikipedia. Find more (english language) links on the topic here.
Cheerio Peter
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Raúl
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Re:PSI-Theory - 2008/01/21 17:20Thanks! I'll have a look to the English link you provided. From what you say, it seems to me that the reflect concept is something similar to the higher order thoughts (HOT Theory) as defined by Rosenthal [1]. Higher order thoughts are thoughts about thoughts, and reflecting would be thinking (using language) about a thought. Is that the main idea?
I am curious about the product that you have develops base on Phy theory. What kind of software architecture is it? What are main application areas?
Cheers, Raúl.
[1] ROSENTHAL, D.M. (2000). Metacognition and Higher-Order Thoughts. Consciousness and Cognition 9, pp. 231-242.Raúl Arrabales Moreno. conscious-robots.com/raul
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unfortunately I'm not very much into philosophy and have never heard of the HOT Theory before. From what I read in Wikipedia about Rosenthal I can't see many similarities to the Psi-Theory. But yes, indeed, in the Psi-Theory consciousness is a kind of thinking about thought.
For our product we'll use the Psi-Theory as foundation. It will be a system comprising of memory, sensors, motivation and emotions. There will be sensors for text (initially) and later on for speech and vision. In memory all perceptions are recorded and connected to previous experiences. Unless reinforced, recorded perceptions are forgotten eventually. Motivation controls the behaviour of the whole system. Emotions are used to modulate behaviour. Self reflection is used to improve behaviour. Understanding human language is our goal. There is a large number of applications like expert systems, machine translation, game AI, virtual sales clerks, knowledge management, etc.
I'll let you know as soon as more information is available.
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Raúl
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Re:PSI-Theory - 2008/01/22 23:09Sounds really interesting.. Natural language processing (and indeed natual language understanding) is a challenging topic. I've always thought that understanding how consciousness works can help improving machine natural language processing.
So what techniques are you planning to apply to the language processing? Is your application directly based on the Psi theory for language processing? Or are you combining the Psi theory with any existing technique for natural language processing?
Please, keep us in the loop of your findings and progress with your application.
our system doesn't use any of the current techniques from computer science or AI for natural language processing. Instead, we apply the Psi-Theory. The theory has been proven to work very well in complex environments and situations. It was even compared to control groups consisting of humans for verification. Essentially we are building an autonomous agent, modeled after the human brain (or soul if you will), including motivation, emotions, needs, etc. Then we put the agent in a simulated environment (an island with plants and trees) and chat with it. It is supposed to learn language no different than a child learns language when a parent is helping him to survive in the real world. I'll keep you informed a we progress.
Cheerio Peter
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Well, I would say that modeling human brain or human mind, i.e., using computational models of cognitive processes is the domain of Artificial Intelligence . Or strong AI or GOFAI if you want to call it that way. I must confess that I didn't read the info you sent regarding the Psi theory, so that's probably why I am confused.
I hope your computational child learns a lot and soon it can say dad! Your approach is quite interesting and it reminds me the project Cyberchild by Ron Cotteril [1]. Good luck! I'll stay tuned..
. Or strong AI or GOFAI if you want to call it that way. I must confess that I didn't read the info you sent regarding the Psi theory, so that's probably why I am confused.
Your approach is quite interesting and it reminds me the project Cyberchild by Ron Cotteril [1]. Good luck! I'll stay tuned.. 
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