tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20636378758431511922013-05-14T21:13:05.085-07:00I rebel, therefore I amLouis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.comBlogger301125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-80489396519168184732013-05-14T21:13:00.000-07:002013-05-14T21:13:05.109-07:00

Announcement An effective and affordable treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) is right around the corner. A complete cure is not out of the question. That's all I can say for now.

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-16394511231887539752013-05-04T20:48:00.001-07:002013-05-04T20:48:58.606-07:00

One of the reasons that I cannot wrap my head around artificial intelligence at this time is that I am currently heavily involved in trying to find a cure or an effective treatment for my wife who suffers from ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The good news is that I am now convinced that we are on the verge of a genuine breakthrough, not just for ALS but for other neurodegenerative

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-21384498459828320512013-04-27T20:56:00.000-07:002013-04-27T21:59:24.461-07:00

What the Hell Is Wrong with Me? The last couple of weeks, I've been feeling like I'm in a daze. I can't bring myself to make any important decision, as if something alien had taken a hold of me and slowed my brain to a crawl. I've been meaning to post the last two installments of my article, Secrets of the Holy Grail, but I can't bring myself to do it. It feels like I'm not in charge of my own

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-85047141106095089152013-04-17T16:57:00.001-07:002013-04-17T22:55:17.124-07:00

The Impending Crash of the Bayesian Bandwagon Last August, I wrote a series of posts titled, The Myth of the Bayesian Brain. I argued against the prevailing notion in the AI community that the brain uses some kind of Bayesian statistics to make decisions. I argued that, internally, the brain always assumes that the world is perfect even if its sensory space is inherently noisy. The brain does

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-59776624705791944172013-04-02T11:09:00.000-07:002013-04-02T11:27:42.604-07:00

I apologize for the delay in posting Part III and IV of The Secrets of the Holy Grail series. I am seriously debating whether or not I should continue to publish this stuff at this time. Given the dangerous world that we live in, true machine intelligence is not something to be taken lightly. When it comes out, AI will change the world drastically in a very short order, for good and bad.

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-52380021668939887392013-03-26T00:43:00.001-07:002013-04-05T20:48:50.110-07:00

Part I, II, III, IV Abstract In Part I, I gave a brief description of the brain's memory architecture. In this post, I explain how the brain does pattern learning and catches "thieves" in its sleep. Winner Takes All vs the Bayesian Brain Although it feels like I am preaching in the wilderness, I have been railing against the use of Bayesian statistics in machine learning for some time now. The

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-77684436805504957622013-03-24T01:38:00.000-07:002013-03-29T22:04:04.625-07:00

Part I, II, III, IV Abstract According to brain and machine learning expert, Jeff Hawkins, goal-directed behavior is the holy grail of intelligence and robotics. He believes that the best way to solve the intelligence puzzle is to emulate the brain. Hawkins is right, of course. There is no question that we can learn everything we need to know about intelligence by studying the brain. The only

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-58353997138722441862013-03-06T01:35:00.002-08:002013-03-24T12:34:37.363-07:00

Numenta Aims High In my recent article, The Holy Grail of Robotics, I wrote that I was impressed with Jeff Hawkins' description of goal-oriented behavior in his book On Intelligence. In a recent blog post about the Obama administration's $3 billion science initiative known as the Brain Activity Map Project (BAM), Hawkins wrote the following: The activity and connection maps envisioned by BAM

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-74786194506245520682013-01-28T00:57:00.000-08:002013-03-19T19:57:04.921-07:00

Part I, II Abstract In Part I, I wrote that motor learning is a trial-and-error process and that there are two kinds of errors: 1) sending conflicting motor commands and 2) pursuing the wrong goals. In this post, I explain how the brain finds the right motor connections for a given goal. What Is a Goal? It is impossible to understand goal-oriented motor learning without knowing what a goal is

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-47553240432429418712013-01-24T22:47:00.000-08:002013-01-28T01:00:46.865-08:00

Part I, II What Jeff Hawkins Does Not Know In his book, On Intelligence, Jeff Hawkins wrote: "Doing" by thinking, the parallel unfolding of perception and motor behavior, is the essence of what is called goal-oriented behavior. Goal-oriented behavior is the holy grail of robotics. It is built into the fabric of the cortex. Hawkins claims that by replaying the prerecorded sequences of a chosen

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-21509399802581615212013-01-20T22:56:00.000-08:002013-03-21T01:02:07.437-07:00

Double Duty I just finished reading On Intelligence. Aside from the expected atheist and evolutionist crap (I am Christian and I think Darwinian evolution is voodoo science) that permeates Jeff Hawkins' prose, I liked it very much. I am impressed by the level of understanding he conveys in the book. One thing in particular strikes me as being brilliant. Hawkins claims that the brain's cortical

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-18985009058046378102013-01-16T21:59:00.004-08:002013-01-18T23:51:57.764-08:00

The Machines Are Coming The writing is on the wall. Intelligent machines will replace everybody. And I don't just mean the factory or farm worker, the fry cook, the maid or the gardener. I mean, every effing body. Your advanced degree won't mean diddly squat. So all this silly talk about preserving jobs is pointless. Our economic systems have failed or will soon fail. Both capitalism and

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-3721000544919426412012-11-28T12:44:00.001-08:002013-01-21T21:06:23.388-08:00

Splitting Patterns at Numenta In The Myth of the Bayesian Brain, I wrote that there is a trick to learning perfect patterns but that I cannot divulge it at this time. The trick has to do with properly factoring patterns so as to maximize the reuse of low level patterns in the composition of higher level patterns. In my opinion, the pattern hierarchy used by the brain is the ultimate

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-27112369245237662902012-10-31T01:23:00.002-07:002012-11-06T10:36:39.523-08:00

Bear with Me Sorry for the long pause since my last post. I'm rather busy lately pursuing another promising therapy for my wife who suffers from the fatal disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. What makes it worse is that I'm also busy putting out numerous fires that, lately, seem to jump at me from every direction. So please bear with me. I would not want my readers to think that I

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-38489643646108431202012-08-30T22:52:00.000-07:002012-12-24T16:47:51.472-08:00

Part I, II, III Abstract Previously, I explained that the Rebel Science model of perception is superior to the Bayesian model because the world is deterministic at the level of our senses and human thinking is not probabilistic. In this post, I explain how the brain handles probabilistic stimuli even though it is not a probability thinker. Learning Perfect Patterns How can an intelligent

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-36475298092766274562012-08-29T15:53:00.001-07:002012-11-07T09:10:11.093-08:00

Part I, II, III Abstract In Part I, I wrote that the Bayesian brain hypothesis is the last great barrier to our gaining a full understanding of intelligence. I described the difference between the Bayesian model of perception and the Rebel Science model. In this post, I explain why the latter is superior. The Real GOFAI Lesson History repeats itself. During the second half of the 20th century

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-35028678537652471712012-08-26T11:39:00.000-07:002013-03-29T02:32:09.384-07:00

Part I, II, III Abstract Previously, I wrote that, by embracing Bayesian statistics, the artificial intelligence community has embarked on yet another great red herring chase. I claimed that Bayesian statistics will prove to be just as wasteful of time, brain and money as the symbolic AI craze of the last century. In this article, I explain why the Bayesian mindset is injurious to progress in

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-33902008876992466732012-08-23T21:56:00.001-07:002013-01-02T19:12:45.414-08:00

Vicarious in the News Vicarious Systems is in the news again. They have managed to raise $15 million to continue their ongoing research in their flagship artificial intelligence technology, the Recursive Cortical Network. Nice chunk of change. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know much about RCN and Vicarious is not talking. But we all know why: it's the old "we got something big but our IP lawyer

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-40486272417343869852012-08-15T14:14:00.000-07:002012-08-20T00:11:35.317-07:00

A Different Approach The approach that I use for speech recognition in the Rebel Speech recognizer is completely different than the one used by most existing technologies. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I disagree with AI experts that the brain uses anything like Bayesian statistics to process probabilistic stimuli. I added a theory section in the Rebel Speech design document (pdf) and I

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-60319046638874644232012-08-08T19:12:00.001-07:002012-08-15T14:15:32.440-07:00

Back to Work on AI I had a little free time in the last several days, enough to let me get back to work on my AI research. I'm working on the Rebel speech recognition engine again. Hurrah! I prepared a design document in order to give you an idea of where I'm going with the engine. The doc is not yet finished (only a brief introduction is written) but you can download (pdf) it now. Writing Code

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-45641802159291861382012-03-29T11:10:00.000-07:002012-03-29T11:10:34.187-07:00

Taking a Break I'm sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I am afraid that I must take a prolonged break from my research in order to properly care for my wife who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease. The good news is that her health is continuing to improve, slowly but steadily. Lately, there has been excellent progress in figuring out what is causing

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-53041436390070887822012-02-08T14:56:00.000-08:002012-02-08T14:56:40.420-08:00

Hopefully, I will be back to blogging more regularly now that my wife's health has stabilized. In the last month, she made two trips to the emergency room. Both were the results of side effects from medication that was prescribed to her by her doctors. Now that she has successfully weaned herself from those poisons, her health has markedly improved. To the amazement of her doctors, the

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-57305999231511208042012-01-01T13:38:00.000-08:002012-01-01T13:38:16.787-08:00

Happy new year to everyone. May 2012 be the year of AI breakthroughs. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis I am happy to report that the progression of my wife's motor neuron disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS) seems to have stopped and she has even regained some lost functionality. This is amazing considering that there is no FDA-approved cure. She owes her improvement to a common, highly

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-77008662971517793752011-11-19T17:18:00.000-08:002011-11-19T23:32:57.265-08:00

I'm having trouble focusing on my research. Someone very close to me is dying from ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), also known as Lou Gehrig's or motor neuron disease. There are no known cures at this time, although there has been some progress lately in identifying the physiological causes. I am very depressed and I need to take some time off. I'll be back soon when I feel better. Sorry.

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2063637875843151192.post-24534328275399991542011-11-14T16:24:00.000-08:002011-11-27T18:30:40.846-08:00

Abstract The cortical column, a vertically arranged group of interconnected neurons, is considered by many to be the fundamental functional module of the brain's neocortex. The human cortex is estimated to contain as many as two million columns each having between 50,000 and 100,000 neurons. A few months ago, while reading about the Blue Brain Project (BBP), it occurred to me that nobody has

Louis Savainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11762287159937757216noreply@blogger.com2