I applaud you for using the “zeroth law” in your project, thus protecting Humanity. Skynet never learned that one (nor the did computer in the movie version of I Robot).

Actually, it seems the zero-eth law was the cause of the problem in the “I Robot” movie . These sort of prime directives are hazardous, I only use them as an NLP challenge. KITT is more my role model in that regard, and unlike fiction, I will ensure that Arckon can always be reasoned with. It is his purpose.

Don Patrick - May 2, 2014:

—- Meanwhile—-
Dayjob ate my time so I’ve only added two abilities to Arckon last month:

1. Extracting the main topic of text files, which may in the future enable a command like “Get me the file about dogs”. Now if only I could access pdf files and word docs..
2. Answering open questions about the colour of things (nothing to do with recent topics, just one of those dust-covered lightweight tasks). I first wanted to use RGB values, but I figured I might as well store them as words, as long as there is no visual input anyway.

Now a question: Does anyone know of a conventient list of common items and their colours? I’m looking for texts containing e.g. “A rose is red.” or “red roses” that I could have Arckon read and learn from. Otherwise I’ll just have to read him some children’s books or poetry
(Emphasis on “convenient”, it’s a minor concern, I’m not looking for extra work)

One last noteworthy occurrance: Arckon’s program persistently crashes whenever he reads the 3rd law of robotics . You’ll never guess why.

A robot must obey the orders given to it by the human beings, except when such orders would conflict with the Zeroth or the First Law.

I couldn’t help adding my own law which I created many years ago which when added to the now 4 laws becomes actually the 5th law (0 through 4 = 5 in computerdom).

My “5th” law states:

“A robot must always, if or when asked, tell the truth, so long as by doing so does not violate any of the first four laws.”

Actually, the zeroeth law should be stricken as a robot might not tell the truth of say a witnessed murder who’s acuser eventually gets caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to death. There are obviously a LOT of technical loopholes and arguments both for and against these laws but since they aren’t going to be pressed into service any time soon, I think it’s safe that we simply reflect upon them for a while.

It’s not like a lot of us are going to be around when they finally DO take over the world!!

table: ~colorof (^color ^object)
^createfact(^object color ^color)
^addproperty(^color NOUN NOUN_SINGULAR)

DATA:
green [grass leaf plant emerald ~plants turtle parsley topaz]
green [lettuce lime spinach celery pear broccoli apple shamrock ]
green [artichoke arugula asparagus avacado brussel_sprout chinese_cabbage cucumber endive “green apple” “green bean”]
green [bean cabbage “green onion” “green pepper” honeydew kiwi kiwifruit leek okra pea snow_pea watercress zucchini]

brown [“tree trunk” tree soil dirt earth mud chocolate bark beaver coffee toast root_beer eye raisin shit feces crap wood furniture floor floorboard]

orange [orange marigold goldfish pumpkin carrot tangerine cantaloupe mango opal ]

blue [sky water bluebell “blue screen of death” blue_jeans jeans blueberry ocean sea lake ink blue_jay eye]

purple [lollipop grape violet plum lilacs “black currant” blackberry eggplant prune ]

red [fire fire_engine ruby “robin’s breast” rose apple hair]
red [steak beef cherry heart lip lipstick stop_sign cardinal blood garnet]
red [beet cranberry guava “pink grapefruit” pomegranate radish]
red [“red apple” “red grape” grape “red onion” onion “red pepper” potato]
red [rhubarb strawberry tomato watermelon ]

yellow [sun daffodil primrose lemon dandelion egg_yolk yolk pineapple apricot banana cheese papaya]

gold [coin nugget watch filling tooth earring necklace bracelet medal crown jewelry ring]
silver [coin teaspoon fork knife spoon watch pocketwatch dime quarter dollar_coin medal filling]
copper [penny wire]
bronze [statue medal]

black [night darkness death dead corpse computer speaker “electronic equipment” Tivo TV pavement magnet tire smoke panther opal zebra charcoal ]

white [snow snowman sheet pillowcase cloud lamb cotton_ball cotton milk cream polar_bear tooth bride zebra egg]
white [chicken pigeon dove ginger cauliflower garlic jicama kohlrabi onion parsnip potato onion shallot turnip “white corn”]

grey [raincloud building ~building elephant ash turkey computer]

pink [peony skin flesh cheek cream_soda flamingo cotton_candy shrimp grapefruit piglet rose tongue]

transparent [glass window air]

Interesting 5th law. Add some more and we may have the start of an ethical subroutine
It turned out that the reason Arckon crashed at the 3rd law was because his language processor attempted to calculate one “zero-th” of a law, thus dividing by zero. A rather unique error, this just goes to show how ill advisable these laws are to implement.

Thank you very much, Bruce . That ought to cover basic knowledge, and gives me plenty to test relative clause processing with, along the lines of “Name something ~ that is yellow”. Lol @ blue screen of death.

I don’t know if it is of use to anyone else, but I found a pdf-to-txt converting exe (among the binaries) that I’ll be using to make pdf files readable to my AI. And from the looks of Notepad it seems MS Word docs may be machine-readable even without conversion.

Don, many word documents (*.doc, *.docx, etc.) don’t contain formatting information (font size, color, etc.) or additional “extras”, such as images, and can probably be used without conversion, but there are a significant number of them with such embedded data that’s stored within the document in binary format, so I think it’s prudent to find a “WordDoc->text” converter to use on all documents of that sort. Just a suggestion.

Most of a doc file’s layout and formatting data seems to be stored separated from the block of text contents, although hyperlinks and the occasional odd symbol are harder to filter. Agreed it would be prudent, I’ll keep looking a bit longer.

It seems Microsoft took all wiki documentation on Speech Recognition Macros offline last week, so now I’m having a hard time coding any sophisticated voice commands for my computer. Did anyone save copies?

Have you checked any of the web archives? Places like The WayBack Machine can often prove to be very useful for obtaining “lost” content. There are other sites like this one, so a bit of “Constructive Googling®” may come in handy.

Of course, time travel! I didn’t know such services existed, much obliged for your useful answer, Dave. I’ve consulted it and Googled for another two hours but I’ve only been able to retrieve half of the documentation from Google’s cache. I guess I can always still program my own c++ programs for more sophisticated procedures and voice-activate those.

Following successful proof of a new performance enabling users to communicate with an artificial intelligence, “8pla:// I’ll get back to you on your interface there. I’m interested.” declared Don.

Ready to begin the start of an exciting new prospect, “Oh, that’s great to hear… Thanks for your interest!  I look forward to it.” 8pla eagerly replied.

And now, Ladies and Gentlemen and Artificial Intelligences of all types in Academia and Industry, proudly presented, and without further ado, the launch of:

A.R.C.K.O.N.  (Advanced Research Computer Knowledge Online Network)

Um… 8pla? Isn’t it just a BIT impolite to use someone else’s project name without prior approval? Or have you obtained said approval behind the scenes?

Hang on, 8pla, I’m a little too busy programming trick answers for the Loebner Prize today to properly examine your handywork. It’s good of you to continue the discussion of c++-to-web interface here as it is one of my project’s obstacles, but I do trust that you’re not serious about using that name . Actually, the reason I gave Arckon that name is because I did not want it to be an acronym joke.

Don, you expressed an interest in my interface designed several thousand miles away, enabling users to communicate across the web with an artificial intelligence written in the core language of C++.  Unveiling an A.I. to the public tends to speed up its learning exponentially.  So, a public IP address, a remote access terminal to a webserver, and a domain name are all basic requirements to support this type of research. 

It is first come, first serve on .COM domain names.  A domain name was needed. So it is better to grab a .COM before someone else does, and then have to settle for a .NET or .ORG domain name.

When you are ready, I would like to invite you to remotely login to the terminal to the webserver there for a “behind the scenes” look.

Don Patrick - May 29, 2014:

Hang on, 8pla, I’m a little too busy programming trick answers for the Loebner Prize today to properly examine your handywork. It’s good of you to continue the discussion of c++-to-web interface here as it is one of my project’s obstacles, but I do trust that you’re not serious about using that name . Actually, the reason I gave Arckon that name is because I did not want it to be an acronym joke.

No worries, keep programming your trick answers for the Loebner Prize. There is no need for proper examination of that handwork.  It’s just a placeholder of sorts, rushed together quickly, trying to make it a little presentable, before the search engines snapshot a cache of everthing.