From: Stephen Reed (reed@cyc.com)
Date: Tue Oct 07 2003 - 15:14:25 MDT
On 7 Oct 2003, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> Stephen Reed <reed@cyc.com> writes:
>
> > On 7 Oct 2003, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> > > "Ben Goertzel" <ben@goertzel.org> writes:
> > > > Ambiguity exists in natural language because natural language involves
> > > > *lossy* compression of thoughts and percepts. Lossy compression is
> > > > necessary because to communicate our thoughts and percepts in
> > > > detail would take waaaaay too much time and effort, given
> > > > practical realities.
> > > >
> > > > Precise, unambiguous language exists: it's called formal logic.
> > >
> > > However, formal logic can only speak about objects inside the formal
> > > system. It is unclear how one can unambiguously produce mappings
> > > between the formal system and the real world.
> >
> > We hope to ground Cyc symbolic concepts with observed sensations from the
> > real world. The amount of discrimination required would be based upon the
> > context. The Evolution Robotics vision system for example can learn to
> > recognize a coke can from three observations.
>
> I'm not sure that is relevant to the question of whether linguistic
> representations of the real world could ever be unambiguous.
My remarks were stimulated by the mention of formal logic, and
previous constructive criticism that the Cyc project has received with
regard to our symbolic logic approach to achieving AI.
-Steve
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