Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Society of minds: Marvin Minsky's Society of Mind theory is a model of human intelligence that views the mind as a society of individually simple processes known as agents. These agents are themselves mindless, but when they interact with each other, they can produce complex and intelligent behavior. See also Softare agents, Collective Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Human Level AI, Mind, Thinking, Brain, Brain states._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Marvin Minsky on Society of Minds - Dictionary of Arguments
Norvig I 434 Society of Minds/Minsky/Norvig/Russell: In his highly influential Society of Mind theory, Marvin Minsky (1986(1), 2007(2)) proposes that human minds are constructed from an ensemble of agents. >Intelligence, >Human level intelligence, >Artificial general intelligence. 1. Minsky, M. L. (1986). The society of mind. Simon and Schuster 2. Minsky, M. L. (2007). The EmotionMachine: Commonsense Thinking, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of the Human Mind. Simon and Schuster. - - - Minsky I 59 Society of Minds/Minsky: [e.g. “B-Brains”]: There is one way for a mind to watch itself and still keep track of what's happening. Divide the brain into two parts, A and B. Connect the A-brain's inputs and outputs to the real world — so it can sense what happens there. But don't connect the B-brain to the outer world at all; instead, connect it so that the A-brain is the B-brain's world! Now A can see and act upon what happens in the outside world — while B can see and influence what happens inside A. [E.g.], A seems disordered and confused. Inhibit that activity. A appears to be repeating itself. Make A stop. Do something else. A does something B considers good. Make A remember this. To the extent that the B-brain knows what is happening in A, the entire system could be considered to be partly self-aware. I 90 Society of mind/Minsky: If each K-line can connect to other K-lines, which, in turn, connect to others, then K-lines can form societies. I 82 Def K-Line: Def K-Line/Minsky: A K-line is a wirelike structure that attaches itself to whichever mental agents are active when you solve a problem or have a good idea. When you activate that K-line later, the agents attached to it are aroused, putting you into a mental state much like the one you were in when you solved that problem or got that idea. Example: You want to repair a bicycle. Before you start, smear your hands with red paint. Then every tool you need to use will end up with red marks on it. When you're done, just remember that red means ‘good for fixing bicycles.’ I 92 Society: According to our concept of memory, the K-lines of each agency grow into a new society. So, to keep things straight, let's call the original agents S-agents and call their society the S-society. Given any S-society, we can imagine building memories for it by constructing a corresponding K-society for it. When we start making a K-society, we must link each K-line directly to S-agents, because there are no other K-lines we can connect them to. Efficiency/problem: the connections to the original S-agents will become increasingly remote and indirect. Then everything will begin to slow down — unless the K-society continues to make at least some new connections to the original S-society. Solution: That would be easy to arrange, if the K-society grows in the form of a layer close to its S-society. I 168 Society of Minds/Minsky: Problem: Whenever any specialist tried to rearrange some memories to its own advantage, it might damage structures upon which the others have come to depend. There would be too many unpredictable interactions Solution: Society of Minds: If they were like people, they could communicate, negotiate, and organize. But because each separate specialist is much too small and specialized to understand how the others work, the best each can do is learn to exploit what the others can do, without understanding how they do it. >Motivation/Minsky, >Software-Agents._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Minsky I Marvin Minsky The Society of Mind New York 1985 Minsky II Marvin Minsky Semantic Information Processing Cambridge, MA 2003 Norvig I Peter Norvig Stuart J. Russell Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach Upper Saddle River, NJ 2010 Minsky II Marvin Minsky Semantic Information Processing Cambridge, MA 2003 |
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> Counter arguments against Minsky
> Counter arguments in relation to Society of Minds
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-23