cortex: thesis/cortex.org comparison

comparison thesis/cortex.org @ 485:ac953b562eab

completed first draft.

author	Robert McIntyre <rlm@mit.edu>
date	Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:22:49 -0400
parents	f60a457e65a8
children	6d460ac3f5d0

comparison

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-:f60a457e65a8
+:ac953b562eab
 - I built =EMPATH=, which uses =CORTEX= to identify the actions of
 a worm-like creature using a computational model of empathy.
 * Building =CORTEX=
-I intend for =CORTEX= to be used as a general purpose library for
+I intend for =CORTEX= to be used as a general-purpose library for
 building creatures and outfitting them with senses, so that it will
 be useful for other researchers who want to test out ideas of their
 own. To this end, wherver I have had to make archetictural choices
 about =CORTEX=, I have chosen to give as much freedom to the user as
 possible, so that =CORTEX= may be used for things I have not
 #+caption: The hand then uses its muscles to launch the cube!
 #+name: integration
 #+ATTR_LaTeX: :width 16cm
 [[./images/integration.png]]
-** =CORTEX= enables many possiblities for further research
+** COMMENT =CORTEX= enables many possiblities for further research
+Often times, the hardest part of building a system involving
+creatures is dealing with physics and graphics. =CORTEX= removes
+much of this initial difficulty and leaves researchers free to
+directly pursue their ideas. I hope that even undergrads with a
+passing curiosity about simulated touch or creature evolution will
+be able to use cortex for experimentation. =CORTEX= is a completely
+simulated world, and far from being a disadvantage, its simulated
+nature enables you to create senses and creatures that would be
+impossible to make in the real world.
+While not by any means a complete list, here are some paths
+=CORTEX= is well suited to help you explore:
+- Empathy         :: my empathy program leaves many areas for
+improvement, among which are using vision to infer
+proprioception and looking up sensory experience with imagined
+vision, touch, and sound.
+- Evolution       :: Karl Sims created a rich environment for
+simulating the evolution of creatures on a connection
+machine. Today, this can be redone and expanded with =CORTEX=
+on an ordinary computer.
+- Exotic senses  :: Cortex enables many fascinating senses that are
+not possible to build in the real world. For example,
+telekinesis is an interesting avenue to explore. You can also
+make a ``semantic'' sense which looks up metadata tags on
+objects in the environment the metadata tags might contain
+other sensory information.
+- Imagination via subworlds :: this would involve a creature with
+an effector which creates an entire new sub-simulation where
+the creature has direct control over placement/creation of
+objects via simulated telekinesis. The creature observes this
+sub-world through it's normal senses and uses its observations
+to make predictions about its top level world.
+- Simulated prescience :: step the simulation forward a few ticks,
+gather sensory data, then supply this data for the creature as
+one of its actual senses. The cost of prescience is slowing
+the simulation down by a factor proportional to however far
+you want the entities to see into the future. What happens
+when two evolved creatures that can each see into the future
+fight each other?
+- Swarm creatures :: Program a group of creatures that cooperate
+with each other. Because the creatures would be simulated, you
+could investigate computationally complex rules of behavior
+which still, from the group's point of view, would happen in
+``real time''. Interactions could be as simple as cellular
+organisms communicating via flashing lights, or as complex as
+humanoids completing social tasks, etc.
+- =HACKER= for writing muscle-control programs :: Presented with
+low-level muscle control/ sense API, generate higher level
+programs for accomplishing various stated goals. Example goals
+might be "extend all your fingers" or "move your hand into the
+area with blue light" or "decrease the angle of this joint".
+It would be like Sussman's HACKER, except it would operate
+with much more data in a more realistic world. Start off with
+"calisthenics" to develop subroutines over the motor control
+API. This would be the "spinal chord" of a more intelligent
+creature. The low level programming code might be a turning
+machine that could develop programs to iterate over a "tape"
+where each entry in the tape could control recruitment of the
+fibers in a muscle.
+- Sense fusion    :: There is much work to be done on sense
+integration -- building up a coherent picture of the world and
+the things in it with =CORTEX= as a base, you can explore
+concepts like self-organizing maps or cross modal clustering
+in ways that have never before been tried.
+- Inverse kinematics :: experiments in sense guided motor control
+are easy given =CORTEX='s support -- you can get right to the
+hard control problems without worrying about physics or
+senses.
 * COMMENT Empathy in a simulated worm
 Here I develop a computational model of empathy, using =CORTEX= as a
 base. Empathy in this context is the ability to observe another
 creature and infer what sorts of sensations that creature is

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comparison thesis/cortex.org @ 485:ac953b562eab