Qīngmíng jié (清明节 or “Tomb Sweeping Festival”) is upon us. The characters for “Qīngmíng” could literally be translated as “Pure Brightness,” while “jié” can be understood as”festival”.
Of this festival, that has been observed for about 2500 years, I learned that it is held on the fifteenth day of the Spring Equinox, while it is officially celebrated this coming Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (3,4,5 April, 2022).
These are the moments in a Lunar year to remember one’s ancestors.
There is so much to be explored; to be taken note of; to be made into meanings.
.
<< Qīngmíng jié >>
Why not, here and there,
take a moment,
these coming days
engage in
your own locality
offer thought to your mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, aunts and cousins, nephews and uncles of more and less great-great-grandness
From the leaf, which you represent
on your tree,
to the root and the mycelium,
they relate
to us all
For a split second
don’t translate.
For an instance,
make it your profession
to touch the soil,
under you feet,
with your bare toes
with you finger tips.
Feel the diverse
textures, smoothness, wetness:
the dynamic geometries within
we can universally acknowledge
There, life is one,
there, we all, are
there we are
open-ended
—animasuri’22
.
“Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú”
attached a small crop from the 12th century (960-1279), Sòng Dynasty’s artist 张择端 / Zhāng Zéduān’s Qīngmíng scroll: “Qīngmíng Shànghé Tú” ( 清明上河图 or “Along the River During the Qīngmíng Festival” or “A Picture up the River at Qīngmíng”. The scroll can be studied at the Palace Museum in Beijing).
Thank you Dr. Walter Sepp Aigner . for enabling me to muse on this rich topic of walking with one’s common, simple, down-to-earth and personal ancestries. One would easily be convinced that you and I are ancestorally “not related”; and yet…
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A beautiful and clearly-explained introduction to Neural Networks is offered in a 20 minute video by Grant Sanderson in his “3Blue1Brown” series.[1] One is invited to view this and his other enlightening pieces.
The traditional Artificial Neural Network (ANN)[2] is, at a most basic level, a kind of computational model for parallel computing between interconnected units. One unit could be given more or less numerical ‘openness’ (read: weight & bias)[3] then another unit, via the connections created between the units. This changing of the weight and the bias of a connection (which means, the allocation of a set of numbers, turning them up or down as if changing a set of dials), is the ‘learning’ of the network by means of a process, through a given algorithm. These changes (in weight and bias) will influence which signal will be propagated forwardly to which units in the network. This could be to all units (in a traditional sense) or to some units (in a more advanced development of a basic neural network, e.g. such as with Convoluted Neural Networks).[4] An algorithm processes signals through this network. At the input or inputs (e.g. the first layer) the data is split across these units. Each unit within the network can hold a signal (e.g. a number) and contains a computational rule, allowing activation (via a set threshold controlled by, for instance, a sigmoid function, or the recently more often applied “Rectified Linear Unit,” or ReLu for short), to send through a signal (e.g. a number) over that connection to a next unit or to a number of following units in a next layer (or output). The combination of all the units, connections and layers might allow the network to label, preferably correctly, the entirety of a focused-on object, at the location of the output or outputs layer. The result is that the object has been identified (again, hopefully, correctly or, at least, according to the needs).
The
signal (e.g. a number) could be a representation of, for instance, 1 pixel in
an image.[5]
Note, an image is digitally composed of many pixels. One can imagine many of
these so-called ‘neurons’ are needed to process only 1 object (consisting of
many pixels) in a snapshot of only the visual
data (with possibly other objects and backgrounds and other sensory information
sources) from an ever changing environment, surrounding an autonomous
technology, operated with an Artificial Neural Network. Think of a near-future
driverless car driving by in your street. Simultaneously, also imagine how many
neurons and even more connections between neurons, a biological brain, as part
of a human, might have. Bring to mind a human (brain) operating another car
driving by in your street. The complexity of the neural interconnected working,
the amount of data to be processed (and to be ignored) might strike one with
awe.
The
oldest form of such artificial network is a Single-layer Perceptron Network,
historically followed by the Multilayer Perceptron Network. One could argue
that ‘ANN’ is a collective name for any network that has been artificially made
and that has been exhibiting some forms and functions of connection between (conceptual)
units.
An
ANN was initially aimed (and still is) at mimicking (or modeling, or
abstracting) the brain’s neural network (i.e. the information processing
architecture in biological learning systems).
Though,
the term, Artificial Neural Network, contains the word ‘neural’, we should not
get too stuck on the brain-like implications of this word which is derived from
the word ‘neuron’. The word ‘neuron’ is not a precise term in the realm of AI
and its networks. At times
instead of ‘neuron’ the word ‘perceptron’ has been used, especially when
referring to as specific type of (early) artificial neural network using
thresholds (i.e. a function that allows for the decision to let a signal
through or not; for instance, the previously-mentioned sigmoid function).
Nevertheless, maybe some brainy context and association might spark an interest in one or other learner. It might spark a vision for future research and development to contextualize these artificial networks by means of analogies with the slightly more tangible biological world. After all, these biological systems we know as brains, or as nervous systems, are amazing in their signal processing potentials. A hint of this link can also be explored in Neuromorphic Engineering and Computing.
The
word “neuron” comes from Ancient Greek and means ‘nerve’. A ‘neuron,’ in
anatomy or biology at large, is a nerve cell within the nervous system of a
living organism (of the animal kingdom, but not sponges), such as mammals (e.g.
humans). By means of small electrical (electro-chemical) pulses (i.e. nerve
impulses), these cells communicate with other cells in the nervous system. Such
a connection, between these types of cells, is called a synapse. Note, neurons
cannot be found among fungi nor among plants (these do exchange signals, even
between fungi and plants yet, in different chemical ways)… just maybe they are
a steppingstone for one or other learner to imagine an innovative way to
process data and compute outputs!
The
idea here is that a neuron is “like a logic gate [i.e.
‘a processing element’] that receives
input and then, depending on a calculation, decides either to fire or not.”[6]
Here, the verb “to fire” can be understood as creating an output at the
location of the individual neuron. Also note, that a “threshold” is again
implied here.
An
Artificial Neural Network can then be defined as “…а computing ѕуѕtеm made up of a number of
ѕimрlе, highlу intеrсоnnесtеd рrосеѕѕing elements, which рrосеѕѕ infоrmаtiоn by
thеir dуnаmiс ѕtаtе response to еxtеrnаl inputs.”[7]
Remember,
‘neuron’, in an ANN, it should be underlined again, is a relatively simple
mathematical function. It is, in general, agreed that this function is analogous
to a node. Therefore, one can state that an Artificial Neural Network is built
up of layers of interconnected nodes.[8]
So, one can notice, in or surrounding the field of AI, that words such as unit,
node, neuron or perceptron used interchangeably, while these are not identical
in their deeper meaning. More recently the word “capsule” has been introduced,
presenting an upgraded version of the traditional ‘node,’ the latter equaling
one ‘neuron.’ Rather, a capsule is a node in a network equaling a collection of
neurons.[9]
A little bit of additional information on this can be found here below.
How could
an analogy with the brain be historically contextualized? In the early 1950s,
with the use of electron microscopy, it was proven that the brain exists of
cells, which preceding were labelled as “neurons”.[10]
It unequivocally showed the interconnectedness (via the neuron’s extensions,
called axons and dendrites) between these neurons, into a network of a large
number of these cells. A single of these type of locations of connection
between neurons has been labeled as a “synapse”.
Since
then it has been established that, for instance, the human cerebral cortex contains
about 160 trillion synapses (that’s a ‘160’ and another 12 zeros:
160000000000000) between about a 100 billion neurons (100000000000). Synapses
are the locations between neurons where the communication between the cells is
said to occur.[11] In
comparison some flies have about 100000 neurons and some worms a few hundreds.[12]
The brain is a “complex,
nonlinear, and parallel computer (information-processing system)”.[13]
The complexity of the network comes with the degree of interconnectedness (remember,
in a brain that’s synapses).
Whereas
it is hard for (most) humans to multiply numbers at astronomically fast speeds,
it is easy for a present-day computer. While it is doable for (most) humans to
identify what a car is and what it might be doing next, this is (far) less
evident for a computer to (yet) handle. This is where, as one of many examples,
the study and developments of neural networks (and now also Deep Learning) within
the field of AI has come in handy, with increasingly impressive results. The
work is far from finished and much can still be done.
The field of study of Artificial Neural Networks is widely believed to have started a bit earlier than the proof of connectivity of the brain and its neurons. It is said to have begun with the 1943 publication by Dr. McCulloh and Dr. Pitts, and their Threshold Logic Unit (TLU). It was then followed by Rosenblatt’s iterations of their model (i.e. the classical perceptron organized in a single layered network) which in turn was iterated upon by Minsky and Papert. Generalized, these were academic proposals for what one could understand as an artificial ‘neuron’, or rather, a mathematical function that aimed to mimic a biological neuron, and the network made therewith, as somewhat analogously found within the brain.[14]
Note,
the word ‘threshold’ is of use to consider a bit further. It implies some of
the working of both the brain’s neurons and of ANNs’ units. A threshold in
these contexts, implies the activation of an output if the signal crosses the
mathematically-defined “line” (aka threshold). Mathematically, this activation
function can be plotted by, for instance, what is known as a sigmoid function
(presently less used). The sigmoid function was particularly used in the units
(read in this case: ‘nodes’ or ‘neurons’ or ‘perceptrons’) of the first Deep
Learning Artificial Neural Networks. Presently, the sigmoid function is at
times being substituted with improved methods such as what is known as “ReLu”
which is short for ‘Rectified Linear Unit’. The latter is said to allow for
better results and is said to be easier to manage in very deep networks.[15]
Turning
back to the historical narrative, it was but 15 years later than the time of
the proposal of the 1943 Threshold Logic Unit, in 1958, with Rosenblatt’s invention
and hardware design of the Mark I
Perceptron —a machine aimed at pattern recognition in images (i.e. image
recognition) — that a more or less practical application of such network had
been built.[16] As
suggested, this is considered being a single-layered neural network.
This
was followed by a conceptual design from Minsky and Papert, considering the
multilayered perceptron (MLP), using a supervised learning technique. The name
gives it away, this is the introduction of the multi-layered neural network.
While hinting at nonlinear functionality,[17]
yet this design was still without the ability to perform some basic non-linear logical
functions. Nevertheless, the MLP was forming the basis for the neural network
designs as they are developed presently. Presently, Deep Learning research and
development has advanced beyond these models.
Simon
Haykin puts it with a slight variation in defining a neural network when he
writes that it is a “massively parallel distributed processor, made up of
simple processing units, that has a natural propensity for storing experiential
knowledge and making it available for use. It resembles the brain in two
respects: 1. Knowledge is acquired by the network from its environment through
a learning process. 2. Inter-neuron connection strengths, known as synaptic
weights, are used to store the acquired knowledge.”[18]
Let
us shortly touch on the process of learning in the context of an ANN and that
with a simplified analogy. One way to begin understanding the learning process,
or training, of these neural networks, in a most basic sense, can be done by
looking at how a network would (ignorantly) guess the conversion constant
between kilometers and miles without using algebra. One author, Tariq Rashid,
offers the following beautifully simple example in far more detail. The author
details an example where one can imagine the network honing in on the
conversion constant between, for instance, kilometers and miles.
Summarized
here: The neural network could be referencing examples. Let us, as a simple
example, assume it ‘knows’ that 0 km equals 0 miles. It also ‘knows’, from another
given example, that 100 km is 62.137 miles. It could ‘guess’ a number for the
constant, given that it is known that 100 (km) x constant = some miles. The
network randomly could, very fast, offer a pseudo-constant guessed as 0.5.
Obviously, that would create an error compared to the given example. In a
second guess it could offer 0.7. This would create a different kind of error.
The first is too small and the second is too large. The network consecutively
undershot and then overshot the needed value for the constant.
By
repeating a similar process, whereby a next set of numbers (= adjusted
parameters internal to the network) is between 0.5 and 0.7 with one closer to
the 0.5 and the others closer to 0.7, the network gets closer in estimating the
accurate value for its needed output (e.g. 0.55 and 0.65; then next 0.57 and
0.63, and so on). The adjusting of the parameters would be decided by how right
or wrong the output of the network model is compared to the known example that
is also known to be true (e.g. a given data set for training). Mr. Rashid’s
publication continues the gentle introduction into supervised training and
eventually building an artificial neural network.
In
training the neural network to become better at giving the desired output, the
network’s weights and biases (i.e. its parameters) are tweaked. If the output
has a too large an error, the tweaking processes is repeated until the error in
the output is acceptable and the network has turned out to be a workable model
to make a prediction or give another type of output.
In
the above example one moves forward and backward until the smallest reasonable
error is obtained. This is, again somewhat over-simplified how a
backpropagation algorithm functions in the training process of a network
towards making it a workable model. Note, “propagate” means to grow, extend, spread,
reproduce (which, inherently, are forward movements over time).
These
types of network, ANNs or other, are becoming both increasingly powerful and
diversified. They also are becoming increasingly accurate in identifying and
recognizing patterns in certain data sets of visual (i.e. photos, videos),
audio (i.e. spoken word, musical instruments, etc.) or other nature. These are
becoming more and more able to identify patterns, as well as humans are able to
and beyond what humans are able to handle.[19]
Dr.
HINTON, Geoffrey[20] is widely considered as one of the leading
academics in Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and specifically seen as a
leading pioneer in Deep Learning.[21]
Deep Learning, a type of Machine Learning, is highly dependent on various types
of Artificial Neural Network.[22]
Dr. Hinton’s student, Alex Krizhevsky, noticeably helped to boost the field of
computer vision by winning the 2012 ImageNet Competition and this by being the
first to use a neural network.
To round
the specific ‘ANN’ introduction up, let us imagine, perhaps in the processes of
AI research and specifically in its area similar to those of ANNs, solutions
can be thought up or are already being thought of that are less (or more)
brain-like or for which the researchers might feel less (or more) of a need to
make an analogy with a biological brain. Considering processes of innovation,
one might want to keep an open-mind to these seemingly different meanderings of
thought and creation.
Going
beyond the thinking of ANNs, one might want to fine-tune an understanding and
also consider diversity in forms and functions of these or other such networks.
There are, for instance, types going around with names such as ‘Deep Neural
Networks’ (DNNs) which, are usually extremely large and are usually applied to
process very large sets of data.[23]
One can also find terminologies such as the ‘Feedforward Neural Networks’
(FFNNs), which is said to be slightly more complex than the traditional and
old-school perceptron networks;[24]
‘Convolutional Neural Networks’ (CNNs), which are common in image recognition; ‘Recurrent
Neural Networks’ (RNNs) and its sub-type of ‘Long Short-term Memory’ networks
(LSTM), which apply feedback connection and which are used in Natural Language
Processing. These latter networks are claimed to still apply sigmoid functions,
contrary to the increased popularity of other functions.[25]
All of these and more are studied and developed in the fields of Machine
Learning and Deep Learning. All these networks would take us rather deep into
the technicalities of the field. You are invited to dig deeper and explore some
of the offered resources.
It
might be worthwhile to share that CNN solutions are particularly well-established
in computer vision. The neurons specialized in the visual cortex of the brain
and how these do or do not react to the stimuli coming into their brain region
from the eyes, were used as an inspiration in the development of the CNN. This
design helped to reduce some of the problems that were experienced with the
traditional artificial neural networks. CNNs do
have some shortcomings, as many of these cutting-edge inventions stil need to
be further researched and fine-tuned.[26]
In the process of improvement, innovation and fine-tuning, there are new networks continuously being invented. For instance, in answering some of the weaknesses of ‘Convolutional Neural Networks’ (CNNs), the “Capsule Networks (CapsNets)” are a relative recent invented answer, from a few years ago, by Hinton and his team.[27] It is also believed that these CapsNets mimic better how a human brain processes vision then what the CNNs have been enabled to offer up till now.
To put it too simple, it’s an improvement onto the previous versions of nodes in a network (a.k.a. ‘neurons’) and a neural network. It tries to “perform inverse graphics”, where inverse graphics is a process of extracting parameters from a visual that can identify location of an object within that visual. A capsule is a function that aids in the prediction of the “presence and …parameters of a particular object at a given location.”[28] The network hints at outperforming the traditional CNN in a number of ways such as the increased ability to identify additional yet functional parameters associated with an object. One can think of orientation of an object but also of its thickness, size, rotation and skew, spatial relationship, to name but a few.[29] Although a CNN can be of use to identify an object, it cannot offer an identification of that object’s location. Say a mother with a baby can be identified. The CNN cannot support the identification whether they are on the left of one’s visual field versus the same humans but on the right side of the image.[30] One might imagine the eventual use of this type of architectures in, for instance, autonomous vehicles.
This
type of machine learning method, a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), was
invented in 2014 by Dr. Goodfellow and Dr. Bengio, among others.[31]
It’s
an unsupervised learning technique that allows to go beyond historical data
(note, it is debatable that, most if not all data is inherently historical from
the moment following its creation). In a most basic sense, it is a type of
interaction, by means of algorithms (i.e. Generative Algorithms), between two
Artificial Neural
Networks.
The GANs allow to create new data (or what some refer to as “lookalike data”)[32] by applying features, by means of certain identified features, from the historical referenced data. For instance, a data set, existing of what we humans perceive as images, and then of a specific style, can allow this GANs’ process to generate a new (set of) image(s) in the style of the studied set. Images are but one media. It can handle digital music, digitized artworks, voices, faces, video… you name it. It can also cross-pollinate between media types, resulting in a hybrid between a set of digitized artworks and a landscape, resulting in a landscape “photo” in a style of the artwork data set. The re-combinations and reshufflings are quasi unlimited. Some more examples are of GANs types are those that can
…allow for black and white imagery to be turned
into colorful ones in various visual methods and styles.[33]
…turn descriptive text of, say different birds
into photo-realistic bird images.[34]
…create new images of food based on their
recipes and reference images.[35]
…turn a digitized oil painting into a photo-realistic
version of itself; turning a winter landscape into a summer landscape, and so
on.[36]
If
executed properly, for instance, the resulting image could make an observer
(i.e. a discriminator) decide that the new image (or data set) is as (authentic
as) the referenced image(s) or data set(s) (note: arguably, in the digital or
analog world, an image or any other media of content is a data set).
It
is also a technique whereby two neural networks contest with each other. They
do so in a game-like setting as it is known in the mathematical study of models
of strategic decision-making, entitled “Game Theory.” Game Theory is not to be
confused with the academic field of Ludology, the latter which is the social,
anthropological and cultural study of play and game design. While often one
network’s gain is the other network’s loss (i.e. a zero-sum game), this is not
always necessarily the case with GANs.
It
is said that GANs can also function and offer workable output with relatively
small data sets (which ic an advantage compared to some other techniques).[37]
It
has huge applications in the arts, advertising, film, animation, fashion
design, video gaming, etc. These professional fields are each individually
known as multi-billion dollar industries. Besides entertainment it is also of
use in the sciences such as physics, astronomy and so
on.
One can learn how to understand and build ANNs online via a
number of resources. Here below are a
few hand-picked projects that might offer a beginner’s taste to the technology.
Project #___: Making Machine Learning Neural Networks (for K12 students by
Oxford University)
Project#___: Rashid, T. (2016). Make Your Own Neural Network.
A project-driven book examining the very basics of neural networks and aiding a learning step by step into creating a network. Published as eBook or paper via CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
This might be easily digested by Middle Schools students or learners who cannot spend too much effort yet do want to learn about neural networks in an AI context.
[1] Schrittwieser, J. et al. (2020). Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by
Planning with a Learned Model. Online: arXiv.org, Cornell University;
Retrieved on April 1, 2020 from https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.08265
[8] Rashid, T.
(2016). Make Your Own Neural Network.
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
[9] Sabour, S. et al.
(2017). Dynamic Routing Between Capsules.
Online: arXiv.org, Cornell University; Retrieved on April 22, 2020 from
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.09829.pdf
[10] Sabbatini, R. (Feb
2003). Neurons and Synapses. The History
of Its Discovery. IV. The Discovery of the Synapse. Online:
cerebromente.org. Retrieved on April 23, 2020 from http://cerebromente.org.br/n17/history/neurons4_i.htm
[11] Tang
Y. et al (2001). Total regional and
global number of synapses in the human brain neocortex. In Synapse 2001;41:258–273.
[12] Zheng, Z., et al. (2018). A Complete Electron Microscopy Volume of the Brain of Adult Drosophila
melanogaster. In Cell, 174(3),
730–743.e22
[13] Haykin, S. (2008).
Neural Networks and Learning Machines. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. p.1
[17] Samek, W. et al (2019). Explainable AI: Interpreting, Explaining
and Visualizing Deep Learning. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence.
Switzerland: Springer. p.9
[21] Rumelhart,
David E.; Hinton, Geoffrey E.; Williams, Ronald J. (9 October 1986). “Learning
representations by back-propagating errors”. Nature. 323 (6088):
533–536
[23] de Marchi, L. et al.
(2019). Hands-on Neural Networks. Learn
How to Build and Train Your First Neural Network Model Using Python. Birmingham
& Mumbai: Packt Publishing. p. 9.
[24] Charniak, E. (2018). Introduction to Deep Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. p. 10
[26] Géron, A. (February,
2018). Introducing capsule networks. How
CapsNets can overcome some shortcomings of CNNs, including requiring less
training data, preserving image details, and handling ambiguity. Online:
O’Reilly Media. Retrieved on April 22, 2020 from https://www.oreilly.com/content/introducing-capsule-networks/
[32] Skanski, S. (2020). Guide to Deep Learning. Basic Logical, Historical and Philosophical Perspectives. Switzerland: Springer Nature. p. 127
[33] Isola, P. et al.
(2016, 2018). Image-to-Image Translation
with Conditional Adversarial Networks. Online: arXiv.org, Cornell University; Retrieved on April 16,
2020 from https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.07004
[34] Zhang, H. et al.
(2017). StackGAN: Text to Photo-realistic
Image Synthesis with Stacked Generative Adversarial Networks. Online: arXiv.org, Cornell University;
Retrieved
on April 16, 2020 from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1612.03242.pdf
[35] Bar El, O. et al.
(2019). GILT: Generating Images from Long
Text. Online: arXiv.org,
Cornell University; Retrieved
on April 16, 2020 from https://arxiv.org/abs/1901.02404
[36] Zhu, J. (2017).
Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation using Cycle-Consistent Adversarial
Networks. Online: arXiv.org,
Cornell University; Retrieved
on April 16, 2020 from https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.10593.pdf
This story
is not a fixed point. This one story here below is neither one that controls
all possible AI stories. We are able to note that a history, such as this one,
is a handpicking from a source that is richer than the story that is
consequentially put in front of you, here, on a linear and engineered
chronology. The entirety of the field of AI is more contextualized with parallel
storylines, faded-in trials, and faded-out errors, with many small compounded
successes and numerous complexities. Histories tend to be messy. This story
does not pretend to do justice to that richness.
Just like
a numerical dataset, history is a (swirling) pool of data. Just as an
information processing unit, hopefully enabled to identify a relevant pattern
that still could be prone to an unwanted bias, ambiguities, and probabilities
with given uncertainties, so too is this narrative of a history on the dynamic
field of AI studies, its researches and its developments. In realizing this,
one can only wish that the reader of this story shares the wish to grow towards
an increased self-reliant literacy, nurtured with “data” (read the word “data”
here as “historical resources” among more numerical sources) and analytical
ability.
Mini Project #___ :
Datasets & Pattern Recognition Opportunities are Everywhere
The above consideration could be part of any storytelling, and its implication is not an insurmountable problem. It’s an opportunity, especially in the area of data sciences associated with AI research and development. See, this story here as an invitation to go out into the field and study more, to get a more nuanced sense of this history’s depths and its adventures within it. Try to see its datasets and their correlations, fluidities, contradictions and complexities. The ability to do so are essential skills in the field of AI as well as important skills as a human in a complex and changing world.
What “algorithm” might the author of this story here have used when recognizing a pattern from a given dataset in creating this story? (there is no right or wrong answer)
It’s almost obvious that a learner can only aspire toward something they know as something that existed, exists or could be imagined to exist. That is simultaneously through for learning from the data selection processes from another, for instance, the authoring of and the applying of the following history of the field of AI.
Can you create your own version of an AI history? What kind of filter, weight, bias or algorithm have you decided to use in creating your version of an AI history?
Just like
a present-day AI solution does, a human learner too needs datasets to see their
own pattern of their path within the larger field. Who knows, digging into the layers
of AI history might spark a drive to innovate on an idea some researchers had
touched on in the past yet, have not further developed. This has been known to
happen in a number of academic fields of which the field of AI is no exception.[1] Here
it is opted to present a recent history of the field of AI[2] with
a few milestones from the 20th century and the 21st
century:
By the end
of the 1930s and during the decade of 1940-1950, scientists and engineers
joined with mathematicians, neurologists, psychologists, economists and
political scientists to theoretically discuss the development of an artificial
brain or of the comparison between the brain, intelligence and what computers
could be (note, these did not yet exist in these earliest years of the 1940s).
In 1943, McCulloch & Pitts offered a theoretical proposal for a Boolean logic[3] circuit model of the brain.[4] These could be seen as the theoretical beginnings of what we know today as the Artificial Neural Networks.
In 1950 Turing wrote his seminal paper entitled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.”[5] Slightly later, in the 1950s, early AI programs included Samuel’s checkers game program, Newell & Simon’s Logic Theorist, or Gelernter’s Geometry Engine. It has been suggested that perhaps the first AI program was the Checkers game software. Games, such as Chess, Wéiqí (aka GO) and others (e.g. LěngPūDàshī, the poker-playing AI[6]) have been, and continue to be, important in the field of AI research and development.
While relatively little about it is said to have sustained the test of time, in 1951, a predecessor of the first Artificial Neural Network was created by Marvin Minsky and Dean Edmonds.[7] It was named “SNARC” which is short for “Stochastic Neural Analog Reinforcement Computer”.[8] The hardware system solved mazes. It simulated a rat finding its way through a maze. This machine was not yet a programmable computer as we know it today.
The academic field of “Artificial Intelligence Research” was created between 1955 and 1956.[9] That year, in 1956, the term “AI” was suggested by John McCarthy. He is claimed to have done so during a Dartmouth College conference that same year in Hanover, New Hampshire, the USA. McCarthy defined AI as “… the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable…”[10]
At that
same time, the “Logic Theorist” was
introduced by other scientists as the first Artificial Intelligence
application.[11]
It was able to proof a number of mathematical theorems.
In January 1957 Frank Rosenblatt proposed the concept of a single-layered neural network. He invented the photoperceptron (“perceptron” for short), an electronic automaton and model analogous to the brain, in a simplest sense thinkable, that would have the ability to “learn” visual patterns and to process such “…human-like functions as perception, recognition, concept formation, and the ability to generalize from experience… [This system would get its inputs] directly from the physical world rather than requiring the intervention of a human agent to digest and code the necessary information.” [12] In short, the machine was aimed to recognize and classify a given geometric shape, following the input from a camera.
It is natural and healthy in the sciences to inquire with intellectual integrity and wonder, to insist for verification, corroboration and falsifiability[13] of theories and designs. So too did the photoperceptron design not escape scrutiny and the common peer review.[14] At one point, the perceptron was perceived to be of debated applicability and of contested interest as a basis for further research and developments within AI.[15] Several decades later, following a couple of “AI Winters” and academic meanderings, substantial increase in computational power and processing techniques, this will turn out to be a fruitful basis for a specific area of AI research and development: Machine Learning, its area of Deep Learning and its multilayered Artificial Neural Networks.[16]
1959: The term “Machine Learning” was invented by the IBM electrical engineer and Stanford Professor, Arthur Lee Samuel. He wrote the first successful self-learning program. It played a Checkers game.[17] This was an early demonstration of an AI-type application which will become a hot topic in the 21st century and into present-day academic work.
The period
from the nineteen fifties (1950s) into the earliest years of the nineteen seventies
(early 1970s): during this two-decades-long period there was a lot of
excitement around the promises suggested within the research and developments
in the Artificial Intelligence field.
In 1965 Robinson invented an algorithm[18] for logical reasoning that laid the groundwork for a form of computer programming,[19] allowing for the automated proving of mathematical theorems.
Around 1970 Minsky and Papert considered the multilayered
perceptron (MLP)[20]
which could be seen as a theoretical predecessor to the multilayered neural
networks as they are researched and developed today, in the AI sub-field of
Machine Learning and its Deep Learning techniques.
Reflecting back onto the years around 1973,[21] voices tend to speak of the first “AI Winter”[22] while others don’t seem to mention this period at all.[23] Either way, it means that during this time, it is perceived that two forces supposedly collided: one was that of some academics and other people with a wish to do research in specific directions in the field of AI. They continued needing money. However, other academics with some understandable doubts[24] and those controlling the funds,[25] no longer believed much in the (inflated) promises made within the given AI research of that period in history. Since money as a resource became limited, so too did research and development slow down. More focus and result-oriented work was required to obtain funds. At least, so it seemed for a period of time, until after the mid-seventies or until the early Eighties (1980s).[26] Depending on the historical source this time period has been demarcated rather differently (and perhaps views on what counts as significant might differ).[27]
Fading in
from the early 1970s and lasting until the early 1990s, the AI research and
developmental focus was on what is referred to as Knowledge-based approaches. Those designing these type of solutions
sought to “hard-code knowledge about the
world in formal languages…” However,
“…none of these projects has led to a major success. One of the most famous
such projects is Cyc…”[28]Humans had to physically code the solutions which created a number of
concerns and problems. The experts could not sufficiently and accurately code
all the nuances of the reality of the world around the topic which the
application was supposed to “intelligently” manage.
With the earliest introductions in 1965 by Edward Feigenbaum, one could continue finding further, yet still early, developments of these “Knowledge-based Systems”[29] (KBS). The development of these systems continued into the 1970s, some of which then came to further (commercial) fruition during the 1980s in the form of what was by then called “Expert Systems”(ES). The two systems, KBS and ES, are not exactly the same but they are historically connected. These later systems were claimed to represent how a human expert would think through a highly specific problem. In this case the processing method was conducted by means of IF-THEN rules. During the 1980s the mainstream AI research and development focused on these “Logic-based, Programmed Expert Systems”. Prolog, a programming language, initially aimed at Natural Language Processing,[30] has been one of the favorites in designing Expert Systems.[31] All expert systems are knowledge-based systems, the reverse is not true. By the mid-1980s Professor John McCarthy would criticize these systems as not living up to their promises.[32]
In the late Eighties (late 1980s), Carver Mead[33] introduced the idea to mimic the structure and functions of neuro-biological architecture (e.g. of brains or of the eye’s retina and visual perception) in the research and development of AI solutions (both in hardware and software). This approach (especially in chip design) has been increasingly and presently known as “Neuromorphic Engineering”. This is considered a sub-field of Electrical Engineering.
Jumping
forward to present-day research and development, “neuromorphic computing”
implies the promise of a processing of data in more of an analog manner rather
than the digital manner traditionally known in our daily computers. It could,
for instance, imply the implementation of artificial neural networks onto a
computer chip. This, for instance, could
mean that the intensity of the signal is not bluntly on or off (read: 1 or 0)
but rather that there could be a varying intensity. One could
read more in relation to this and some forms of artificial neural networks by,
for instance, looking at gates, thresholds, and the practical application of
the mathematical sigmoid function; to name but a few.
Simultaneously,
these later years, following 1988 until about 1995, some claim, can be referred
to as the second surge of an “AI Winter”.[34] Some seem to put the period a few years
earlier.[35]
The accuracy of years put aside, resources became temporarily limited again. Research
and its output was perceived to be at a low.
Concurrently, one might realize that this does not imply that all research
and developments in both computing hardware and software halted during these
so-called proverbial winters. The work continued, albeit for some with some
additional constraints or under a different name or field (not as “AI”). One might
agree that in science, research and development across academic fields seems to
ebb, flow and meander yet, persist with grit.
From 1990
onward slowly, but surely, the concept of probability and “uncertainty” took
more of the center-stage (i.e. Bayesian networks). Statistical approaches
became increasingly important in work towards AI methods. “Evolution-based methods, such as genetic algorithms and genetic
programming” helped to move AI research forward.[36] It was increasingly hypothesized that a
learning agent could adapt to (or read: learn from) the changing attributes in
its environment. Change implies the varying higher probabilities of a number of
events occurring and the varying lower probability of some other attributes, as
events, occurring.
AI solutions started to extract patterns from data sets rather than be guided by a line of code only. This probabilistic approach in combination with further algorithmic developments was gradually heralding a radically different approach from the previous “Knowledge-based Systems’. This approach to AI solutions has warranted in what some refer to as the AI Spring[37] some perceive the past few years up till present day.[38]
In the
twenty-first century to present-day, Artificial Neural Networks have been explored
in academic research and this with increasing success. More and more, it became
clear that huge data sets of high quality were needed to make a specific area of
research in AI, known as Machine Learning, more powerful.
During the first decade of this century Professor Li Feifei oversaw the creation of such a huge and high quality image dataset, which would be one of the milestones in boosting confidence back into the field of AI and the quality of algorithm design.[39]
This story
now arrived at the more recent years of AI Research and Development.
Following
the first decade of this twenty-first century, an increasing usage of GPUs
(graphical processing units) as hardware to power Machine Learning applications
could be seen. Presently, even more advanced processing hardware is suggested
and applied.
Special types of Machine Learning solution are being developed and improved upon. Specifically Deep Learning appeared on the proverbial stage. The developments in the Artificial Neural Networks and the layering of these networks become another important boost in the perception of potentials surrounding applications coming out of AI Research and Development (R&D).[40]
Deep Learning is increasingly becoming its own unique area of creative and innovative endeavor within the larger Field of AI.
Globally,
major investment (in the tens of billions of dollars) have been made into AI R&D.
There is a continued and even increasing hunger for academics, experts and
professionals in various fields related to or within the field of AI.
The
historical context of the field of AI, of which the above is a handpicked
narrative, has brought us to where we are today. How this research is applied
and will be developed for increased application will need to be studied, tried
and reflected on, with continued care, considerate debate, creative spirit and
innovative drive.
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[1] Olazaran, M. (1996). A Sociological Study of the Official History of the Perceptrons
Controversy. Social Studies of Science, 26(3), 611–659. London: Sage
Publications
[2] Here
loosely based on: Professor Dan Klein and Professor Pieter Abbee. (January 21st,
2014) CS188 “Intro to AI” Lecture. UC
Berkeley.
[3] George Boole (1815 – 1864) came up with a kind of
algebraic logic that we now know as Boolean logic in his works entitled The Mathematical Analysis of Logic
(1847) and An Investigation of the Laws
of Thought (1854). He also explored general methods in probability. A
Boolean circuit is a mathematical model, with calculus of truth values (1 =
true; 0 = false) and set membership, which can be applied to a (digital)
logical electronic circuitry.
[9] Russell, S. and Peter Norvig. (2016) and
McCorduck, Pamela. (2004). Machines Who
Think. Natick, MA.: A K Peters, Ltd.
[10] McCarthy, J. (2007). What is AI? Retrieved on
December 5th, 2019 from http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/node1.html
This webpage also offers a nice, foundational and simple conversation about
intelligence, IQ and related matters.
[11] McCorduck, P. (2004). Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence. Natick: A K Peters, Ltd
[15] Minsky, M. and Papert, S.A. (1969, 1987). Perceptrons: An Introduction to
Computational Geometry. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press
[16] Olazaran, M. (1996). A Sociological Study of the Official History of the Perceptrons
Controversy. Social Studies of Science, 26(3), 611–659. London: Sage
Publications
[17] Samuel, A.L. (1959, 1967, 2000). Some Studies in Machine Learning Using the
Game of Checkers. Online: IBM Journal of Research and Development, 44(1.2),
206–226. doi:10.1147/rd.441.0206 Retrieved February 18, 2020 from
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1147/rd.33.0210 and
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0066413869900044
and https://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/files/us-beygel/samuel-checkers.pdf
[19] The form is what
now could be referred to as a logic-based declarative programming paradigm =
the code is telling a system what you want it does and that by means of formal
logic facts and rules for some problem and not exactly by stating how step by
step it needs to do it. There are at least 2 main paradigms with each their own
sub-categories. This logic-based one is a subcategory of the declarative
programming set of coding patterns and standards. The other main paradigm (with
its subsets) is imperative programming which includes object-oriented and
procedural programming. The latter includes the C language. See Online: Curlie
Retrieved on March 24, 2020 from https://curlie.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Procedural Examples of (class-based)
object-oriented imperative programming languages are C++, Python and R. See: https://curlie.org/en/Computers/Programming/Languages/Object-Oriented/Class-based/
[20] Minsky, M. and Papert, S.A. (1969, 1987) p. 231 “Other Multilayer Machines”.
[25] Historic Examples: Pierce, J. R. et al (1966). Language and Machines: Computers in
Translation and Linguistics. Washington D. C.: The Automatic Language
Processing Advisory Committee (ALPAC). Retrieved on April 9, 2020 from The
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine at https://www.nap.edu/read/9547/chapter/1
alternatively: http://www.mt-archive.info/ALPAC-1966.pdf
[26] Hutchins, W. J. (1995). Machine Translation: A Brief History. In Koerner, E. E.K. .et al
(eds). (1995). Concise history of the language sciences: from the Sumerians to
the cognitivists. Pages 431-445. Oxford: Pergamon, Elsevier Science Ltd. p. 436
[27] Russell, S. et al. (2016, p.24) doesn’t seem to
mention this first “AI Winter” and only mentions the later one, by the end of
the 1980s nor does McCorduck, Pamela. (2004) pp. xxviii – xxix.
Ghatak, A. (2019, p. vii) however, identifies more than one, as do Maini, V.,
et al. (Aug 19, 2017) and Mueller, J. P. et al. (2019, p. 133), Chollet, F.
(2018). P12 Perhaps these authors, who are mainly focusing on Deep Learning,
see the absence of research following the Rosenblatt’s perceptron as a
“winter”.
[28] Goodfellow, I., et al. (2016, 2017). Deep Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT
Press. p. 2
[39] Deng, J. et al. (2009). ImageNet: A Large-Scale Hierarchical Image Database. Online:
Stanford Vision Lab, Stanford University & Princeton University Department
of Computer Science. Retrieved April 7, 2020 from http://www.image-net.org/papers/imagenet_cvpr09.pdf
[40] Trask, A. W. (2019). Grokking Deep Learning. USA: Manning Publications Co. p. 170
URLs for A “Pre-History” & a Foundational Context:
This post is the main post on a Pre-History & a Foundational context of the Field of AI. In this post a narrative is constructed surrounding the “Pre-History”. It links with the following posts:
The post here is a first and very short linking with on Literature, Mythology & Arts as one of the foundational contexts of the Field of AI
In the early days of philosophy (while often
associated with the Ancient Greeks, surely found in other comparable forms in
many intellectual, knowledge-seeking communities throughout history) and up
till present days, people create forms of logic, they study and think about the
(existence, developments, meaning, processes, applications, … of) mind,
consciousness, cognition, language, reasoning, rationality, learning, knowledge,
and so on.
Logic too,
often has been claimed as being an Old Greek invention; specifically by
Aristotle (384 B.C to 322 B.C.). It has, however, more or less independent
traditions across the globe and across time. Logic lies at the basis of, for
instance, Computational Thinking, of coding, of mathematics, of language, and
of Artificial Intelligence. In its most basic (and etymologically), logic comes
from Ancient Greek “Logos” (λόγος), which simply means “speech”, “reasoning”,
“word” or “study”. Logic can, traditionally, be understood as “a method of
human thought that involves thinking in a linear, step-by-step manner about how
a problem can be solved. Logic is the basis of many principles including the
scientific method.”[1]Note, following the result of research and development (R&D) in fields
that could be associated with the field of AI and within the field of AI
itself, can show that today logic, in its various forms, is not only a linear
process. Moreover, at present, the study of logic has been an activity no
longer limited to the field of philosophy alone and is studied in various
fields including computer science, linguistics or cognitive science as well.
One author covering a topic of AI, tried to
make the link between Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence starkly clear. As
a discipline, AI is offered the consideration as possibly being “philosophical
engineering.”[2]
In this linkage, the field of AI is positioned as one researching more philosophical
concepts from any field of science and from Philosophy itself that are then transcoded,
from mathematical algorithms to artificial neural networks. This linkage
proposes that philosophy covers ideas that are experienced as, for instance, ambiguous
or complex or open for deep debate. Historically, philosophy tried to define, or
at least explore, many concepts including ‘knowledge,’ ‘meaning,’ and ‘reasoning,’
which are broadly considered to be processes or states of a larger set known as
“intelligence”. The latter itself too has been a fertile topic for philosophy.
The field of AI as well has been trying to explore or even solve some of these
attributes. The moment it solved some expressions of these, it was often
perceived as taking away not only the mystery but also the intelligence of the
expressed form. The first checker or chess “AI” application is hardly
considered “intelligent” these days. The first AI solution beating a champion
in such culturally established board games has later been shown to lack
sufficient “intelligence” to beat a newer version of an AI application. Maybe
that improved version might (or will) be beaten again, perhaps letting the AI
applications race on and on? Just perhaps contrary to “philosophical
engineering,” would the field of AI be practically engineering the philosophy out of some concepts?
Find out what “algorithm” in general (in a more non-mathematical or more non-coding sense) means. Can you find it has similarities with the meaning of “logic”? If so, which attributes seem similar?
What do you think ‘algorithm’ could mean and could be in daily life (outside of the realm of Computer Science)? Are there algorithms we use that are not found in a computer?
Collect references of what consciousness, intelligence, rationality, reasoning and mind have meant in the history of the communities and cultures around you.
Share your findings in a collection of references from the entire class.
Maybe add your findings to the collage (see the Literature project above).
Alternative: the teacher shares a few resources or references of philosophers that covered these topics and that are examples of the pre-history of AI.
Psychology has influenced and is
influenced by research in AI. To some degree and further developing this is
still the case today.[3]
Not only as a field related to cognitive science and the
study of the processes involving perception and motor control (i.e. control of
muscles and movement) but also the experiments and findings from within the
longer history of psychology, have been of influence in the areas of AI.
It is important to note that while there are links
between the field of AI and psychology, some attributes in this area of study have
been contested, opposed and surpassed by cognitive science and computer
science, with its subfield of AI.
An example of a method that can be said to have found its
roots in psychology is called “Transfer Learning”. This refers to a process or method learned within one
area that is used to solve an issue in an entirely different set of conditions.
For a machine the area and conditions are the data sets and how its artificial
neural network model is being balanced (i.e. “weighted”). The machine uses a
method acquired in working within one data set to work in another data set. In
this way the data set does not have to be sufficiently large for the machine to
return workable outputs.
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The AI method known as Reinforcement Learning is one that
could be said to have some similarities with experiments such as those
historically conducted by Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. With Pavlov the process of “Classical
Conditioning” was introduced. This milestone in the field of psychology is most
famously remembered with Pavlov’s dog that started to produce saliva the moment
it heard a sound of a bell (i.e. the action which Pavlov desired to observe).
This sound was initially associated with the offering of food; first the bell
was introduced, then the food and then the dog would produce saliva. Pavlov
showed that the dog indeed did link both the bell and the food. Eventually, the
dog would produce saliva at the hearing of the bell without getting any food. What
is important here is that the dog has no control over the production of saliva.
That means the response was involuntary; it was automatic. This is, in an
over-simplified explanation, Classical Conditioning.
That stated, Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a Machine
Learning method, where the machine is confronted with degrees of “reward” or
the lack thereof. See the section on RL for further details. Studies
surrounding reward have been found in historical research conducted by a
researcher named Skinner and others. It’s interesting to add that this research
has been contested by Chomsky, questioning the scientific validity and
transferability to human subjects.[4]
Chomsky’s critique has been considered as important in the growth of the fields
of cognitive science and AI, back then in the 1950s. In these experiments a
process called “Operant Conditioning” was being tested. The researchers were
exploring voluntary responses (as opposed to the involuntary ones seen with
Pavlov). That is to say, these were responses that were believed to be under
the control of the test subject and that would lead to some form of learning,
following some form of reward.
Again, these descriptions are too simplistic. They are
here to nudge you towards further and deeper exploration, if this angle were to
excite you positively towards your learning about areas in the academic field
of AI.
With
Linguistics come the studies of semiotics. Semiotics could be superficially defined
as the study of symbols and various systems for meaning-giving including and
beyond the natural languages. One can think of visual languages, such as icons,
architecture, or another form is music, etc. Arguably, each sense can have its
own meaning-giving system. Some argue that Linguistics is a subfield of
semiotics while again others turn that around. Linguistics also comes with
semantics, grammatical structures (see: Professor Noam Chomsky and the Chomsky
Hierarchy)[5],
meaning-giving, knowledge representation and so on.
Linguistics
and Computer Science both study the formal properties of language (formal,
programming or natural languages). Therefor any field within Computer Science,
such as Artificial Intelligence, share many concepts, terminologies and methods
from the fields within Linguistics (e.g. grammar, syntax, semantics, and so on).
The link between the two is studied via a theory known as the “automata theory”[6],
the study of the mathematical properties of such automata. A Turing Machine is
a famous example of such an abstract machine model or automaton. It is a
machine that can take a given input by executing some rule, as expressed in a
given language and that in a step by step manner; called an algorithm, to end
up offering an output. Other “languages” that connects these are, for instance,
Mathematics and Logic.
Did you
know that the word “automaton” is from Ancient Greek and means something like “self-making”, “self-moving”, or “self-willed”?
That sounds like some attributes of an idealized Artificial Intelligence
application, no?
[2] Skanski, S. (2018). Introduction to Deep Learning.
From Logical Calculus to Artificial Intelligence. In Mackie, I. et al.
Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science Series (UTiCS). Switzerland: Springer.
p. v . Retrieved on March 26, 2020 from http://www.springer.com/series/7592 AND https://github.com/skansi/dl_book
[3] Crowder, J. A. et al. (2020). Artificial Psychology: Psychological Modeling and Testing of AI Systems.
Springer
[4] Among other texts, Chomsky, N. (1959). Reviews: Verbal behavior by B. F. Skinner.
Language. 35 (1): 26–58. A 1967 version retrieved on March 26, 2020 from https://chomsky.info/1967____/
[5] Chomsky, N. (1956). Three models for the description of language. IEEE Transactions on
Information Theory, 2(3), 113–124. doi:10.1109/tit.1956.1056813 AND Fitch, W.
T., & Friederici, A. D. (2012). Artificial
grammar learning meets formal language theory: an overview. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 367(1598), 1933–1955.
doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0103
[6] The automata theory is the study of abstract
machines (e.g. “automata”, “automatons”; notice the link with the word
“automation”). This study also considers how automata can be used in solving
computational problems.
URLs for A “Pre-History” & a Foundational Context:
This post is the main post on a Pre-History & a Foundational context of the Field of AI. In this post a narrative is constructed surrounding the “Pre-History”. It links with the following posts:
The post here is a first and very short linking with on Literature, Mythology & Arts as one of the foundational contexts of the Field of AI
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01 — The Field of AI: A Foundational Context: Literature, Mythology, Visual Arts
The early Greek Myths (about 2500 years ago) showcase
stories of artificially intelligent bronze automatons or statues that were
brought to life which then in turn exhibited degrees of “intelligence”. If you
want to dig deeper search for Pygmalion’s Galateia, or look up the imaginary
stories of Talos (Talus)[1].
The many
thousands years old Jewish myth of the “golem” (גולם),
fantasized about a creature made of clay that magically came to life. It could
be interpreted as an imagination of the raw material for a controllable
automaton and an artificial form of some degree of intelligence. While its
cultural symbolism is far richer than given justice here, it could be imagined
as symbolizing a collective human capability to envision giving some form and
function of intelligence to materials that we, in general, do not tend to
equate with comparable capability (i.e. raw materials for engineered design).
It is
suggested in some sources[2]
that artificial intelligence (in the literary packaging of imagined automatons
or other) was also explored in European literary works such as in the 1816
German Der Sandmann (The Sandman) by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman,[3] with the story’s character Olympia.
The artificial is also explored by the fictional character Dr. Wagner, who
creates Homunculus (a little man-like automaton), in Faust by Goethe,[4] and
in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.[5]Much earlier yet, far less literary and rather philosophically, the
artificial was suggested in the 1747 publication entitled L’Homme Machine (Man—Machine) by the French Julien Offray
de la Mettrie, who posited the hypothesis that a human being as any other animal,
are automatons or machines.
The next post will cover some hints of Philosophy in association with the Field of AI
Mini
Project #___: Exploring the Pre-History of AI in your own and your larger
context.
Collect any other old stories from within China, Asia or elsewhere (from a location or culture that is not necessarily your own) that reference similar imaginations of “artificial intelligence” as constructed in the creative minds of our ancestors.
Share your findings in a collection of references from the entire class.
Maybe make a large collage that can be hung up on the wall, showing “artificial intelligence” from the past, through-out the ages.
Alternative: the teacher shares a few resources or references from the Arts (painting, sculpture, literature, mythology, etc.) that covered these topics and that are examples of the pre-history of AI.
[1] Parada, C. (Dec 10, 1993). Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology. Studies in Mediterranean
Archaeology, Vol 107. Coronet Books
[2] McCorduck, P. (2004). Machines Who Think: A Personal Inquiry into the History and Prospects
of Artificial Intelligence. Natick: A K Peters, Ltd. p. xxv
[4] Nielsen, W. C. (2016). Goethe, Faust, and Motherless Creations. Goethe Yearbook, 23(1),
59–75. North American Goethe Society.
Information retrieved on April 8, 2020 from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/619344/pdf
[5] An artistic interpretation of the link between the
artificial life of the Frankenstein character and AI is explored here: http://frankenstein.ai/ Retrieved on April 8, 2020
URLs for A “Pre-History” & a Foundational Context:
This post is the main post on a Pre-History & a Foundational context of the Field of AI. In this post a narrative is constructed surrounding the “Pre-History”. It links with the following posts:
This post is a first and very short linking with on Literature, Mythology & Arts as one of the foundational contexts of the Field of AI
Following one can read about very few attributes picked up on from Control Theory as contextualizing to the Field of AI
Cognitive Science is the fourth field that is mapped with the Field of AI.
Mathematics & Statistics is in this writing the sixth area associated as a context to the Field of AI
Other fields contextualizing the Field of AI are being considered (e.g. Data Science & Statistics, Economy, Engineering fields)
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The Field of AI: A “Pre-History”.
A “pre-history” and a foundational context of Artificial Intelligence can arguably by traced back to a number of events in the past as well as to a number of academic fields of study. In this post only a few have been handpicked.
This post will offer a very short “pre-history” while following posts will dig into individual academic fields that are believed to offer the historical and present-day context for the field of AI.
It is not too far-fetched to link the roots of AI, as the present-day field of study, with the human imagination of artificial creatures referred to as “automatons” (or what could be understood as predecessors to more complex robots).
While it will become clear here that the imaginary idea of automatons in China is remarkably older, it has been often claimed that the historic development towards the field of AI, as it is intellectually nurtured today, commenced more than 2000 years ago in Greece, with Aristotle and his formulation of the human thought activity known as “Logic”.
Presently, with logic, math and data one could make a machine appear to have some degree of “intelligence”. Note, it is rational to realize that the perception of an appearance does not mean the machine is intelligent. What’s more, it could be refreshing to consider that not all intelligent activity is (intended to be seen as) logical.
It’s fun, yet important, to add that to some extent, initial studies into logic could asynchronously be found in China’s history with the work by Mòzǐ (墨子), who conducted his philosophical reflections a bit more than 2400 years ago.
Coming back to the Ancient Greeks: besides their study of this mode of thinking, they also experimented with the creation of basic automatons.
Automatons (i.e. self-operating yet artificial mechanical creatures) were likewise envisioned in China and some basic forms were created in its long history of science and technology.[1] An early mentioning can be found in, Volume 5 “The Questions of Tang” (汤问; 卷第五 湯問篇) of the Lièzǐ (列子)[2], an important historical Daoist text.
In this work there is mentioning of this kind of (imagined) technologies or “scientific illusions”.[3] The king in this story became upset by the appearance of intelligence and needed to be reassured that the automaton was only that, a machine …
Jumping forward to the year 1206, the Arabian inventor, Al-Jazari, supposedly designed the first programmable humanoid robot in the form of a boat, powered by water flow, and carrying four mechanical musicians. He wrote about it in his work entitled “The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices.”
It is believed that Leonardo Da Vinci was strongly influenced by his work.[4] Al-Jazari additionally designed clocks with water or candles. Some of these clocks could be considered programmable in a most basic sense.
One could argue that the further advances of the clock (around the 15th and 16th century) with its gear mechanisms, that were used in the creation of automatons as well, were detrimental to the earliest foundations, moving us in the direction of where we are exploring AI and (robotic) automation or autonomous vehicles today.
Between
the 16th and the 18th centuries, automatons became more
and more common. René Descartes, in
1637, considered thinking machines in his book entitled “Discourse on the Method of Reasoning“. In 1642, Pascal created the
first mechanical digital calculating machine.
Between
1801 and 1805 the first programmable machine was invented by Joseph-Marie
Jacquard. He was strongly influenced by Jacques de Vaucanson with his work on
automated looms and automata. Joseph-Marie’s loom was not even close to a computer
as we know it today. It was a programmable loom with punched paper cards that
automated the action of the textile making by the loom. What is important here
was the system with cards (the punched card mechanism) that influenced the
technique used to develop the first programmable computers.
In the first half of the 1800s, the Belgian mathematician, Pierre François Verhulst discovered the logistic function (e.g. the sigmoid function),[1] which will turn out to be quintessential in the early-day developments of Artificial Neural Networks and specifically those called “perceptrons” with a threshold function, that is hence used to activate the output of a signal, and which operate in a more analog rather than digital manner, mimicking the biological brain’s neurons. It should be noted that present-day developments in this area do not only prefer the sigmoid function and might even prefer other activation functions instead.
In 1936
Alan Turing proposed his Turing Machine. The Universal Turing Machine is
accepted as the origin of the idea of a stored-program computer. This would
later, in 1946, be used by John von Neumann for his “Electronic Computing Instrument“.[6]
Around that same time the first general purpose computers started to be
invented and designed. With these last events we could somewhat artificially
and arbitrarily claim the departure from “pre-history” into the start of the (recent)
history of AI.
As for fields of study that have laid some “pre-historical” foundations for AI research and development, which continue to be enriched by AI or that enrich the field of AI, there are arguably a number of them. A few will be explored in following posts. The first posts will touch on a few hints of Literature, Mythology and the Arts.
[1] Needham, J. (1991). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 2, History of Scientific Thought. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University.
[3] Zhāng, Z. (张 朝 阳). ( November 2005). “Allegories in ‘The Book of Master Liè’ and the Ancient Robots”. Online: Journal of Heilongjiang College of Education. Vol.24 #6. Retrieved March 5, 2020 from https://wenku.baidu.com/view/b178f219f18583d049645952.html
[4] McKenna, A. (September 26, 2013). Al-Jazarī Arab inventor. In The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Online: Encyclopaedia Britannica Retrieved on March 25, 2020 from https://www.britannica.com/biography/al-Jazari AND: