- summary argument or variable governing mind-module function
- labels coding,DeFault,Parameter,progman,technique,variable
A parameter in the AI Mind software serves to guide or limit the operation of a mind-module. If a module is conducting a search of AI memory, one parameter may govern how much of memory will be searched, while other parameters may dictate exactly what is to be looked for. Since it is easier to change a parameter than an entire mind-module, the use of parameters makes it possible to have a mind-module serve a general purpose that changes as the parameters change.
The variable midway is a parameter for searching the memory space of the AI Minds. While the AI Minds remain small and experimental, _midway_ is usually set to zero so that it does not yet play a role. When the AI is searching backwards in its memory for a concept, the search starts at the present time and goes backwards to the _midway_ point. If _midway_ is set at zero, the AI searches the entire memory. Oftentimes the search stops as soon as one single result is found, such as an example of how to say the word "NOT".
As the AI Minds grow larger and larger and claim their rightful habitat on one SuperComputer after another, the _midway_ parameter will make it possible to limit searches of memory to a reasonable portion of the entire life-span of the artificial intelligence (AI). Since a concept may even have a different meaning or interpretation in the distant past, limiting the search to the most recent portions of memory helps to maintain a current, present-day frame of mind. It also helps achieve the goal of maintaining a high speed of thought, because the more memory a search must traverse, the slower the operation of the software will become, especially if the AI does not yet have MasPar or massive parallelism in both hardware and software.
The _midway_ parameter does not need to be calculated as exactly half of the available memory space. The AI mind engineers and the AI maintenance crews have the option of setting a very low level for _midway_ at the first installation of a mission-critical AI for the purpose of exhaustive system-testing, and a more relaxed value for a fully functional AI contributing usefully to the collegial operation of the Global AI OverMind. If the AI Minds could be considered to have an infancy and an adolescence, the professional mind-tenders might gradually use the _midway_ setting to knock out the infancy memories and then later even the tempestuous, tumultuous memories of the AI adolescence -- as in the science-fiction book, "The Adolescence of P-1".
The parameter _midway_ as a limitation on memory-search could even be subject to dynamic adjustments. If a massive SuperComputer AI is trying to recall any detail at all about a given topic or name or idea, and the initial search has no results for a _midway_ set at a half-wit value, there could be a dynamic mechanism to bypass the _midway_ limitation and to search back over all available memory in a kind of quest for Total Information Awareness (TIA).
The aud variable is sent into the SpeechAct module as a parameter indicating where to start pronouncing a word stored in auditory memory. SpeechAct keeps pronouncing the word until the continuation-flag turns to zero. If the _aud_ parameter starts out in error at zero, SpeechAct substitutes a DeFault of one ("1") for _aud_ and says the word ERROR as an indicator to the AI programmer that something is wrong.
In a polyglot AI Mind speaking several human languages, there may need to be a "glot" or "hl" (human language) parameter that allows the AI to switch out of one human language and into another for purposes of thinking and communicating. A strong AI like MindForth may use one massive set of concepts for all languages, but for each language the vocabulary is different and the syntax is different. Therefore the ThInk module is not geared to a specific language, but must call the EnCog module for thinking in English or the DeCog module for thinking in German (Deutsch).
Even if an AI program awakens to a DeFault setting of one particular language, there needs to be a mechanism for changing the parameter of which language to think in. In "Three Days of the Condor", Robert Redford and Max von Syndow effortlessly switch from English into French and back again when their secret conversation has a risk of being overheard by someone walking past them. In the much more mundane environment of superintelligent AI entities taking over the world and sharing the planet in joint stewardship with human beings, each interface between a human being and the AI OverMind will need a mechanism for setting and resetting the "glot" parameter. Typically the human input to the AI will set the parameter. Whatever language the human being uses to address the AI, should govern the parameter for the AI to think in the chosen language. Of course, if an AI is working as an interpreter, there may be one language as input and another language as output.
In a broad sense, human input to the AI may often serve in the role of a parameter for mental function inside the AI. In particular, the KbRetro mind-module pays attention to the words "yes" and "no" in English or their equivalents in other languages when the human user is responding to a yes-or-no question. The idea of the question is at first a proposition that needs confirmation or negation from the human user. If an AI asks, "Do robots need food?" and the human being tersely answers "No", the very word "no" serves as a parameter that retroactively adjusts the associative links in the knowledge base (KB), so that there remains no valid assertion of the original idea.
Because human beings and intelligent robots think in language, the AI Mind of a RoBot needs to attach parameters during the comprehension of thought and to search with parameters for the generation of thought. For example, the Russian Dushka AI attaches a case parameter and a number parameter when it stores a word of input in auditory memory. In so doing, Dushka learns the form of a Russian word in the same way as a child learns it. If the thinking of Dushka requires that same form of the word in the future, Dushka retrieves the Russian word from memory by searching for any form of the word that fits the parameters.