Example of a simple (psychological) theory
(This example reflects the structure, which we have used in our prototype of knowbots)
AUTHOR: Dr. Gerd Döben-Henisch
FIRST DATE: December 27, 1995
DATE of LAST CHANGE: December 27, 1995
If one wants to speak in a formal and psychological way about the
communication between different consciousnesses one can reconstruct this
communication only from the point of view of one single
consciousness, namely the consciousness of the psychologist (or philosopher).
Within the realm of this consciousness one constructs an abstract theory which is in an ideal way dealing with a universe of consciousnesses whereby the degree of 'realness' of the abstract theory is gained from the relationship to the available phenomena fitting to the abstract theory.
This procedure is the same as in the case of an empirical theory;
psychological and empirical theories differ only with respect to the constraints imposed to the allowed phenomena and the kinds of relationships of phenomena and abstract concepts.
The Basic Structure of a Consciousness
- WORLD(w) iff
- w = <B,R,C,refl,A>
B := sequence of BASE-SETS
R := sequence of RELATIONS
C := sequence of CONSCIOUSNESS-MODELS
refl := REFLEXIVITY-FUNCTION
A := BASE-AXIOMS
The BASE-Sets
- HEARD := Set of heard stimuli.
- SEEN := Set of seen stimuli.
- SMELLED
- TOUCHED
- TASTED
- LHEARD := Set of heard stimuli which are preclassified as language-related
stimuli.
- LSEEN := Set of seen stimuli which are preclassified as language-related
stimuli.
- USED := Set of acustical or visual stimuli which are selfgenerated.
- UTTERED := Set of acustical stimuli intentiously uttered.
- WRITTEN := Set of visual stimuli intentiously written.
- MEMORY
- ACT-SIT := Representation of the actual situation.
- POS-SIT := Possible situation.
- COMPR-SIT := Comprehended situation.
- BSTATES := Bodystates.
- GOALS
- ACTIONS
- TIME
The RELATIONS
- SUBSET( HEAR,LHEARD x dm(C) x TIME)
- SUBSET(UTTER,UTTERED x dm(C) x TIME)
- enc: pt(EM) ---> pt(PHEN)
- dec: pt(PHEN) ---> pt(EM)
- lex = union(enc, dec)
- articulate: pt(PHEN) x dec ---> pt(EM)
- comprehend: pt(PHEN) x pt(EM) x ENC ---> pt(PHEN)
- objgen: pt(PHEN) x MEMORY x ACT-SIT ---> ACT-SIT
- memgen: pt(PHEN) x MEM ---> MEM
- player: pt(PHEN) x ACT-SIT ---> POS-SIT
- planner: COMPR-SIT x ACT-SIT x POS-SIT x
GOALS x BSTATES x MEMORY x pt(PHEN) ---> pt(ACTIONS)
The other CONSCIOUSNESSES
For every c_i which is an element of C, which is representing the CONSCIOUSNESS-MODEL of another consciousness, it holds:
c_i = <B_i,R_i,C_i,A_i>
where the single elements of c_i have the same structure as B,R,C above in the WORLD<>. The difference is that no c_i has the relation refl and the all the sets B_i,R_i, and C_i can be empty. The reason is that every c_i functions as a possible representation of some consciousness generated with refl based on the elements of rn(w).
The REFLEXIVITY-function
The REFLEXIVITY-FUNCTION refl is typed as follows:
refl: pt(rn(B) x N) x pt(rn(R) x N) x pt(rn(C) x N) x pt(A) ---> rn(C) x N
Some AXIOMS
Some BASIC AXIOMS of A are the following:
- SUBSET(LHEARD,HEARD)
- SUBSET(LSEEN,SEEN)
- SUBSET(UTTERED,ACTIONS)
- SUBSET(LWRITTEN,ACTIONS)
- PERC = {HEARD, SEEN, SMELLED, TOUCHED, TASTED}
- EM = {USED, UTTERED, WRITTEN, LHEARD, LSEEN}
- PHEN = Union(rn(B), rn(R), rn(C))
- HTHR = c1*
- EGO(C_1)
- (A:e,i,j,t)(UTTER(e,i,t) & dist(i,j,t) < HTHR & EL(j, dm(C)) --->
HEAR(e,j,t+c2*))
The last axiom is a simple description of the fact, that if an expression e has been uttered from the consciousness with index i at time t and if at that time the distance between consciousness i and another consciousness j is below some hear-threshold HTHR, then will the expression e be a heard expression seen from consciousness j.
( Figure: Structure of Consciousness).
Comments are welcomed to kip-ml@inm.de
Daimlerstrasse 32, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, Deutschland. Tel +49- (0)69-941963-0, Tel-Gerd: +49- (0)69-941963-10