Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mtuxo!lzfme!jwi
From: jwi@lzfme.att.com (Jim Winer @ AT&T, Middletown, NJ)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Therapy for Carbon-Based Neural Networks and Silicon-Based Machines
Summary: Can a machine act like a child?
Keywords: abreactive crisis
Message-ID: <1420@lzfme.att.com>
Date: 20 Jun 89 13:38:56 GMT
References: <56038@linus.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 53

Jim Winer writes:

>  > It would be interesting to put an artificialintelligence into
>  > abreactive crisis. I have no idea how this would be done, or even
>  > what it would mean, given the state of the art -- but it would be
>  > interesting.

Barry W. Kort snaps back:

> I think there was a Star Trek episode in which Kirk gave the machine
> it's "Goedel Sentence", and the machine, realizing the error of its
> ways, turned itself off.

Jim Winer continues:

In an abreactive crisis with a human being, you can actually watch
as the face musculature returns expression to an earlier age and the
voice itself changes in pitch as the words and phraseology go
backwards in time to relive a childhood experience. It can be
disturbing to watch a 35 year adult *become* a seven year old child
with an unlined face and awkward body language -- but the point is
that it happens -- the adult *becomes* the child again in all ways
except physical size.
.P
In an eclectic therapy situation, the abreaction may be triggered by
bioenergetic or gestalt or other means with the express purpose of
causing the "child" to relive an experience *with a different
outcome.* A typical situation might involve an abused child who is
allowed to relive such an experience and then learn that the
father/abuser (or mother/abuser) *then* is not *all men (women)
now.* (Difficulty forming non-abusive relationshis with persons of
the same sex as the abuser is a common symptom.)
.P
Forcing an abreactive state for a machine intelligence would involve
simulating an earlier surround in which there is a highly charged
emotional state. For sequential computing devices, this seems
unlikely. For a neural net this might correspond to a period of
intense negative feedback. Thus, in a complex net, changing a strong
early pattern of response might have interesting effects on the
response to later patterns (if not totally destructive). I wonder if
there would be any behavior changes that might relate to the type of
behavior changes that result from putting a human through an
abreactive crisis?

Jim Winer ..!lzfme!jwi 

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