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From: kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT)
Newsgroups: net.ai
Subject: Re: CYC Project at MCC
Message-ID: <929@hounx.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 19-Jul-86 09:01:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: hounx.929
Posted: Sat Jul 19 09:01:51 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 22-Jul-86 00:11:04 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 51

Mike Maxwell has opened up for discussion a fascinating area of research
on Analogical Thinking.

To me, the deepest and most interesting analogies are the one where
the structure or shape of the Knowledge Tree (or Mesh) is equivalent
to that found in another, seemingly unrelated section of the Knowldege
Base.  The names of the slots can be copletely different.

Imagine a high-level command called Copy-with-Substitute-Symbol-Names.
This command would duplicate a section of the KB, but systmatically
substitute new names for old.  When humans do this, we call it
analogy, metaphor, or parable.  Once the mapping is done, one has
transferred a large chunk of knowldege, mutatis mutandis, from one
field to another.  It is only the pattern or shape that remains
constant.  It is in the pattern that the invariant portion of the
knowledge resides.


There are some interesting books which draw such maps.  Two that
I like are The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukov and The Tao
of Physics by Fritjof Capra.  These books construct mappings
from concepts in Western Science to corresponding notions in
Eastern Mystical Philosophy.

That such a mapping exists may seem surprising at first, but
makes sense when you think about it.  Western Science (and
Pjysics in particular) is a map or description of the Laws
of Nature.  The human mind builds pictures (or images or
models) of the world in which the individual finds himself
embedded.  Introspection reveals those internal models,
which should be in good correspondence with external Reality
as detected by the Senses.  The only problem is that the
internal models are made up of parts without nomenclature.
The nomenclature invented to describe Mystical Philosophy
needs to be translated into the corresponding Scientific
Nomenclature.  This is what Zukov and Capra have attempted
in the above mentioned books.

The parables of Religious Literature are another rich source
of structures for Common Sense Knowledge.  Children's Fables
are another.  Lewis Carroll's contribution to this genre
is seminal.  Gulliver's Travels is in the same category,
but perhaps harder to decipher.  Metaphor is everywhere.

Barry Kort

"The Keyboard on my new Lisp Machine has a Meta Key.
  What is a Meta for?"