Plenary Speech
The 2003 International
Symposium on Collaborative Technologies and Systems (CTS’03)
Fusion of Language and Thought
Processes for Collaborative Technologies and Systems
Leonid I. Perlovsky
Air Force Research Laboratory
Abstract
Collaborative systems include
multiple interacting agents. An agent is
a human, machine, device or software code; agents are significantly autonomous
and goal-oriented, perform various functions, and
communicate with other agents. An agent
is equipped with sensors or collects data, receives communications, extracts
information using existing knowledge, integrates this information into
producing new knowledge, sends communications; these functions of agents in
collaborative systems embody the concept of life and intelligence. Collaborative technologies require man-machine
and machine-machine interfaces, knowledge and data access, understanding of
language, understanding of situations and environment, combining knowledge and
data from diverse sources and disciplines, decision making. This implies knowledge management, ability to
make decisions in heterogeneous environment, with inaccurate data, uncertain
knowledge and intuitions, information exchange, in other words, abilities for
thinking and language.
Computational techniques for
thinking and language are far from matching human abilities. We summarize the working of the mind and
language emphasizing possible computational approaches. This includes concepts, understanding,
thinking, emotions, instincts, adaptation and learning, behavior, language
ability, signs and symbols. I discuss
behavior of collaboration with emphasis on fusion of language and thinking in
the mind. The talk briefly reviews the
history of the development of computational approaches to intelligence
including pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, neural networks,
knowledge and model based systems, evolutionary computation,
hetero-hierarchical organization, modeling field theory (MFT, developed by the
author) and computational linguistics. Advantages
and disadvantages of various approaches are compared. MFT is described in some details emphasizing
possible approaches to fusion of thinking and language for CTS.
Short Bio:
Dr. Leonid Perlovsky
is Technical Advisor at Air Force Research Lab/SNHE. Previously, from 1985 to 1999, he served as
Chief Scientist at Nichols Research leading the corporate research, in
information science, intelligent systems, sensor fusion, and algorithm
development. He participated as a
principal in commercial startups developing tools for text understanding,
biotechnology, and financial predictions. He published about 50 papers in refereed
scientific journals and about 100 papers in conferences, organized
academic/engineering conferences and authored a book "Neural Networks and
Intellect: model-based concepts", Oxford University Press, 2001. He also served as professor at