Stupefication : A Two-Part Process
April 30, 2008
We’ve touched on two interrelated topics so far: 1) the fact that databases store semantic content via syntactical combinations of data and meta-data, and 2) the fact that formal systems which model intelligent behavior operate under a set of rules that have descriptive but not prescriptive force.
The reason I’ve been addressing these two issues is that I believe stupefication to be a two-component process involving:
1) The distillation of context-dependent human knowledge into a database, and
2) The creation of a complex series of instructions that utilizes the distilled knowledge where possible, and (where not possible) utilizes heuristics — a distillation of context-independent knowledge.
An example of the first case would be Deep Blue’s opening book, which stupefies the game of chess by saying, “If the position looks like that, then do this.” An example of the second case would be an algorithmic implementation of a classic chess adage like, “Control the center,” or “The knight on the rim is grim,” or “Develop your pieces,” or “Seize open files for your rooks.”
But let’s not be deceived by these examples: a computer makes use of these resources very differently from a human being. And the “knowledge” the computer ends up using is of a very different kind than the knowledge we use.
In the following two posts, we’ll deal with each of these issues in turn.
[...] 30, 2008 Note: This post is a further unpacking of a concept introduced in this post. That concept can be stated briefly as follows: Stupefication works, in part, via the [...]
[...] as we have already mentioned, heuristics that govern a formal system designed to play a game (like chess) can be understood to [...]
[...] with an elusive success condition. The first method above should be recognizable as part-one of the two-part task of stupefication: available context-dependent knowledge must be distilled into a database-like form. And the second [...]