From weng@cse.msu.edu  Tue Mar  7 12:42:01 2000
From: Dr John J Weng <weng@cse.msu.edu>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 2000 12:41:50 -0500 (EST)
To: wdl@cse.msu.edu
Subject: WDL Dis. #24

======== WDL Dis. #24 (Bcc: all WDL participants) ======
Subject: Re: WDL Dis. #17

Chris,

I like the question you raised: "So what's the problem?"

Do we know how to build "experience-dependent" processes for
automatic development?  Do we know how to build "genetics"?  
I have seen very little in the published literature on the machine
side, in the context of *automatic development*.
This seems counter-intuitive.  The following explains why.  

What are the problems for the machine-side fields (robotics/vision/speech/
AI) in terms of mental development?  I think that a fundamental distinction 
between machine mental development and all the existing approaches to 
intelligent machines is 

   "To build developmental robots that can
   (1) learn tasks that are *unknown* to its programmer and 
   (2) be *creative* on subjects that its programmer do not know,
   with known ecological environment (e.g., human environment)."  

That is, e.g., my students and I have to program a robot so that 
it can learn many other skills that we do not know (e.g., Hebrew)!  
Why is this important?  Because humans are doing very very poorly 
in programming autonomous robots, vision, speech, language understanding 
and motor behaviors for *unknown* environments, among many other things. 

What are the problems for the human-side fields (psychology, neuroscience,
philosophy, etc) in terms of mental development?  I think that a fundamental 
distinction between phenomenal studies and systematic natural-law finding 
in human mental development is 

   "To find out how the brain of a (primate) neonate self-organizes itself 
   so that 
   (1) it can develop to learn new tasks that are appropriate for 
       different developmental stages, in the human environments.
   (2) it can be *creative* on the subjects that his parents do not know."

Why is this important?  We humans are still facing one of the biggest
unknown for mankind --- our own brain.  We are not happy just knowing 
that every level is experience-dependent and every level is shaped by genetics.  We want to know clearly and exactly what innate self-organization mechanisms
are at different levels, how they work together, how they are shaped by 
experience, how cognition, behavior and rich consciousness develop with 
experience, etc. 

John