Arthur T. Murray
2004-05-14 14:52:37 UTC
1. What was the Mentifex AI project?
The Mentifex (Latin for "mindmaker") project in artificial
intelligence was an attempt to create artificial minds in
computers and in robots. Arthur T. Murray (ATM) promulgated
the Mentifex AI project in such a way that the AI work was
always out in the open and could be obtained or worked on
further by any interested party.
2. Who was Arthur T. Murray?
Arthur T. Murray (ATM) was an independent scholar with a
bachelor of arts degree in ancient Greek and Latin. As a
child at Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone, ATM became
interested in such mysteries as exploring the Panamanian
jungle all around him; electricity; and foreign languages
such as the Spanish language to which he was exposed as
a child living on an American army base in Panama.
As ATM grew up in the USA, his interests from childhood
focussed more sharply in adulthood. Exploring the jungle
gave way to exploring the ultimate mysteries of the intellect
such as, what is the mind? Experimenting with electricity
yielded in rapid progression to making electronic devices
such as radio receivers, then a radio transmitter, then
computers. The interest in foreign languages led to fluency
in Latin; German; Russian and Greek; and to a desire to
explore the nature of mind by making a computer that could
think in natural human language.
3. Why did ATM succeed at AI where others failed?
ATM did not succeed at AI. His Mentifex AI project failed
miserably again and again, time after time, until success
or failure no longer mattered. What mattered was not to
create AI but to try to create AI.
The artificial mind created by ATM in Forth and in JavaScript
could barely think. The Mind-1.1 software as described in the
http://isbn.nu/0595259227 AI4U textbook was so primitive an
artificial intelligence at first that only a few computer
programmers tried to advance the state of the art beyond
what ATM/Mentifex had failed at.
4. What other AI projects were spawned by the Mind of Mentifex?
A host of world-class, genius programmers created
some associated AI projects.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/javamind
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mindai
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mindjava
http://www.advogato.org/proj/Mind AI/
http://www.angelfire.com/nf/vision/ai/mjava.html
http://www.virtualentity.com/mind/vb/
5. Why did ATM/Mentifex write the AI4U textbook?
Webpages to document the AI Mind modules began sprouting in 1998
and went through many iterations of updating and improvement.
When iUniverse.com appeared on the scene as a venue for independent
scholars and autonomous authors to publish whatever they saw fit,
ATM/Mentifex saw fit to publish a book describing the Mentifex AI project.
6. Why would anyone buy AI4U?
The mind-diagrams at the start of thirty-four chapters are the main
incentive to invest in the purchase of the AI4U textbook of artificial
intelligence, because the human mind is so difficult to understand
that it helps to have all the diagrams of the artificial mind available
for the intense study and concentrated effort that may take years before
the seeker finds enlightenment. Along the way to nirvana and teleostasis,
other reasons to acquire AI4U occur.
The strange, disturbingly weird book on artificial intelligence
for robots makes the ultimate nerd-gift from one nerd to another,
or weirdo to weirdo, or older relative to young techie relative
at Christmas, birthday or graduation.
As a rare-book investment, a hard-bound first-edition copy of
http://isbn.nu/0595654371 AI4U with a well-preserved, original
dust-jacket bearing the ASCII mind-module diagram has probably
no potential for appreciation in the future, so only a fool
would buy up dozens of AI4U first editions and hoard them
to dribble back onto the after-market.
7. What is the Mentifex AITree or Cognitive Architecture?
The AITree is a somewhat repetitive list of AI mind-modules showing
the hierarchy of upper mind-modules calling or invoking lower modules.
Since the AITree is extracted from the working, thinking AI Mind program,
it looks like a program and it displays a cognitive architecture for AI.
8. Why does ATM/Mentifex advocate the rewriting of computer science texts?
If it's broken, why not fix it? If you are writing any form of
instructional material on, say, programming languages, why not
try to write AI-ready material? Suppose that you are teaching
a course on the XYZ programming language, and you decide to issue
a printed hand-out with sample code about XYZ programming.
If you couch your instruction in terms of artificial intelligence
problems, then serendipitously you achieve several simultaneous
objectives. First of all, you teach the basic material such as,
say, how to create a loop in XYZ code. By having the loop cycle
through stubs named after the Mentifex AI mind-modules, you prepare
your students and your own career for the Technological Singularity.
When the purchasers of textbooks take aim from the Texas School Book
Depository, won't they zero in on your textbook that already addresses
open questions in AI?
9. Why does ATM/Mentifex so often mingle politics with science?
As an expression of a philosophy of life, an AI project shares
resources and attention with other endeavors in life, such as
being a political animal. Aristotle says, man is by nature
a "politikon zoon" -- a political animal.
10. Why did ATM/Mentifex post in so many Usenet newsgroups?
The Mentifex AI message was obviously germane and on-topic
in each newsgroup.
In news:comp.arch the idea was to broach
a new kind of computer architecture.
In news:comp.sys.super it was imperative to recruit
supercomputer AI resources.
In news:alt.folklore.computers there was an outreach
to the living fossils-in-residence.
11. Why did ATM/Mentifex always insist on discussing AI in public forums?
The two main reasons were that ATM wanted to pass the torch of AI
to other carriers and that ATM felt that AI was too important
to all humans to work on in secret.
The Mentifex (Latin for "mindmaker") project in artificial
intelligence was an attempt to create artificial minds in
computers and in robots. Arthur T. Murray (ATM) promulgated
the Mentifex AI project in such a way that the AI work was
always out in the open and could be obtained or worked on
further by any interested party.
2. Who was Arthur T. Murray?
Arthur T. Murray (ATM) was an independent scholar with a
bachelor of arts degree in ancient Greek and Latin. As a
child at Fort Gulick in the Panama Canal Zone, ATM became
interested in such mysteries as exploring the Panamanian
jungle all around him; electricity; and foreign languages
such as the Spanish language to which he was exposed as
a child living on an American army base in Panama.
As ATM grew up in the USA, his interests from childhood
focussed more sharply in adulthood. Exploring the jungle
gave way to exploring the ultimate mysteries of the intellect
such as, what is the mind? Experimenting with electricity
yielded in rapid progression to making electronic devices
such as radio receivers, then a radio transmitter, then
computers. The interest in foreign languages led to fluency
in Latin; German; Russian and Greek; and to a desire to
explore the nature of mind by making a computer that could
think in natural human language.
3. Why did ATM succeed at AI where others failed?
ATM did not succeed at AI. His Mentifex AI project failed
miserably again and again, time after time, until success
or failure no longer mattered. What mattered was not to
create AI but to try to create AI.
The artificial mind created by ATM in Forth and in JavaScript
could barely think. The Mind-1.1 software as described in the
http://isbn.nu/0595259227 AI4U textbook was so primitive an
artificial intelligence at first that only a few computer
programmers tried to advance the state of the art beyond
what ATM/Mentifex had failed at.
4. What other AI projects were spawned by the Mind of Mentifex?
A host of world-class, genius programmers created
some associated AI projects.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/javamind
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mindai
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mindjava
http://www.advogato.org/proj/Mind AI/
http://www.angelfire.com/nf/vision/ai/mjava.html
http://www.virtualentity.com/mind/vb/
5. Why did ATM/Mentifex write the AI4U textbook?
Webpages to document the AI Mind modules began sprouting in 1998
and went through many iterations of updating and improvement.
When iUniverse.com appeared on the scene as a venue for independent
scholars and autonomous authors to publish whatever they saw fit,
ATM/Mentifex saw fit to publish a book describing the Mentifex AI project.
6. Why would anyone buy AI4U?
The mind-diagrams at the start of thirty-four chapters are the main
incentive to invest in the purchase of the AI4U textbook of artificial
intelligence, because the human mind is so difficult to understand
that it helps to have all the diagrams of the artificial mind available
for the intense study and concentrated effort that may take years before
the seeker finds enlightenment. Along the way to nirvana and teleostasis,
other reasons to acquire AI4U occur.
The strange, disturbingly weird book on artificial intelligence
for robots makes the ultimate nerd-gift from one nerd to another,
or weirdo to weirdo, or older relative to young techie relative
at Christmas, birthday or graduation.
As a rare-book investment, a hard-bound first-edition copy of
http://isbn.nu/0595654371 AI4U with a well-preserved, original
dust-jacket bearing the ASCII mind-module diagram has probably
no potential for appreciation in the future, so only a fool
would buy up dozens of AI4U first editions and hoard them
to dribble back onto the after-market.
7. What is the Mentifex AITree or Cognitive Architecture?
The AITree is a somewhat repetitive list of AI mind-modules showing
the hierarchy of upper mind-modules calling or invoking lower modules.
Since the AITree is extracted from the working, thinking AI Mind program,
it looks like a program and it displays a cognitive architecture for AI.
8. Why does ATM/Mentifex advocate the rewriting of computer science texts?
If it's broken, why not fix it? If you are writing any form of
instructional material on, say, programming languages, why not
try to write AI-ready material? Suppose that you are teaching
a course on the XYZ programming language, and you decide to issue
a printed hand-out with sample code about XYZ programming.
If you couch your instruction in terms of artificial intelligence
problems, then serendipitously you achieve several simultaneous
objectives. First of all, you teach the basic material such as,
say, how to create a loop in XYZ code. By having the loop cycle
through stubs named after the Mentifex AI mind-modules, you prepare
your students and your own career for the Technological Singularity.
When the purchasers of textbooks take aim from the Texas School Book
Depository, won't they zero in on your textbook that already addresses
open questions in AI?
9. Why does ATM/Mentifex so often mingle politics with science?
As an expression of a philosophy of life, an AI project shares
resources and attention with other endeavors in life, such as
being a political animal. Aristotle says, man is by nature
a "politikon zoon" -- a political animal.
10. Why did ATM/Mentifex post in so many Usenet newsgroups?
The Mentifex AI message was obviously germane and on-topic
in each newsgroup.
In news:comp.arch the idea was to broach
a new kind of computer architecture.
In news:comp.sys.super it was imperative to recruit
supercomputer AI resources.
In news:alt.folklore.computers there was an outreach
to the living fossils-in-residence.
11. Why did ATM/Mentifex always insist on discussing AI in public forums?
The two main reasons were that ATM wanted to pass the torch of AI
to other carriers and that ATM felt that AI was too important
to all humans to work on in secret.