[tt] [GreyThumb] Next Meeting: Monday, March 3rd

Fri Feb 8 07:34:58 UTC 2008

----- Forwarded message from Brian Peltonen <brianp at alteredvista.com> -----

From: Brian Peltonen <brianp at alteredvista.com>
Date: Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:21:59 -0500
To: Grey Thumb Boston <society at greythumb.org>
Subject: [GreyThumb] Next Meeting: Monday, March 3rd
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.14pre (X11/20071023)

Grey Thumb Meeting Announcement

Grey Thumb is pleased to announce a presentation by Dr. Leonid Perlovsky 
(of the Air Force Research Lab and a Visiting Scholar of Harvard 
University) on cognitive algorithms for engineering and the modeling of 
language and cultural evolution. Before Dr. Perlovsky's presentation, 
Bruce Damer will give a brief presentation on the possibilities of a 
distributed, collaborative ALife project.

When: 7:00pm Monday, March 3, 2007
Where: The Asgard Irish Pub & Restaurant (350 Mass. Ave, Central Square,
Cambridge)
Who: All are welcome

"The Knowledge Instinct: Cognitive Algorithms for Engineering, and 
Modeling of Language and Cultural Evolution"

Leonid I. Perlovsky

The talk discusses mechanisms of the mind and their engineering 
applications. The past attempts at designing “intelligent systems” 
encountered mathematical difficulties related to algorithmic complexity. 
The culprit turned out to be logic, which in one way or another was used 
not only in logic rule systems, but also in statistical, neural and 
fuzzy systems. Algorithmic complexity was related to Gödel’s theory, a 
most fundamental mathematical result. These difficulties were overcome 
by replacing logic with a dynamic process “from vague to crisp.” This 
new process was called dynamic logic. It leads to algorithms overcoming 
combinatorial complexity, and resulting in orders of magnitude 
improvement in classical problems of detection, tracking, fusion, and 
prediction in noise. I present engineering applications to model-based 
pattern recognition, detection, tracking, fusion, financial predictions, 
and Internet search engines.

Mathematical and engineering efficiency of dynamic logic can also be 
understood as cognitive algorithm, which describes fundamental property 
of the mind, the knowledge instinct responsible for all our higher 
cognitive functions: concepts, perception, cognition, instincts, 
imaginations, intuitions, emotions, including emotions of the beautiful. 
I present our latest results on modeling evolution of languages and 
cultures, their interactions in these processes, and role of music in 
cultural evolution. Experimental data will be presented that support the 
theory. Future directions will be outlined.

Bio. Dr. Leonid Perlovsky, Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, 
Principal Research Physicist and Technical Advisor at the Air Force 
Research Lab. He leads several programs including Semantic Web. From 
1985 to 1999, as Chief Scientist at Nichols Research, a $0.5 B high-tech 
organization, he led the corporate research in intelligent systems, 
neural networks, and sensor fusion. He served as professor at 
Novosibirsk and New York Universities; participated as a principal in 
startups developing tools for text understanding, biotechnology, and 
financial predictions. His company predicted the market crash following 
9/11 a week before the event, detecting activities of Al Qaeda traders, 
and later helped SEC looking for the perpetrators. He delivered invited 
keynote plenary talks and tutorial lectures worldwide, published more 
then 280 papers, 10 book chapters, and 3 books, “Neural Networks and 
Intellect,” Oxford University Press, 2001 (currently in the 3rd 
printing) and 2 books with Springer in 2007. Dr. Perlovsky organizes 
conferences on Computational Intelligence, Chairs IEEE Boston 
Computational Intelligence Chapter, serves as Associate Editor for IEEE 
Transactions on Neural Networks, Editor-at-Large for “Natural 
Computations,” and Editor-in-Chief for “Physics of Life Reviews.” He 
received the IEEE Boston Section Distinguished Member Award, 2005; 
Charles Ryan Memorial Award for Basic Research, 2007 from the AFRL; 
Gabor Award, 2007 from International Neural Network Society, the top 
INNS award for engineering, and McLucas Award for Basic Research, 2007, 
the top AF scientific award.
Harvard University and Air Force Research Lab., Sensors Directorate, 
Hanscom AFB, MA 01731
Tel. 781-377-1728; e-mail: Leonid.Perlovsky at hanscom.af.mil

//*************************************************************************** 

Title: EvoGrid, a Next Step for Artificial Life?

A brief proposal by Bruce Damer, Biota.org

Imagine an L-System forest, a herbivore simulation and a carnivore 
simulation all developed separately without each having its own 
graphical front end. Each object in the separate simulations would 
communicate locally or via the network using some agreed upon protocol. 
Next, picture one or more 3D front end "view portals" with all the bells 
& whistles that visualize what is going on in the engines and traffic, 
putting any local "area" together into a coherent scene. If it existed, 
such an A-life system could be run as a true grid, an "Evolution Grid" 
or "EvoGrid" if you will, with the computation not limited to one 
processor or one 3D scenegraph's rendering step clock. Developers could 
focus on their areas of strength while the quality of the collective 
simulation grid would improve much faster than any one individual 
effort. And perhaps best of all, new developers could connect their 
engines, protocols or view portals into the grid or take up development 
of existing engines and protocols so that no projects need stagnate or 
die. So with this vision in hand, is something like the EvoGrid 
possible, workable, desirable, and doable?

Bruce Damer will also provide a brief overview of Biota.org, its past 
conferences and projects and its current podcasts hosted by Tom Barbalet 
and invite Grey Thumb members to participate.

About Grey Thumb:
Grey Thumb is a group of scientists, engineers, hackers, artists, and
hobbyists in the Boston metro area with a strong interest in artificial
life, artificial intelligence, biology, complex systems, and other
related topics. http://www.greythumb.org

Note: Parking is available for $3 (with validation) in the garage behind
The Asgard on Green St.

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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org
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