Banbury 5/15/01
"Conscious" Software Agents”
Can they be (or are they) Sentient?
Stan Franklin
and the
“Conscious” Software Research Group
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Global Workspace Theory
• The nervous system is a distributed parallel system
with many different specialized processors
• Global workspace contains a coalition of processors
• Broadcasts globally to all other processors
• Recruit relevant processors needed
to cope with novel or problematic situation
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
“Conscious” Software Agent
‘Conscious’ Agent
Cognitive Agent
Autonomous Agent
Stan Franklin
Implements Baars’
Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness
Multiple drives
Learning
Conceptualization
Emotions—attitudes, moods
Memory—beliefs
Action selection—intention
Senses — Acts — has own Agenda
Structurally Coupled to Environment
Banbury 5/15/01
Why a ‘Conscious’ Agent?
• Flesh out global workspace theory
with detailed architecture and mechanisms
• Hypotheses for cognitive scientists and neuroscientists
• Produce flexible, adaptive, more human-like software
• Want smart agents?
Model them after humans.
• Produce a sentient software agent, an “ultimate artifact”?
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
IDA: an Intelligent Distribution Agent
Dialogue with members
Read personnel data
Check requisition lists
Conform to Navy policies
Choose options to offer members
Write orders
Telephone
Detailer
Internet
IDA
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Modules and Mechanisms
•
Perception—Copycat Architecture—Hofstadter
•
Action Selection—Behavior Net—Maes
•
Associative Memory—Sparse Distributed Memory—Kanerva
•
Episodic Memory—Case-based Memory
•
Emotions—Pandemonium Theory—Jackson
•
Metacognition—Fuzzy Classifier Systems—Holland, Zadeh
•
Learning—Copycat Architecture, Case-based Reasoning
•
Constraint Satisfaction—Linear Functional
•
Language Generation—Pandemonium Theory
•
Deliberation—Pandemonium Theory
•
“Consciousness” —Pandemonium Theory
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
IDA’s Architecture
Metacognition
Database
Perception
Linear
Functional
Deliberation
Negotiation
Write
Orders
Behavior Net
Conceptual
& Behavioral
Learning
“Consciousness”
Perception
Associative
Memory
Stan Franklin
Episodic
Memory
Emotions
Banbury 5/15/01
Coalitions and Consciousness
•
Coalition manager
•
Spotlight manager
•
Broadcast mechanism
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Behavior Net in Action
Behavior net
Work
Space
Side lines
Broadcast
Playing field
Behavior net templates
Stan Franklin
Stands
Banbury 5/15/01
IDA’s Temporal Deliberation
•
Create scenes organized around events
•
Build scenarios as sequences of scenes
•
Choose between scenarios, discarding some
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
“Conscious” Deliberation
Associative Memory
Working memory
Focus
Job
List
Playing
Detach
Field
Date
Detach
Date
Stan Franklin
Detach
Date
Leave Time
Leave
Time
Leave
Time
Stands
Banbury 5/15/01
Ideomotor Theory
William James (circa 1890) ----- Bernard Baars (1988)
Voluntary action—”conscious” selection
Theory of voluntary action
– Proposers—propose a course of action
– Objectors—raise objections to such a course of action
– Supporters—lend support to such a course of action
– Timekeeper—operates the clock
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Ideomotor Theory in Action
Idea pops to mind (proposer)—no objection (objector)—do it
Objection (objector)—don’t do it
Objection then support (supporter) do it
Different proposal—no objection do it
Different proposal—original proposal—no objection—do it
Last unopposed proposal is acted upon
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Indefinite Oscillation?
•
Timekeeper’s patience decays—quicker decisions
•
Proposer’s (objector’s, supporter’s) activation decays—
harder to get to “consciousness”
•
Metacognition may intervene
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Adding Self to IDA
•
•
Baars’ self
– Observing self as overarching context
– Self systems as competing context hierarchies
– IDA has
• Competing goal context hierarchies (not deep)
• Competing perceptual contexts
Damasio’s selves
– Proto-self—can do
– Core self—?
– Autobiographical self—will do
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Adding Self Consciousness to IDA
•
Evidence of Self Consciousness
– Knowledge of individual history—will do
– Self reporting—plan to do
– Self concept—Blackmore’s self
• memeplex—missing in IDA
Stan Franklin
Banbury 5/15/01
Web and Email Addresses
•
Stan Franklin
stan.franklin@memphis.edu—
www.msci.memphis.edu/~franklin
•
“Conscious” Software Research Group
www.msci.memphis.edu/~csrg
•
CMattie Project—www.msci.memphis.edu/~cmattie
•
IDA Project—www.msci.memphis.edu/~ida
Stan Franklin