the surprisingly difficult science of beautiful paintings derek j. smith, c.eng., c.i.t.p. high...

The Surprisingly Difficult Science of Beautiful Paintings

Derek J. SMITH, C.Eng., C.I.T.P.

High Tower Consultants Limited Cardiff Metropolitan University (Retired)

[email protected] http://www.smithsrisca.co.uk

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Cymru-Arlein%20website%20design%20enquiry

http://www.smithsrisca.co.uk/

A presentation to

Thursday 26th July 2012

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• During the 1980s Derek Smith worked for British Telecom, Cardiff, where he specialised in the design and operation of very large CA-IDMS "semantic network" databases.

• Between 1991 and 2010 he taught psycholinguistics and neuropsychology to the Speech and Language Therapy students at Cardiff Metropolitan University.

• He is currently working with International Software Products, Toronto, on "Project Konrad", an artificial consciousness project using a CA-IDMS platform.

WHY WE ARE HERE TODAY

Here is a critically acclaimed painting.

In a moment you will find out if you love it or hate it, or whether you are going to wonder what all the fuss is about, but there is no single science to explain this (or any other) moment of artistic appreciation. Francis Bacon

"Portrait of Lucien Freud" [ONE OF THREE](1952)

HOPEFULLY MANY OF YOU WON'T HAVE SEEN THIS PICTURE BEFORE.

WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, ASK

YOURSELF WHY, AND GIVE YOURSELF A

SCORE HOW MUCH.

HATE IT LOVE IT0 10

PLAN OF THE PRESENTATION

• Section 1 examines why vision evolved and how the eye feeds information to the visual areas of the brain.

• Sections 2 to 4 then introduce some of the specific problems raised when the visual object happens to be a work of art.

• Finally, Sections 5 to 7 report how these problems have helped the author design a robot brain capable of human-like experience, and suggest how that robot brain might, in turn, teach us more about the human experience of art.

SECTION 1

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVAL

HOW VISION BEGAN, HOW IT WORKS, WHY IT DOES WHAT IT DOES

| ---------------------- 50mm -------------------- |

THE VERTEBRATE NERVOUS SYSTEMHOW IT ALL BEGAN

This is a Pikaia, a wormlike creature from 530 MYA, known only from the fossil record. It has segmented blocks of muscle and has evolved a nerve cord to coordinate their contraction and relaxation.

Pikaia, or creatures like them, are the evolutionary ancestors of all modern vertebrates, including humans.

HEAD TAIL


As new animals evolved, this nerve cord gradually thickened at the head end to form a brain.

Visual information was processed in an area known as the "optic tectum" [solid blue]. The surface layer, or "cortex", of the "cerebrum" [light blue] provided additional general intelligence when called for.


As evolution continued, brains became larger and more powerful, and many functions of the optic tectum were taken over by the cerebral cortex.

The underlying structure of all these nervous systems is the same.

Note that vision is just one cortical specialism amongst many.


SMELL AND

TASTE

BODILY SENSES

INSTRUCTIONSTO MUSCLES

VISIONAND

HEARING

BALANCEAND

REFLEXES

CONSCIOUSNESS, COMMAND,

AND CONTROL

HABIT,INSTINCT,

ANDEMOTION

It is common practice to refer to all mental processing above the level of instinct and reflex as "cognition", and to the science thereof as "cognitive science".


SMELL AND

TASTE

BODILY SENSES


VISIONAND

HEARING

BALANCEAND

REFLEXES

KNOWING

HABIT,INSTINCT,

ANDEMOTION


SMELL AND

TASTE

BODILY SENSES


VISIONAND

HEARING

BALANCEAND

REFLEXES

KNOWING

HABIT,INSTINCT,

ANDEMOTION

NOTE HOW VISUAL INFORMATION GETS SQUEEZED UPWARDS THROUGH THE LOWER SYSTEMS ON ITS WAY TO BECOMING CONSCIOUS.


SMELL AND

TASTE

BODILY SENSES


VISIONAND

HEARING

BALANCEAND

REFLEXES

KNOWING

HABIT,INSTINCT,

ANDEMOTION

NOTE ALSO HOW THE HIGHER SYSTEMS ARE NOT ALWAYS NEEDED ....

THE VERTEBRATE NERVOUS SYSTEMTHE VISUAL SYSTEM IN HUMANS

Here is how the visual system feeds information into the human cerebrum.

??? ??

?

?

What happens after it arrives is far less clear because the mind's higher functions are still poorly understood.

Because they are more technically precise, we shall be using a lot of engineering diagrams like this towards the end of the presentation.


SECONDARYSENSORYANALYSIS

PRIMARY SENSORYANALYSIS

MOTORSCHEMA

MANAGEMENT

LOWERMOTOR

SUBROUTINES

REFLEX LEVEL

FIGURE-GROUND /DRAMATIC GIST

SENSORY INPUT

MOVEMENT UNITS

MUSCLE OUTPUT

DIRECTEDATTENTION WILLED

BEHAVIOURSCONCEPTS

SUBCORTICAL LEVEL

EMOTIONAL STATESDRIVES AND INSTINCTS

CORTICAL LEVEL

HIGHER COGNITIONAUTONOMOUS WILL? ??

SO WHAT HAPPENS AS THE LOWER VISUAL PROCESSES FEED INFORMATION

THROUGH TO THE HIGHER ONES?

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALSEARCHING FOR PREDATORS

"The Hidden Tiger"Donald Rust

(2011)

SEE ACTIVITY #1

IN YOUR

ACTIVITIES PACK

http://www.moillusions.com/2007/06/hidden-tiger-illusion.html/hidden-tiger-optical-illusion

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALFINDING A MATE

"The Flirt"Eugen von Blaas

(1904)

ARTISTS OFTEN DEPICT HUMAN INSTINCTIVE "BODY LANGUAGE" IN

THEIR WORKS .....

THESE TWO MALES ARE DOING THEIR BEST TO BE VISUALLY ATTRACTIVE TO POTENTIAL

BREEDING PARTNERS.

THE HUMAN VISUAL SYSTEM IS SIMILARLY INVOLVED IN

INTERPRETING OTHER PEOPLE'S BODY LANGUAGE.

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALSEARCHING FOR OBJECTS

This act of recognition will come very quickly once you have sorted the "figure" from the "ground".

SEE ACTIVITY #2

IN YOUR

ACTIVITIES PACK

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALTHE GESTALT LAW OF SIMILARITY

Visual input is organised for us long before it becomes conscious. Indeed the organising actually determines what we become conscious of.

RELAX AND LET YOUR VISUAL SYSTEM TELL YOU WHAT'S GOING ON HERE

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALTHE GESTALT LAW OF CONTINUITY

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALTHE GESTALT LAW OF CLOSURE

Artists like to take advantage of the Gestalt Laws.

Upon close inspection this is an impossible scene.

However the visual system simply fills in the gaps, ignores the inconsistencies, and decides for us what is out there.

Rene Magritte"Free Rein" (1965)

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALTHE GESTALT LAW OF CLOSURE

Your experience of this scene will change in an instant once things start to move, because things which move together get processed together.

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALTHE GESTALT LAW OF COMMON FATE

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALFACE RECOGNITION

Another thing the visual system is good at is recognising people.

SEE ACTIVITY #3

IN YOUR

ACTIVITIES PACK

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALFACE RECOGNITION AND CARICATURE

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALBUT HOW LITTLE WE REALLY SEE

PLAY "WHODUNNIT" VIDEO (WCRS)

THIS SHORT VIDEO INCLUDES 21 DELIBERATE VISUAL TRICKS AND INCONSISTENCIES - HOW MANY CAN YOU SEE?

http://www.themill.com/work/transport-for-london-who-dunnit.aspx

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND SURVIVALVISUAL SCANNING

SEE ACTIVITY #4 IN YOUR ACTIVITIES PACK

THE VISUAL SYSTEM AND ART VISUAL SCANNING

Betz, Engelbrecht, Klein, and Rosenberg (2010)

This technique allows us to study the points of relative interest in

an artwork .....

Our eyes build up what we see from a succession of very brief "fixations". The scanning process can nowadays be monitored using special glasses, as shown below.

http://eyetracking-glasses.com/


*Locher, Krupinski, Mello-Thoms, and Nodine (2008)

Recent research* suggests that the visual system carries out two distinct scanning processes in tandem. Firstly there is a snap decision as to the GIST of the scene at hand. Secondly a slower item-by-item process scans each figure for its DETAIL.

It's three actors on a film set

This guy in the foreground seems to be talking to me rather than the others in the picture. The guy in black's holding something up but I can't make it out. The girl's etc., etc.


Here are some more examples of rapid gist processing. Note how quickly you recognise the basic scenario .....

Note how quickly you can identify a scene as

a this or a that.

But did anyone notice the blue Car No?

SO MUCH FOR THE VISUAL SYSTEM STUDIED IN ISOLATION.

BUT IT'S WHEN VISION AND EMOTION GET TOGETHER THAT THINGS START TO GET

REALLY COMPLICATED.

SECTION 2

ART AS FELT EMOTION

A BRAIN OF MANY SELVES

ART AS FELT EMOTIONBEAUTY AS "AGREEABILITY"

This picture is an "abstract" - just swirls of paint, which you may or may not find "agreeable".

THIS IS PUZZLING, BECAUSE THE VISUAL SYSTEM ITSELF CONTAINS NO OBVIOUS PLEASURE CENTRES!!

Jackson Pollock"Number 8" [DETAIL]

(1949)

IN FACT A PICTURE IS NOT ART UNTIL THE VISUAL SYSTEM HAS DELIVERED ITS FINDINGS TO A DIFFERENT BRAIN SYSTEM, NAMELY THE ONE RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR EMOTIONS, FOR ONLY THEN CAN WE LIKE OR DISLIKE IT!!

ART AS FELT EMOTIONBEAUTY AS "AGREEABILITY"

ART AS FELT EMOTIONMacLEAN'S (1952) "TRIUNE" BRAIN

Understanding forms and scenes, felt emotion, thinking,

and the will

Emotional activation and instinctive behaviour; visualscanning and organisation

Sensations and actionslinked as Reflexes


One of the reasons science does not yet understand art is that these three brain systems are responding to different things, and in different ways.EYES

FELT EMOTION

EMOTION

SENSATION


This is easy to demonstrate whenever our higher self feels something which our lower selves have already started to respond to.

EYES

FELT EMOTION

EMOTION

SENSATION


This is why animals can get by without higher selves at all!

EYES

FELT EMOTION

EMOTION

SENSATION

ART AS FELT EMOTIONTHE DIFFERENT EMOTIONS

There is a wide range of emotions hard-wired into us, including those shown here.

:-) ;-)

:-(

:-{ {:-()

SO LET'S HAVE A QUICK LOOK AT HOW ARTISTS DOWN THE AGES HAVE PLAYED

ON OUR EMOTIONS .....

ART AS FELT EMOTIONRITUAL AND MYSTERY IN ART

Artist(s) unknownLascaux II Cave Painting

(15,000 BC)

Artist(s) unknownVenus of Willendorf

(25,000 BC)

ART AS FELT EMOTIONHAPPY ART

Lucien Freud"Woman Smiling"

(1959)

Leonardo da Vinci"Mona Lisa"

(ca 1503)

http://echostains.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/image-1-for-lucian-freud-1922-2011-great-paintings-by-the-artist-gallery-8861563261.jpg

ART AS FELT EMOTIONANGRY ART

3D-Edddy"Anger"(2004)

EYEBROWS DOWNTEETH BARED

EYES WIDE

ART AS FELT EMOTIONSCARY ART (ROMANTIC GOTHIC)

Caspar David Friedrich"The Abbey in the

Oakwood"(1810)

SOMBRE COLOURSMOODY ATMOSPHEREMONKS AND COFFINS

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caspar_David_Friedrich_002.jpg

ART AS FELT EMOTIONSCARY ART (MODERN GOTHIC)

DISTURBING ART IS OFTEN BASED ON

CONFLICTING EMOTIONS, AS SHOWN

HERE.

POSITIVE EMOTION FOR THE CHILD

BUT

NEGATIVE EMOTION FOR THE GIST

Zhang Peng"Untitled" (ca. 2010)

ART AS FELT EMOTIONEXPERIMENTAL ART

Yang Zhichao"Planting Grass"

(2002)

EVOKES NEGATIVE EMOTIONS

ASSOCIATED WITH BODILY INJURY

SECTION 3

SCENES AS STORIES

THE EXCEPTIONALLY DIFFICULT SCIENCEOF INTERPRETING VISUAL DRAMA

SCENES AS STORIESCOMIC STRIP VERSUS CARTOON

Stories are easy to tell pictorially if you are allowed to use lots of images, as in a comic strip .....

SCENES AS STORIESCOMIC STRIP VERSUS CARTOON

Tim Harries

..... but it is harder to make a single picture self-explanatory.

Faced with this problem, cartoonists often combine simple images with supporting captions.

Only then do we get the joke .....

SCENES AS STORIES"THE PREGNANT MOMENT"

When storytelling in art you need to concentrate on what is known as "the pregnant moment", a single image which will convey your story to an audience, given what that audience already knows.

This sort of "narrative art" is easy if your audience already knows the story, for then you can have a one-image narrative, as in the following example of religious art .....

SCENES AS STORIES"THE PREGNANT MOMENT"

Caravaggio"Supper at Emmaus"

(1601)

WELL-KNOWN STORYWELL-KNOWN CHARACTERS

HEAVY ON SYMBOLISM[CHECK OUT THE BASKET]

Read the full story at Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supper_at_Emmaus_(Caravaggio),_London

But if you don't already know the story you have to work it out for yourself from scratch. What are the important unseens here, for example?

SCENES AS STORIESSEEING AND UNDERSTANDING

THIS, TOO, IS PUZZLING, BECAUSE THE VISUAL SYSTEM ITSELF CONTAINS NO NON-VISUAL INTERPRETATION CENTRES!!

INSTEAD THE VISUAL SYSTEM HAS PASS INFORMATION TO THE HIGHER INTELLECT, AND THIS, IN TURN, OFTEN FINDS IT DIFFICULT TO WORK OUT WHAT HAPPENED. Did she kill him, perhaps? Or did he die from an illness? Or commit suicide?


And who said he was dead anyway - maybe they've both just woken up with hangovers .....

Typically the intellect needs to establish WHO did WHAT, to WHOM, with WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY. Just like in the game CLUEDO or our earlier WHODUNNIT.


The intellect also wants to know if we are reacting emotionally, i.e., HOW WE FEEL, because it will often have been the artist's conscious intent to disturb us.

Here's another of Zhang Peng's deliberately disturbing images .....

Zhang Peng"Untitled" [CROPPED] (ca. 2010)

SCENES AS STORIESSEEING, UNDERSTANDING, AND FEELING

SECTION 4

GOOD ART / BAD ART

WHAT, THEN, IS TRUE ART?

As we have already seen, some sensations are soothing and pleasant in themselves even though they serve no particular purpose.

Some good art, in other words, does not have to be about anything!

GOOD ART / BAD ARTDOES ART HAVE TO BE LIFELIKE, OR JUST

PLEASING ON THE EYE?

Nor does artistic skill mean being true to life, even when an artwork is about something.

This formative example of "Cubism" is imprecise, primitive, disjointed, and lacks perspective, but many find its colours and shapes pleasing to the eye.

GOOD ART / BAD ARTDOES ART HAVE TO BE LIFELIKE, OR JUST

PLEASING ON THE EYE?

Pablo Picasso"Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon.jpg

GOOD ART / BAD ARTIS IT TRUE TO LIFE?

Francis Bacon"Portrait of Lucien Freud" [ONE OF THREE]

(1952)

Similarly this 1952 caricature must have been good because a set of three sold for £23 million in February 2011.

GOOD ART / BAD ARTIS IT TRULY BEAUTIFUL?

Gottfried Helnwein"The Murmur of the Innocents (11)"

(2009)

Or perhaps the secret of good art is to pick a beautiful subject to start with.

Some people rate this portrait as the most beautiful painting ever.

GOOD ART / BAD ARTDOES IT INSPIRE ME?

Leonardo da Vinci"The Last Supper" [RETOUCHED]

(1498)

Others look for art to inspire them spiritually and reinforce their faith.

Check it out online - it's full of symbolism!

http://jreynolds13.hubpages.com/hub/Disputes-of-The-Last-Supper-by-Leonardo-Da-Vinci

GOOD ART / BAD ARTIS IT "POLITICALLY CORRECT"?

George Grosz"The Hero"

(1936)

Others use it to control what we think.

Nazi Propaganda(same era)

ART AS FELT EMOTIONEXPERIMENTAL ART

Others believe that art's primary task is to make you stop and think - to challenge your assumptions about yourself and the world.

GOOD ART / BAD ARTIS IT JUST "COLLECTIBLE"?

Paul Cézanne"The Card Players"

(1895)

Others like to possess beauty in preference to cash.

In 2011 this Cézanne sold as an investment to a private collection for over $250 million.

And many just like to stand in awe, reminded by the artist of the raw beauty of nature.

This beauty is often impossible to describe in words.

James Ward"Gordale Scar" (1814)

GOOD ART / BAD ARTOR DOES IT JUST HAVE TO BE AWESOME?

GOOD ART / BAD ARTCAN I EVEN DESCRIBE WHAT I FEEL?

INDESCRIBABLY BEAUTIFUL ART IS KNOWN TECHNICALLY

AS "SUBLIME".

MANY ARTISTS STRIVE TO PRODUCE SUBLIMITY RATHER

THAN JUST BEAUTY.

Here's another example.

Caspar David Friedrich"Wanderer above a Sea of Fog"

(1818)


A PAINTING CAN BE PRETTY, OR LIFELIKE, OR POLITICALLY ACCEPTABLE, OR

PLEASANTLY SCARY, OR INDESCRIBABLY AWESOME, OR WHATEVER, AND EACH OF

THESE RESPONSES ACTIVATES OUR BRAINS IN DIFFERENT WAYS!

NO WONDER, THEN, THAT ART THEORY FINDS IT SO DIFFICULT TO EXPLAIN WHAT

MAKES ART GOOD!

BECAUSE ART EXPERTS ARE NOT BRAIN EXPERTS .....

GOOD ART / BAD ARTWHY SUCH A PROBLEM?

..... AND EVEN IF THEY WERE THEY WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND THE

UNCHARTED AREAS OF THE BRAIN .....

?? ???

??



..... ESPECIALLY WHEN OUR FEELINGS NEED TO BE PUT INTO WORDS.

EYES

FELT EMOTION

EMOTION

SENSATION

SUBLIME EMOTION

OUR OWN RESEARCH IS TRYING TO SOLVE SOME OF THESE PROBLEMS USING

COMPUTER SIMULATION SOFTWARE.

WE BELIEVE THAT IF WE COULD GET A MACHINE TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS

OF APPRECIATING ART WE SHOULD HAVE A BETTER IDEA WHAT GOES ON IN HUMANS.

GOOD ART / BAD ART WHAT MIGHT ROBOTS MAKE OF ART?

Here's Robby the Robot (from the 1956 movie "Forbidden Planet") looking at our masterpiece of sublime art.

There's a lot of light blues and greys, with some dark

green in the middle.

WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR "HIM" TO SEE MORE THAN JUST PIGMENTS ON A CANVAS, AND TO BE STRUCK INSTEAD BY THEIR DEEPER MEANING?


BUT BEFORE WE CAN ANSWER THIS QUESTION WE NEED SOME IDEA WHAT ROBOTS ARE AND WHAT THEIR BRAINS

ARE CAPABLE OF.

YOU MAY JUMP STRAIGHT TO SECTION 6 IF YOU ALREADY KNOW THE HISTORY HERE.

SECTION 5

A SHORT HISTORYOF ROBOTS

FROM "AUTOMATICITY" TOWARDS "AUTONOMY"

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSEARLY AUTOMATA

Here's an automaton from around 2000 years ago. The word comes from the Greek for "self activating", and gives us the modern words "automatic" and "automation".

These toys for the rich and powerful were worked by hidden pipes and linkages underneath! THEY MOVED FOR THEMSELVES, BUT HAD NO MIND.

Here's a typical pin-cylinder music box. This one plays a tune on bells. See how the pins "know" the tune in advance and play it by each activating a corresponding hammer.

This is an early instance of "pre-programming". BUT, BEING ENTIRELY AUTOMATIC, MUSIC BOXES HAVE NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSEARLY MECHANICAL PROGRAMMING

In 1495 the Italian painter-inventor Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated an automaton in the shape of a knight in arms.

Worked by pulleys and wires, this automaton could perform a range of simple human-like movements.

This 2005 replica is in a gallery in Germany, IT MOVES A BIT, BUT IT HAS NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSEARLY CALCULATING MACHINERY

Similar technology was used in early calculating machines. This one's from the German philosopher-engineer Gottfried Leibniz in 1673. It's driven by the handle front left, IT DOES ARITHMETIC FASTER THAN WE CAN, BUT IT HAS NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSEARLY CALCULATING MACHINERY

The French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson built this automaton duck in 1739 to amuse a rich patron.

Its inner clockwork permitted it to make lifelike movements, including feeding; also, as the appropriately placed arrow shows, going to the toilet. BUT IT HAS NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSMORE MECHANICAL PROGRAMMING

In the late 18th century, the weaving industry found a way to automate their looms by scaling up earlier "music-box" technology. They brought pre-programming into industry!

This is the Joseph Jacquard punched card control system, on a 5 metre tall continuous loop, one per loom. BUT THE LOOMS HAVE NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSMORE MECHANICAL PROGRAMMING

In 1822 the British inventor Charles Babbage designed a giant calculating machine called a "difference engine".

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSMORE CALCULATING MACHINERY

Unfortunately, the machine took a long time to build, and remained incomplete until the Science Museum finished the job for him in 2000. BUT THE MACHINE HAS NO MIND.

In 1914 the American author L. Frank Baum published a story entitled "Tik-Tok of Oz", in which a mechanical man shares adventures with Dorothy, one of the "meat people" [i.e., humans].

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSFUTURIST THEATRE AND ART

L. Frank Baum"Tik-Tok of Oz"

(1914)"The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tiktok.png

In 1921 the Czech writer Karel Capek staged a play entitled "Rossum's Universal Robots", set in a world increasingly taken over by artificial workers he called "robots". The new name was an instant success.

BAUM'S TIN MAN AND CAPEK'S ROBOTS HAD MINDS OF THEIR OWN, BUT ARE WORKS OF FICTION. NOBODY HAS YET BEEN ABLE TO BUILD ONE FOR REAL.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSFUTURIST THEATRE AND ART

In 1931, the Welsh physicist Charles Wynn-Williams devised electronic circuitry for counting. This enabled engineers to do away with cogwheels once and for all, even though the early circuitry was bulky. BUT SUCH CIRCUITS HAVE NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSELECTRONIC CALCULATION

Between 1934 and 1938 the German Engineer Konrad Zuse built the Z1, a programmable electro-mechanical binary computer.

This is Zuse, later in life, standing by a museum replica of his invention. THE MACHINE COMPUTES WELL ENOUGH, BUT HAS NO MIND.

A SHORT HISTORY OF ROBOTSELECTRONIC CALCULATION

In 1939, the Westinghouse Corporation exhibited Elektro the Motoman and Sparky the Dog at the New York World's Fair.

Powered by a primitive electro-mechanical brain, Elektro could produce a number of simple output behaviours - movement and speech - to simple spoken commands. BUT LIKE A RADIO-CONTROLLED TOY IT HAD NO MIND.

FROM AUTOMATA TOARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


By 1943 electronic computers were processing binary signals according to pre-programmed logic.

This is a replica of Colossus, the top-secret code-breaking machine built at Bletchley Park during WW2. IT'S AN ELECTRONIC BRAIN BUT IT HAS NO MIND.


Robots - some good, some bad - have since starred in many movies. This is Pris, from the 1982 movie "Blade Runner".

She's less obviously artificial than others, thanks to a synthetic skin. She also feels emotion and ponders her own existence.

BUT AGAIN IT'S ONLY A WORK OF FICTION.

"I think, therefore I am"

http://www.megawavs.com/movie-sounds.aspx?title=Blade+Runner&qty=32


Similarly, this is Johnny Five, from the 1986 movie "Short Circuit". He looks bright enough, but he was worked almost entirely by remote control. JUST CLEVER PUPPETRY AGAIN!

NOTE THE PATTERN WHICH IS EMERGING - MACHINES WITH MINDS

ARE (TO DATE) ONLY WORKS OF FICTION!

This, on the other hand, is Kismet, a state-of-the-art university research project. Kismet can mimic a number of human emotional expressions, and is especially good at those involving eyebrows!

Kismet may display facial emotions but has no higher functions system to feel those emotions. IT'S MIND IS THEREFORE ONLY ABOUT AS COMPLEX AS THAT OF A MOUSE.



Meanwhile computers have been getting smaller and smaller and faster and faster since Colossus' time .....


This is the Honda-Kawasaki ASIMO. It can walk, has colour vision, face recognition, gesture recognition, and speech, and can even obey simple commands. But it has little intelligence, and no free will at all! IT LACKS THE AUTONOMY NEEDED TO BE ANYTHING MORE THAN AN AUTOMATON.

Autonomy = flexibility and self-determination Automaton = automaticity and inflexibility


And this is Valerie, a robot receptionist under trial at Carnegie Mellon University in the US. She's going to be as near lifelike as they can make her! She'll even remember what you talked about last time you visited!

SOCIAL LANGUAGE IS CERTAINLY A MAJOR MIND SKILL. SADLY PROGRAMMERS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON IT FOR 60 YEARS WITH ONLY VERY LIMITED SUCCESS.


So when all is said and done, the problem with robot mind lies in writing the necessary software not in giving it a brain or a body.

EFFECTOR HARDWARE

PROCESSING

HARDWARE

SENSOR HARDWARE

PROCESSING SOFTWARE

[STILL IN ITS INFANCY!!!]

THE NEXT DIAGRAM SHOWS HOW FAR SCIENCE HAS GOT / NOT GOT WITH

PROGRAMMING THE MIND AFTER 2000 YEARS OF TRYING.

NOTE CAREFULLY WHERE THE PROBLEMS REMAIN.



MOTORSCHEMA

MANAGEMENT

LOWERMOTOR

SUBROUTINES

REFLEX LEVEL


SENSORY INPUT

MOVEMENT UNITS

MUSCLE OUTPUT


BEHAVIOURSCONCEPTS

SUBCORTICAL LEVEL


CORTICAL LEVEL


EYES VOICE HAND

SENTENCEANALYSIS

PATTERN RECOGNITIONVOICE RECOGNITION

VOICE SYNTHESIS

CHESS AND SIMILAR PROBLEM SOLVING UNDERSTANDING THINKING FELT EMOTION AUTONOMY AND SELF-REFERENCED WILL AND

CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE

ARTIFICIALRETINA

MECHATRONICS

SIMPLEMACHINE

TRANSLATION

SENTENCESYNTHESIS

SIMPLEBIONICS

SECTION 6

INTRODUCING KONRAD,THE SOFTWARE MIND

PUTTING OUR SEVERAL SELVES TOGETHER

• Project Konrad is a collaboration between the author and International Software Products, Toronto, and is so named as a tribute to the aforementioned Konrad Zuse.

INTRODUCING KONRADTHE ROBOT AWAITING A BODY


its v'eri 'pliziN on Di: Aii.

t'u: 'pliziN in 'f'akt.

its biyond d@skripSun O@lmO'st.

'Oka2i 'wot 'naU.

At the moment Konrad exists only in software. IT'S A ROBOTIC MIND WITHOUT A BODY - JUST A VOICE (WHICH YOU'LL BE HEARING SHORTLY) AND VAST AMOUNTS OF PRINT-OUT.

We use the Kirshenbaum Phonetic Alphabet to encode output speech - click for details



MOTORSCHEMA

MANAGEMENT

LOWERMOTOR

SUBROUTINES

REFLEX LEVEL


SENSORY INPUT

MOVEMENT UNITS

MUSCLE OUTPUT


BEHAVIOURSCONCEPTS

SUBCORTICAL LEVEL


CORTICAL LEVEL

HIGHER COGNITIONAUTONOMOUS WILL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirshenbaum


The software presently runs on an IBM z196 mainframe, a very fast computer with a memory so large we are unlikely ever to fill it.



MOTORSCHEMA

MANAGEMENT

LOWERMOTOR

SUBROUTINES

REFLEX LEVEL


SENSORY INPUT

MOVEMENT UNITS

MUSCLE OUTPUT


BEHAVIOURSCONCEPTS

SUBCORTICAL LEVEL


CORTICAL LEVEL


WE WERE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN HOW VISUAL

INPUTS BECOME PERCEPTIONS AND FELT EMOTIONS IN

MACHINES.

FEELINGS

PERCEPTIONS

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS


WE THEREFORE SIMULATED WHAT WAS KNOWN ABOUT THE LAYOUT OF THE MIND'S HIGHER

FUNCTIONS, AND TOOK EDUCATED GUESSES AT THE

MANY UNKNOWNS.




MOTORSCHEMA

MANAGEMENT

LOWERMOTOR

SUBROUTINES

REFLEX LEVEL


SENSORY INPUT

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HIGHER COGNITIONAUTONOMOUS WILL? ??FEELINGS

PERCEPTIONS

SIGHTS AND SOUNDS

WE ALSO GAVE KONRAD A SIMULATED "WILL", THAT IS TO

SAY A POINT AT WHICH ITS THOUGHTS COULD BECOME

VOLUNTARY ACTIONS.




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WE ALSO ALLOWED KONRAD'S ACTIONS TO GENERATE NEW

INPUTS, THUS CREATING CYCLES OF COGNITION.


[ ]

IT HAS BEEN KNOWN SINCE THE 1950s THAT THE MIND CYCLES

ABOUT 7 TIMES A SECOND.



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MORE IMPORTANTLY WE ALSO ALLOWED KONRAD TO TAKE

ITS OWN VERBAL OUTPUTS AS SILENT INPUTS.


NB: YOU CAN'T PROPERLY STUDY INNER SPEECH IN HUMANS BECAUSE IT ALL

TAKES PLACE SO QUICKLY .....



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INNERSPEECH

René Magritte"Not to be Reproduced"

(1937)

..... THIS IS A SHAME BECAUSE BEING ABLE TO LISTEN TO

ONESELF THINK IS A MAJOR MIND SKILL, AND ONE WE

SUSPECT IS HEAVILY INVOLVED IN RESPONDING TO ARTISTIC

BEAUTY.

SEE ACTIVITY #5IN YOUR

ACTIVITIES PACK

TRY TO LISTEN TO YOURSELF THINKING AS YOU WORK OUT WHAT

THIS ARTIST HAD IN MIND, BECAUSE IT WILL

HELP YOU WITH THE NEXT FEW SLIDES.


So can the Konrad software do better than Robby the Robot if presented with our example of sublime art? CAN IT SEE MORE THAN JUST COLOURS ON A CANVAS?


"This is a classic of Romantic Sublime, and it

sends shivers up my spine."

CAN A MACHINE FEEL, AND - MORE IMPORTANTLY - CAN IT FEEL ITSELF FEELING AND THEN TALK ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE?




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THE TEST REPORTED HERE RAN ON 16TH MAY 2012.

THE SOFTWARE TOOK 24.1 SECONDS OF CYCLICAL

COGNITION TO PRODUCE FOUR SHORT SENTENCES OF INNER SPEECH AND 726 PAGES OF EXPLANATORY PRINT-OUT.


INNERSPEECH

http://www.smithsrisca.co.uk/DEMOS/2A158.pdf

TO START WITH WE SIMULATED THE VISUAL SCANNING OF THE TARGET ARTWORK, FEEDING IN CODED DETAILS OF FIGURE AND

GROUND AS DESCRIBED EARLIER.

SCIENCE DOES NOT KNOW THE PRECISE <CODE> USED HERE, SO

WE USE <ENGLISH>.



<GROUND[PICTURE FRAME] GROUND[SKY/MOUNTAIN] FIGURE[MAN]>



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INNERSPEECH

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]>



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THIS ENABLED A RAPID JUDGEMENT ON GIST TO BE MADE

AND THEN RETAINED IN SHORT-TERM MEMORY [SHOWN HERE IN

BLUE], PART OF A UNIQUE INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH CA-IDMS "SEMANTIC NETWORK" MEMORY

DESIGNED BY THE AUTHOR.



WE THEN SIMULATED THE ADDITIONAL JUDGEMENT THAT

THE TECHNICALITIES OF THE PAINTING - ITS COLOURS AND FORMS - WERE INTRINSICALLY

AGREEABLE.



<COLOUR-FORM BALANCE>

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]>.



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

WITH THE GIST AND THE RAW EMOTION NOW SIDE BY SIDE, WE

SIMULATED THE COMPOSITE JUDGEMENT THAT WE "LIKED"

THE OBJECT AT HAND.



<COLOUR-FORM BALANCE>

<VERY PLEASANT>


WE ARE NOW FEELING OUR FEELINGS!!



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>


WE HAVE TO SHOW THE EMOTION TWICE, BECAUSE THIS IS HOW THE

BRAIN IS ORGANISED





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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>


SIMULATED THOUGHT PROCESSES THEN GENERATED THE DEEP

SENTENCE "IT'S VERY PLEASING ON THE EYE", AND APPROVED SAME FOR

SILENT OUTPUT.

SCIENCE DOES NOT KNOW THE PRECISE <CODE> USED HERE EITHER,

SO AGAIN WE USE <ENGLISH>.



<IT'S VERY PLEASING ON THE EYE>



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>.


THE DEEP SENTENCE WAS THEN RE-CODED INTO SPEAKABLE

SOUNDS, SHOWN HERE USING THE KIRSHENBAUM PHONETIC

ALPHABET.




< its v'eri 'pliziN on Di: Aii >



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>.


YOU CAN EITHER LEARN TO READ THIS PHONETIC CODE ITSELF, OR

ELSE LISTEN TO IT USING COMMERCIAL SPEECH

SYNTHESIS PACKAGES SUCH AS ESPEAK [MORE ON THIS].







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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESpeak


MANY DIFFERENT CODING SYSTEMS ARE INVOLVED IN THE COGNITIVE CYCLE. COGNITIVE

SCIENTISTS HAVE BARELY STARTED TO DECODE THESE AND NOBODY WILL UNDERSTAND THE

MIND UNTIL THEY DO!







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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>.


THE SURFACE SENTENCE WAS THEN RE-CYCLED AS INNER

SPEECH INPUT, AND PASSED UPWARDS THROUGH THE

AUDITORY SYSTEM.

.








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NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>.

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]>.<IT'S VERY PLEASING ON THE EYE>

THE SYSTEM HAS NOW HEARD WHAT IT THINKS, LEAVING IT FREE TO THINK SOME MORE

ABOUT IT. WE BELIEVE THAT ALL COMPLEX REASONING DEVELOPS

CYCLICALLY IN THIS WAY.





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NICE

NICE

<VERY PLEASANT>.

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]>.<IT'S VERY PLEASING ON THE EYE>

THE SYSTEM THEN LOOKED FOR WORDS TO EXPLAIN WHY THE

PAINTING WAS AS PLEASING AS IT CLEARLY WAS [LIKE YOU WERE

DOING DURING ACTIVITY #5]. HOWEVER COGNITIVE SCIENTISTS

HAVE LITTLE IDEA HOW THIS PROCESS WORKS.



WHO? WHAT? WHY? ETC.



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE


..... BUT BECAUSE THE PAINTING HAD BEEN DELIBERATELY SELECTED TO BE SUBLIME, NO SUCH EXPLANATION COULD BE FOUND.

"It's just a man up a mountain - so why should I like it so much?"


<VERY PLEASANT>


A SECOND DEEP SENTENCE WAS THEN GENERATED, AND DULY RE-CODED INTO THE KIRSHENBAUM

PHONETIC ALPHABET, AS BEFORE.



<TOO PLEASING IN FACT>

< t'u: 'pliziN in 'f'akt >



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

AGAIN THIS OUTPUT WAS RECYCLED AS INNER SPEECH .....



< t'u: 'pliziN in 'f'akt >

<VERY PLEASANT>

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]><TOO PLEASING IN FACT><TOO PLEASING IN FACT>



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

..... AGAIN THE SYSTEM LOOKED UNSUCCESSFULLY

FOR WORDS TO EXPLAIN WHY THE PAINTING PLEASED IT .....



<VERY PLEASANT>

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]><TOO PLEASING IN FACT>WHO? WHAT? WHY? ETC.



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE


..... AND AGAIN IT FAILED.

"I, too, want to stand at the top of the world and wonder what it's all about."

"Is this what it means to be human, perhaps?"


<VERY PLEASANT>

<PAINTING IN GALLERY [MAN UP MOUNTAIN]><IT'S BEYOND DESCRIPTION ALMOST>

ADMITTING DEFEAT, THE SOFTWARE THEN PRODUCED

A THIRD DEEP SENTENCE, AND DULY RECYCLED IT AS

INNER SPEECH .....



< its biyond d@skripSun O@lmO'st >



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INNERSPEECH

NICE

NICE

..... BEFORE DECIDING THAT IT WAS FINALLY TIME TO

MOVE ON.



< 'Oka2i 'wot 'naU>



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NICE

NICE

SECTION 7

IN CONCLUSION .....

ART THEORY AWAITS BETTER COGNITIVE THEORY

THE BIG PROBLEM - TOO MANY AREAS OF STUDY!!

ART - A SURPRISINGLY DIFFICULT SCIENCE

BRAIN STRUCTURES(Neuroanatomy)BRAIN FUNCTIONS

( Neurophysiology /Endocrinology )

THE WORKING PRINCIPLES(Mental Philosophy /

Experimental Cognitive Science / Artificial Intelligence and Robotics)

THE ANIMAL BEHAVIOURS(Comparative Zoology /

Cognitive Palaeontology)THE CODES USED

(Psycholinguistics [esp. Pragmatics])

THE EXPERIENCE(Phenomenology)

THE MEMORY USED(Database Theory / Neurochemistry)

THE ARTWORKS THEMSELVES(Art History)

ART AS EXPERIENCE(Aesthetics)

ART AS DRAMA(Dramatic Theory)

SO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED THE HELP DON'T GET IT.



BY TREATING THE BIOLOGICAL MIND AS AN ENGINEERING PROBLEM, THIS SOFTWARE EXPERIMENT HAS HELPED US BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW ARTWORKS ARE VISUALLY PROCESSED.



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WE ARE, FOR EXAMPLE, MORE CONFIDENT THAT THE MIND WORKS CYCLICALLY, CONSTANTLY SAMPLING THE PERCEPTUAL AND EMOTIONAL WORLDS .....




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..... AND CONSTANTLY UPDATING A NETWORK MEMORY MODEL OF WHAT IS GOING ON IN THOSE WORLDS.



WE ARE ALSO MORE CONFIDENT THAT A PAINTING'S GIST EMERGES VERY RAPIDLY WHILST THE SUPPORTING DETAILED SCANNING TAKES LONGER; FURTHERMORE THAT MUCH CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED USING THE GIST ON ITS OWN.




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WE ARE ALSO MORE CONFIDENT THAT THE LOWER REACHES OF OUR MINDS RESPOND EMOTIONALLY WITHOUT CONSULTING OUR HIGHER MINDS, THIS BEING HOW THINGS HAPPEN IN ANIMALS.



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NICE

THIS LOWER PROCESSING OFTEN INFLUENCES HOW WE INTERPRET THE NARRATIVE DRAMA IN A PICTURE .....




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ALERT!!SCARY


..... THE TRULY MAGICAL MOMENT BEING WHEN OUR HIGHER MIND COMES TO FEEL ITS OWN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.



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IS NICE

FEELS NICE

<VERY PLEASANT><IT'S VERY PLEASING ON THE EYE>


SO CAN WE SAY MORE PRECISELY WHAT MAKES AN ARTWORK BEAUTIFUL AT ONE

EXTREME, OR DISTURBING AT THE OTHER?


WE THINK SO.

THE KEY MOMENT SEEMS TO BE WHEN WE SENSE THAT AN ARTWORK IS BEAUTIFUL, OR SCARY, OR WHATEVER, BUT CANNOT IMMEDIATELY EXPLAIN WHY.

FROM THAT MOMENT ONWARDS THE OBJECT OF STUDY BECOMES NOT JUST THE ARTWORK BUT ALSO ITS ASSOCIATED EMOTIONS.

THE FACT THAT THE HIGHER BRAIN IS NOW STUDYING THE LOWER BRAIN AS WELL AS THE ARTWORK PUSHES IT TO ITS LIMITS!


AND AT THE SAME TIME, EMOTIONALLY COMPLEX ENCOUNTERS ARE NATURALLY MEMORABLE .....



WHICH IS WHY WE LIKE A GOOD LAUGH .....

..... OR A GOOD GHOST STORY .....

..... OR A DANGEROUS TRICK

AND HAVE WE FOUND THE MIND'S "INNER EYE", THAT IS TO SAY, THE BIT WHICH

DOES THE EXPERIENCING?


NO.

THE SYSTEM HAS MERELY BEEN MOVING SHORT FRAGMENTS OF <CODED> INFORMATION FROM ONE MEMORY LOCATION TO ANOTHER, BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT COMPUTERS ARE GOOD AT.

IT MAY EVEN BE THAT THE INNER EYE PROBLEM MAY NEVER BE SOLVED!

NEVERTHELESS WE DO HAVE A BETTER IDEA ABOUT WHAT MIGHT BE GOING ON DURING COGNITION .....

WHAT NEEDS TO BE MOVED

FROM WHERE TO WHERE

IN WHAT ORDER

WHAT <CODES> ARE USED ALONG THE WAY


IN OTHER WORDS WITH SOMETHING AS COMPLEX AS THE MIND, WHERE SCIENTIFIC DATA ARE OTHERWISE SO SCARCE, IT HELPS TO HAVE A WORKING MODEL TO STUDY.




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SCIENTIFICDATA

SCIENTIFICGUESSWORK


AND ABOVE ALL IT HELPS TO HAVE NEW MINDS AND YOUNGER SCIENTISTS INVOLVED IN THE DEBATE, WHICH IS WHY WE ALL CAME HERE TODAY.

THE END

ANY QUESTIONS?

? ??

Copyright Notice: This material was written and published in Wales by Derek J. Smith, CEO of High Tower Consultants Limited, Chief Designer on the Konrad artificial consciousness project, and Editor of the Smithsrisca series of cognitive science study resources. It forms part of a multifile e-learning resource, and subject only to acknowledging Derek J. Smith's rights under international copyright law to be identified as author may be freely downloaded and printed off in single complete copies solely for the purposes of private study and/or review. Commercial exploitation rights are reserved. The remote hyperlinks have been selected for the academic appropriacy of their contents; they were free of offensive and litigious content when selected, and will be periodically checked to have remained so. Prior scholarship is acknowledged throughout, and precise references may be obtained from the author if needed. Internet images have been used in good faith on the understanding that they were in the public domain when imported. Copyright © 2012, High Tower Consultants Limited.

Publication was by PowerPoint presentation on 26th July 2012. This online version comes to you for follow-up private study.


In 1942 the American science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published a short story entitled "Runaround", in which he coined the word "robotics" for the science of designing, building, and operating robots.

The hero of the tale is a robot named Speedy, who initially has trouble when the three "Fundamental Rules of Robotics" produce conflicting behaviours, but eventually - and of its own volition - saves the lives of its human masters.

BY MAKING ITS OWN CONSIDERED CHOICES SPEEDY SEEMS TO HAVE A MIND, BUT ONLY IN FICTION.

the surprisingly difficult science of beautiful paintings derek j. smith, c.eng., c.i.t.p. high...

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