mm@FARG.UMICH.EDU.UUCP (03/09/87)
WEEKLY AI SEMINAR, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR
SPEAKER: Melanie Mitchell, EECS Dept., University of Michigan
DATE: Tuesday, March 17
TIME: 4:30 pm
PLACE: 1303 EECS Building (North Campus)
TITLE: "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies:
A Theory and its Computer Implementation"
Abstract
This talk is based on research done by Douglas R. Hofstadter,
Melanie Mitchell, and Robert M. French. We describe the principles
of Copycat, a computer model of how humans use concepts fluidly in
order to create analogies. Our model is centered on the Slipnet, a
network of overlapping concepts whose shapes are determined dynamically
by the situations faced by the program. Reciprocally, the state of the
Slipnet controls how Copycat perceives situations. The heart of what
Copycat does, given two situations, is to produce a worlds-mapping: a
coarse-grained mental correspondence between the situations, involving
two interdependent and mutually consistent facets: an object-to-object
mapping realized in structures called bridges, and a concept-to-concept
mapping realized in structures called pylons. Each pylon expresses a
so-called conceptual slippage, borrowed from the slipnet. Taken together,
the slippages constitute a recipe for translating actions in one situation
into their analogues in the other. Through the "coattails effect",
slippages can induce closely related slippages, allowing deeper and more
subtle analogies to be produced than would otherwise be possible.
For copies of a paper describing this research, send messages to
mm@farg.umich.EDU