by Hugh M. Lewis

There is not sufficient space within this newsletter to do justice to a full exposition of the problems of artificial intelligence design or what I refer to as alternative intelligence. I merely want to suggest here and now that the future of automation and artificial intelligence are tied to distributed super-computing systems on the Internet, with a web-based interface. I believe we need to move away from anthropomorphized models and preconceptions of what constitutes an "intelligent system" toward a more generalized model of applied automation that serves to extend and elaborate the input-output feedback loop between the "machine" or intelligent system on the one hand, and the human programmer/inter-actor on the other hand. We need to further explore and experiment with the possibilities of systems of alternative intelligence, however delimited in scope and function, and look, for instance at processes like eco-location by dolphins and whales, or the navigational programs of migratory fowl, and the non-verbal communications of various primates in the wild.

I proposed the development of Alycita and Robito projects, basically since 1993, and continue to use these names to refer to a centralized distributed computing system that can be referred to as a system of alternative intelligence and automation. I do not consider the problem of alternative intelligence and automation to be completely isomorphic, even upon a theoretical level when were refer to Turing standards, etc. Intelligence refers to me to mean a sensitive awareness of one's environment, and the objects in it, an intuitive "feeling" for the critical, fleeting moment, a sense "self-awareness" and a sense of adaptive, rational and deliberate response to the changing demands of the environment. These are human standards mostly, but I believe they are not completely inappropriate to other animals especially. Automation, in a practical sense, rather than in the formal theoretical sense that drives Computer Theory, refers to the process that displaces human attention and labor from the direct act of work to produce something, and creates a longer change of control over a number of points of articulation, such that the human factor of control becomes minimized to a simple dichotomous kind of pattern (i.e., yes/no, on/off, etc.) Machine intelligence leads to and begets automated systems, and automated systems must be seen as the natural and logical consequence of machine intelligence, but the two working principles, in applied contexts, are not exactly the same thing.

The Alycita project has come to embody what I consider to be the working problem of alternative intelligence, and the Robito project is considered to be complementary to Alycita in its engagement of automated systems. In both sets of project applications, we have adopted what we would consider to be a functional AI model of intelligence, one that is soft-boiled compared to conventional models based on the Turing Test. The primary interest in Alycita is in programming integration, creation of a natural, seamless interface, and distribution to a wide range of possible applied systems. 

These projects have recently been given a new lease on life as part of the Microsoft Empower Partner program, and we hope to see some significant results forthcoming  in the next few months.

General Systems Essays, Vol. I