System method for simulating conciousness

• US 7,499,893 B2
• Filed: 12/05/2005
• Issued: 03/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blue Oak Mountain Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Blue Oak Mountain Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Czora, Gregory J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Holmes; Michael B
• Application Number:
  US11/294,622
• Publication Number:
  US 20060142986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,184 Days
• Field of Search: 703/6
• US Class Current: 706/18
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/004 Artificial life, i.e. computing arrangements simulating life

Abstract

A simulated consciousness method (10) for an improved human/computer interface. A computer system (12) is programmed to have a Digital Life Form (32) possessing a plurality of attributes (65). A plurality of actions (64) taken relative to objects (60) in the environment (30) contribute to simulated feelings (76) which ultimately control the viability of the Digital Life Form (32). When there are not sufficient energy packets (66) to sustain the Digital Life Form (32) then simulated death 52 results. Therefore, only actions (64) which contribute to the viability of the Digital Life Form (32) are repeated in the long-run. Some of those actions (64) include perception of reality, concept formation, and natural language processing.

Claims

1. A computer based entity usable as a robot control system, the computer based entity comprising:

memory;

at least one sensor capable of discerning characteristics of objects in an environment;

a perceive routine stored in the memory and operative to form percepts and store the percepts in the memory, each percept associating the discerned characteristics of a respective one of the objects, the perceive routine being further operative to identify subsequently encountered objects by comparing discerned characteristics of the subsequently encountered objects with the stored percepts;

a plurality of attributes stored in the memory, wherein at least one such attribute defines the vitality of the entity;

a plurality of action routines stored in the memory and operative to invoke actions by the computer based entity, at least one of which will affect the vitality of the entity; and

an action selection routine stored in the memory and operative to select one of the actions when one of the objects is perceived and to store data associating the perceived object with the subsequent effect of the selected action on the attributes, the actions being selected based on a likely effect on the vitality of the entity, the action selection routine randomly selecting an action when there is insufficient stored data to determine the likely effect of a particular action on the vitality of the entity.

2. The computer based entity of claim 1, wherein:

simulated death occurs when the actions result in a reduction of vitality below a preset level; and

the action selection routine chooses such actions with a primary goal of avoiding the simulated death.

3. The computer based entity of claim 1, wherein:

vitality level is determined by a quantity of energy packets.

4. A computer interface, comprising:

a computer hosting resources for access by a user;

a user input device;

memory;

a simulated digital life form stored in the memory and having a plurality of attributes, including at least one attribute indicative of the vitality of the digital life form;

code stored in the memory and operative to provide a plurality of actions which may be accomplished by the digital life form; and

a selection criteria for selecting from said plurality of actions, said selection criteria being stored in the memory;

wherein

repeated selection of actions which do not contribute to the vitality of the digital life form will result in the simulated death of the digital life form, and

said digital life form perceives a plurality of objects in an environment including input from the user input device;

said objects are identified by the digital life form by comparing percepts previously formed and stored in the memory by the digital life form with present percepts of said objects;

the percepts are perceived properties of the objects by the digital life form; and

said actions are selected primarily to optimize vitality dependant upon the particular objects perceived so as to benefit the digital life form wherein benefit is defined as serving the needs of the digital life form by keeping it alive, and said actions are selected secondarily to respond to the input from the user input device.

5. The computer interface of claim 4, wherein:

some of said attributes function as simulated feelings that serve as warning indicators for the effect of certain actions on the vitality of the digital life form; and

said actions are taken to optimize at least one of a plurality of simulated feelings.

6. The computer interface of claim 5, wherein:

at least one of the simulated feelings is a feeling of fullness.

7. The computer interface of claim 6, wherein:

the feeling of fullness is represented by a quantity of energy packets.

8. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied thereon configured in operate on a computer, comprising:

code to cause the computer to keep track of a list of attributes of digital life form, at least one of the attributes being indicative of the vitality of the digital life form;

code for causing the digital life form to form precepts associated with objects and to store the percepts, the percepts including data indicative of characteristics of the associated objects;

code for causing the digital life form to formulate and store concepts based on at least two of the percepts associated with at least three objects; and

code to cause the digital life form to take actions based upon the concepts with a primary goal of maintaining its own vitality and to take a random action when the stored concepts are insufficient to determine whether a particular action will further the primary goal of maintaining its own vitality.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein:

at least some of the concepts are defined by a human tutor.

10. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein:

said actions are selected from a list of actions programmed into the computer.

11. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein:

at least one consequence of the selection of said actions is the termination of the digital life form.

12. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein:

at least one of the attributes of the digital life form is a simulated feeling that serves as an indicator of the effect of a particular action on the vitality of the digital life form.

13. A method for creating a digital life form, comprising:

defining a digital life form;

providing access for the digital life form to an environment;

defining a plurality of potential actions for the digital life form;

providing at least one object in the environment;

providing the object with at least one characteristic;

providing the digital life form with the ability to form percepts based on the characteristics of objects encountered, to store the formed percepts, and to use the stored percepts to identify subsequently encountered objects;

providing the digital life form with the ability to select from said plurality of potential actions based, at least in part, on the percepts; and

providing consequences to the digital life form for such actions;

wherein

the digital life form selects from said plurality of potential actions in order to avoid certain of the consequences with a primary objective being the continued existence of the digital life form;

the digital life form arbitrarily selects an action when there is insufficient data to determine whether an action will further the primary objective; and

the digital life form stores data indicative of the effectiveness of selected actions in furthering the primary objective for use in future action selections.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

said digital life form includes a plurality of attributes, the attributes containing values indicative of particular needs of the digital life form.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein:

said environment is a computer generated simulated environment.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein;

at least one of said actions includes EAT.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein:

EAT is defined as assimilating energy packets to increase the vitality of said digital life form.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein:

at least one consequences of said actions is the simulated death of said digital life form.

19. The method of claim 13, and further including;

providing a strategy for selecting from said plurality of actions.

20. A computer-implemented method for simulating consciousness, comprising:

identifying perceived characteristics of objects in an environment based on perceptions of the objects, the perceptions obtained by experiencing the objects;

storing lists of said characteristics; and

forming concepts by comparing similarities in the perceived characteristics;

wherein said steps of identifying, storing and forming are performed by said computer.

21. The method of claim 20, and further including:

acting on at least one of said objects according to the perceived characteristics of that object for the self benefit of an entity achieving the simulated consciousness.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein:

said lists are percepts.

23. A method for forming concepts in a Digital Life Form, comprising:

forming percepts based on perceived characteristics of objects;

using said perceived characteristics to form concepts; and

acting on said concepts for the benefit of the Digital Life Form, itself.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein:

concepts are compared to form other concepts in hierarchical conceptual chains.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein:

concepts are associated with natural language words.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein:

natural language words are associated into phrases, the meaning of which is the union of the concepts and one or more conceptual chains that ultimately connect all the concepts in said conceptual chains to the associated percepts.