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** Mind.rexx version MX17NOV93A **
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** by Arthur T. Murray **
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I. Introduction
Mind.rexx is an attempt to implement the linguistic mind-model for
artificial intelligence (AI) found in the "Mind" directory of the Amiga
Library Disk #411.
II. Why ARexx?
The original plan was to use the object-oriented language Smalltalk, as
found in the form of "Little Smalltalk" on Fish disk #37. This teaching
version of Smalltalk proved to be so alien to the Amiga environment, that
Scripit (Fish disk #288) and ARexx were used to link Little Smalltalk to and
from the Amiga environment. When Little Smalltalk itself proved too limited
for Project Mentifex, and no commercial Smalltalk seemed to be available
(is there one?) for the Amiga, ARexx came to the fore not simply by default
but by its own merits as a high-level, dramatically powerful language for
the Amiga.
III. State of the Art in November of 1993
Mind.rexx will not initially be comprehensible to many Amiga users, because
it involves abstruse psycholinguistics and an as yet very untested and
unproven theory of mind (see Fish #411). But what better machine is there
on which to test a linguistic theory of mind than the multitasking Amiga
with its built-in speech synthesizer? [ Possible answer: 64-bit DEC Alpha
workstations running Eiffel or Smalltalk.] Amiga REXX programmers may not
see the point of the Mind.rexx program linguistically, but they will surely
understand the ARexx code and they will see ways to improve the Mind.rexx,
and therefore this REXX program is going into the public domain with an
appeal for la creme de la creme - Amiga programmers, that is - to look
at Mind.rexx and figure out how to make it smarter, more conscious, and more
alive.
IV. History of Mind.rexx
TUES.27.JUL1993: Work began with tiny, fragmentary ARexx programs.
MON.23.AUG.1993: First release, by U.S. mail to fifty attendees of the
1992 REXX Symposium for Developers and Users, showed
generation of a thought or sentence at the core of an
artificial mind (or so we hope).
WED.17.NOV.1993: First electronic release (submitted to Fred Fish, to
AmiNet, to GENie, etc.) shows an attempt to demonstrate
the central core of the Mentifex mind-model, or how the
mind recalls the appropriate verb (the "mot juste").
V. Credits
Callaway, Merrill: for his ARexx articles and his "ARexx Cookbook".
Fish, Fred: for publishing the Mentifex theory of mind on Fish #411.
Gian, Alex: for his ARexx articles in the British "Amiga Computing".
Guthrie, Billy: for completely re-writing the version of 23AUG1993.
Holborn, Jason: for his ARexx articles in British "Amiga Shopper".
Sullivan, Nick: for co-authoring "Using ARexx on the Amiga".
Zamara, Chris: for co-authoring "Using ARexx on the Amiga".
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** You may write to: Project Mentifex **
** ATTN: Arthur T. Murray **
** Post Office Box 31326 **
** Seattle, WA 98103-1326 **
** USA **
** **
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