Research

My research is on non-symbolic (or sub-symbolic) Artificial Intelligence. I am interested in the origins of intelligence, both the long evolutionary story of the species, and the long developmental history of the individual. I am interested in the vast substrate of animal sensorimotor skills and sub-linguistic knowledge representation that lies beneath all the high-level (and recently-evolved) human cognitive skills that we focus so much attention on. This substrate to me is where the hard part of AI lies.

More specifically, I am interested in machines that have more autonomy - machines that learn their own behaviour from interaction with the world, rather than their behaviour being merely an expression of the intelligence of the programmer. Machines that construct their own representations, and evolve their own internal language, rather than using representations dictated by the programmer. So I am interested in all types of self-modifying, learning, evolving or self-organising models of control or models of mind.

A list of topics within AI that interest me (basically, the biologically-inspired approaches) can be seen on my AI Links page. And my background and motivation ("Is AI possible?", "Is AI science?", and so forth) can be seen on my Philosophy and Future of AI page.

The "World-Wide-Mind" research group

"Ancient Brain", the JavaScript-Worlds, client-side runs, centralised hosting, production site.

Mark Humphrys

JavaScript-Worlds, client-side runs, prototype single page.

Anderson Antunes

Older contributions on Java-Worlds, server-side runs, centralised hosting, prototype site.

Oisín Mac Fhearaí
Brian Monks
John Pendlebury

Previous contributions on server-side runs, decentralised hosting.

Ciarán O'Leary
Ray Walshe
Dave O'Connor

My PhD Alumni

PhD 2014 - Oisín Mac Fhearaí
- Title - Massively multi-author hybrid artificial intelligence
- Co-supervisor - Ray Walshe.
- External examiner - Joanna Bryson (University of Bath).
- Construction of our "World-Wide-Mind" system.
- Online at doras.dcu.ie
PhD 2008 - Bernard Gorman
- Title - Imitation Learning Through Games: Theory, Implementation and Evaluation
- External examiner - Abdennour El Rhalibi (Liverpool John Moores University).
- AI based on recording and imitation of human behavioural data in 3-D graphic computer games.
- QASE (directs to here)
- 3D-Games Turing Test
PhD 2006 - Steven Harford
- Title - Content-Based Retrieval of Melodies using Artificial Neural Networks
- External examiner - Mike Page (University of Hertfordshire).
PhD 2003 - John Kelleher
- Title - A Perceptually Based Computational Framework for the Interpretation of Spatial Language in 3D Simulated Environments
- External examiners - Hans Kamp (University of Stuttgart) and Laurent Romary (LORIA).
- Co-supervisor (with Fintan Costello).
- Natural Language interface to 3D world.
My PhD "family tree" (Who supervised who)

Research students application

Notes

"Where de la Mettrie's contemporaries" [in 1745] "found it difficult to understand how humans could possibly be machines, some of us nowadays find it hard to understand how we could not be."
- Jack Copeland, Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction.

"Looking on the bright side, let us remind ourselves of what has happened in the wake of earlier demystifications. We find no diminution of wonder; on the contrary, we find deeper beauties and more dazzling visions of the complexity of the universe than the protectors of mystery ever conceived. The "magic" of earlier visions was, for the most part, a cover-up for frank failures of imagination, a boring dodge enshrined in the concept of a deus ex machina. Fiery gods driving golden chariots across the skies are simpleminded comic-book fare compared with the ravishing strangeness of contemporary cosmology, and the recursive intricacies of the reproductive machinery of DNA make élan vital about as interesting as Superman's dread kryptonite. When we understand consciousness - when there is no more mystery - consciousness will be different, but there will still be beauty, and more room than ever for awe."
- Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained. I quote Dennett at the end of my PhD.

" .. And the hardest problem of all will still remain. The human race is free to love the buggers because they think the buggers all are dead. You are still alive, and so they're still afraid of you." Human stood among them and gestured toward his body, as if it were a weak and feeble thing. "Of us!" "They're afraid of the same thing you fear, when you look up and see the stars fill up with humans. They're afraid that someday they'll come to a world and find that you have got there first." "We don't want to be there first", said Human. "We want to be there too".
- From the science fiction novel, Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card. In the story, "buggers" are intelligent aliens that humans have recently exterminated. "Human" is a member of a new species of intelligent alien. I don't know why I like the optimism at the end of this. I just do.