Browsing by Author "Allen, Colin"

Now showing 1 - 14 of 14

Animal Pain
(Blackwell Publishing, Inc., 2004-11-04) Allen, Colin
A Conceptual and Computational Model of Moral Decision Making in Human and Artificial Agents
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2010-05-13) Allen, Colin; Franklin, Stan; Wallach, Wendell
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in general, comprehensive models of human cognition. Such models aim to explain higher order cognitive faculties, such as deliberation and planning. Given a computational representation, the validity of these models can be tested in computer simulations such as software agents or embodied robots. The push to implement computational models of this kind has created the field of Artificial General Intelligence, or AGI. Moral decision making is arguably one of the most challenging tasks for computational approaches to higher order cognition. The need for increasingly autonomous artificial agents to factor moral considerations into their choices and actions has given rise to another new field of inquiry variously known as Machine Morality, Machine Ethics, Roboethics or Friendly AI. In this paper we discuss how LIDA, an AGI model of human cognition, can be adapted to model both affective and rational features of moral decision making. Using the LIDA model we will demonstrate how moral decisions can be made in many domains using the same mechanisms that enable general decision making. Comprehensive models of human cognition typically aim for compatibility with recent research in the cognitive and neural sciences. Global Workspace Theory (GWT), proposed by the neuropsychologist Bernard Baars (1988), is a highly regarded model of human cognition that is currently being computationally instantiated in several software implementations. LIDA (Franklin et al. 2005) is one such computational implementation. LIDA is both a set of computational tools and an underlying model of human cognition, which provides mechanisms that are capable of explaining how an agent’s selection of its next action arises from bottom-up collection of sensory data and top-down processes for making sense of its current situation. We will describe how the LIDA model helps integrate emotions into the human decision making process, and elucidate a process whereby an agent can work through an ethical problem to reach a solution that takes account of ethically relevant factors.
Conceptual discontinuity involves recycling old processes in new domains
(Cambridge University Press, 2011) Landy, David; Allen, Colin; Anderson, Michael
We dispute Carey's assumption that distinct core cognitive processes employ domain-specific input analyzers to construct proprietary representations. We give reasons to believe that conceptual systems co-opt core components for new domains. Domain boundaries, as well as boundaries between perceptual–motor and conceptual cognitive resources may be useful abstractions, but do not appear to reflect constraints respected by brains and cognitive systems.
Consciousness And Ethics: Artificially Conscious Moral Agents
(World Scientific Publishing Co., 2011-06) Franklin, Stan; Allen, Colin; Wallach, Wendell
What roles or functions does consciousness fulfill in the making of moral decisions? Will artificial agents capable of making appropriate decisions in morally charged situations require machine consciousness? Should the capacity to make moral decisions be considered an attribute essential for being designated a fully conscious agent? Research on the prospects for developing machines capable of making moral decisions and research on machine consciousness have developed as independent fields of inquiry. Yet there is significant overlap. Both fields are likely to progress through the instantiation of systems with artificial general intelligence (AGI). Certainly special classes of moral decision making will require attributes of consciousness such as being able to empathize with the pain and suffering of others. But in this article we will propose that consciousness also plays a functional role in making most if not all moral decisions. Work by the authors of this article with LIDA, a computational and conceptual model of human cognition, will help illustrate how consciousness can be understood to serve a very broad role in the making of all decisions including moral decisions.
Error Comes With Imagination: A Probabilistic Theory of Mental Content
([Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2010-06-01) Demir, Hilmi M.; Schmitt, Frederick; Allen, Colin
In this dissertation, I develop a probabilistic theory of mental content that accounts for fundamental properties of mental representation. The theory that I develop falls under the category of causal/informational approaches. In contemporary philosophy, causal/informational approaches for explaining mental representation have been around since the 1950s. The main success of these approaches is to explain the link between the external world and mental entities. On the other hand, it turns out that accounting for misrepresentation cases presents an insurmountable problem for these approaches. The probabilistic theory that I develop keeps the positive features of causal/informational approaches and provides grounds for solving the problem of misrepresentation. The theory that I offer heavily draws from Dretske's 1981 framework. His framework borrows some notions such as entropy from Shannon & Weaver's Mathematical Theory of Communication which is a very successful formalism for engineering purposes. Dretske tries to explain mental representation, belief and knowledge by using the notion of informational content. Despite all of its appeals, however, the problem of misrepresentation also afflicts his framework. In this dissertation, I identify the reasons that cause problems in Dretske's framework. Identifying these reasons provides enough grounds for solving the problem of misrepresentation in the theory that I construct. I claim that the theory that I offer not only solves the problem of misrepresentation but also provides a research program for Cognitive Science and Neuroscience.
Fish Cognition and Consciousness
(Springer, 2011-12-11) Allen, Colin
Questions about fish consciousness and cognition are receiving increasing attention. In this paper, I explain why one must be careful to avoid drawing conclusions too hastily about this hugely diverse set of species.
How "weak" mindreaders inherited the earth
(Cambridge University Press, 2009-04-23) Buckner, Cameron; Shriver, Adam; Crowley, Stephen; Allen, Colin
Carruthers argues that an integrated faculty of metarepresentation evolved for mindreading and was later exapted for metacognition. A more consistent application of his approach would regard metarepresentation in mindreading with the same skeptical rigor, concluding that the “faculty” may have been entirely exapted. Given this result, the usefulness of Carruthers' line-drawing exercise is called into question.
Hypershelf: A Multidimensional Browser for Exploring Content Across the Library
(Indiana University Digital Collections Services, 2016-08-31) Allen, Colin; Murdock, Jaimie
Research libraries continue to reinvent themselves in the face of increasing demand from users for digitized texts. As physical books move from stacks to deep storage, many researchers lament the reduction in the serendipitous discovery that was provided by browsing the stacks. We believe, however, that digitization offers even greater opportunities for guided serendipity. Developments in machine learning and computing at scale allow content-based models of library collections to be made accessible to patrons. In this talk, we will present a vision for the future of library browsing using the Topic Explorer “Hypershelf” that we have developed for digital collections. It allows users to jump into the collection and browse nearby volumes, rearranging them at will according to topics extracted computationally from the full texts. We will demonstrate the Hypershelf in action, and discuss how it might be integrated with physically-shelved books. This vision enhances rather than supplants the traditional librarians’ function of guiding patrons to the best starting points for their research needs.
If I could talk to the animals Review of Gregory Radick: The simian tongue: The long debate about animal language.
(Springer, 2011-10) Allen, Colin
Mirror, Mirror in the Brain, What’s the Monkey Stand to Gain?
(Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 2010-05-25) Allen, Colin
Primatologists generally agree that monkeys lack higher-order intentional capacities related to theory of mind. Yet the discovery of the so-called “mirror neurons” in monkeys suggests to many neuroscientists that they have the rudiments of intentional understanding. Given a standard philosophical view about intentional understanding, which requires higher-order intentionality, a paradox arises. Different ways of resolving the paradox are assessed, using evidence from neural, cognitive, and behavioral studies of humans and monkeys. A decisive resolution to the paradox requires substantial additional empirical work and perhaps a rejection of the standard philosophical view.
A simple test of vocal individual recognition in wild meerkats
(Royal Society Publishing, 2011-10-12) Manser, Marta B.; Allen, Colin; Townsend, Simon W.
Individual recognition is thought to be a crucial ability facilitating the evolution of animal societies. Given its central importance, much research has addressed the extent of this capacity across the animal kingdom. Recognition of individuals vocally has received particular attention due, in part, to the insights it provides regarding the cognitive processes that underlie this skill. While much work has focused on vocal individual recognition in primates, there is currently very little data showing comparable skills in non-primate mammals under natural conditions. This may be because non-primate mammal societies do not provide obvious contexts in which vocal individual recognition can be rigorously tested. We addressed this gap in understanding by designing an experimental paradigm to test for individual recognition in meerkats (Suricata suricatta) without having to rely on naturally occurring social contexts. Results suggest that when confronted with a physically impossible scenario—the presence of the same conspecific meerkat in two different places—subjects responded more strongly than during the control, a physically possible setup. We argue that this provides the first clear evidence for vocal individual recognition in wild non-primate mammals and hope that this novel experimental design will allow more systematic cross-species comparisons of individual recognition under natural settings.
Supporting Data for "Multi-level computational methods for interdisciplinary research in the HathiTrust Digital Library"
(2017) Rose, Robert; Rose, Doori; Otsuka, Jun; Murdock, Jaimie; Allen, Colin
We show how faceted search using a combination of traditional classification systems and mixed-membership topic models can go beyond keyword search to inform resource discovery, hypothesis formulation, and argument extraction for interdisciplinary research. Our test domain is the history and philosophy of scientific work on animal mind and cognition. The methods can be generalized to other research areas and ultimately support a system for semi-automatic identification of argument structures. We provide a case study for the application of the methods to the problem of identifying and extracting arguments about anthropomorphism during a critical period in the development of comparative psychology. We show how a combination of classification systems and mixed-membership models trained over large digital libraries can inform resource discovery in this domain. Through a novel approach of ``drill-down'' topic modeling---simultaneously reducing both the size of the corpus and the unit of analysis---we are able to reduce a large collection of fulltext volumes to a much smaller set of pages within six focal volumes containing arguments of interest to historians and philosophers of comparative psychology. The volumes identified in this way did not appear among the first ten results of the keyword search in the HathiTrust digital library and the pages bear the kind of "close reading" needed to generate original interpretations that is the heart of scholarly work in the humanities. Zooming back out, we provide a way to place the books onto a map of science originally constructed from very different data and for different purposes. The multilevel approach advances understanding of the intellectual and societal contexts in which writings are interpreted.
Wise machines?
(Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2011) Allen, Colin; Wallach, Wendell
Purpose – In spite of highly publicized competitions where computers have prevailed over humans, the intelligence of computer systems still remains quite limited in comparison to that of humans. Present day computers provide plenty of information but lack wisdom. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether reliance on computers with limited intelligence might undermine the quality of the education students receive. Design/methodology/approach – Using a conceptual approach, the authors take the performance of IBMʼs Watson computer against human quiz competitors as a starting point to explore how society, and especially education, might change in the future when everyone has access to desktop technology to access information. They explore the issue of placing excessive trust in such machines without the capacity to evaluate the quality and reliability of the information provided. Findings – The authors find that the day when computing machines surpass human intelligence is much further in the future than predicted by some forecasters. Addressing the problem of dependency on information technology, they envisage a technical solution - wiser machines which not only return the search results, but also help make them comprehensible - but find that although it is relatively simple to engineer knowledge distribution and access, it is more difficult to engineer wisdom. Practical implications – Creating computers that are wise will be difficult, but educating students to be wise in the age of computers may also be quite difficult. For the future, one might explore the development of computer tools that demonstrate sensitivity to alternative answers to difficult questions, different courses of action, and their own limitations. For the present, one will need to train students to appreciate the limitations inherent in the technologies on which they have become dependent. Originality/value – Critical thinking, innovation, and wisdom require skills beyond the kinds of answers computers give now or are likely to provide in the coming decade.
Working the Crowd: Design principles and early lessons from the social-semantic web.
(CEUR Workshop, 2009) Allen, Colin; Niepert, Mathias; Buckner, Cameron
The Indiana Philosophy Ontology (InPhO)project is presented as one of the first social-semantic web endeavors which aims to bootstrap feedback from users unskilled in ontology design into a precise representation of a specific domain. Our approach combines statistical text processing methods with expert feedback and logic programming approaches to create a dynamic semantic representation of the discipline of philosophy. We describe the basic principles and initial experimental results of our system.