maldv/crabcanon · Datasets at Hugging Face

text stringlengths 0 174
Artificial Intelligence. This covers programs that can-to some degree-play games, prove
theorems, solve problems, compose music, do mathematics, and use "natural language" (e.g.,
English).


Overview


XII



Contrafactus. About how we unconsciously organize our thoughts so that we can imagine
hypothetical variants on the real world all the time. Also about aberrant variants of this ability-
such as possessed by the new character, the Sloth, an avid lover of French fries, and rabid hater of
counterfactuals.

Chapter XIX: Artificial Intelligence: Prospects. The preceding Dialogue triggers a discussion of
how knowledge is represented in layers of contexts. This leads to the modern A1 idea of "frames".
A frame-like way of handling a set of visual pattern puzzles is presented, for the purpose of
concreteness. Then the deep issue of the interaction of concepts in general is discussed, which
leads into some speculations on creativity. The Chapter concludes with a set of personal
"Questions and Speculations" on A1 and minds in general.

Sloth Canon. A canon which imitates a Bach canon in which one voice plays the same melody as
another, only upside down and twice as slowly, while a third voice is free. Here, the Sloth utters
the same lines as the Tortoise does, only negated (in a liberal sense of the term) and twice as
slowly, while Achilles is free.

Chapter XX: Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies. A grand windup of many of the ideas
about hierarchical systems and self-reference. It is concerned with the snarls which arise when
systems turn back on themselves-for example, science probing science, government investigating
governmental wrongdoing, art violating the rules of art, and finally, humans thinking about their
own brains and minds. Does Godel’s Theorem have anything to say about this last "snarl"? Are
free will and the sensation of consciousness connected to Godel’s Theorem? The Chapter ends by
tying Godel, Escher, and Bach together once again.

Six-Part Ricercar. This Dialogue is an exuberant game played with many of the ideas which have
permeated the book. It is a reenactment of the story of the Musical Offering, which began the
book; it is simultaneously a "translation" into words of the most complex piece in the Musical
Offering: the Six-Part Ricercar. This duality imbues the Dialogue with more levels of meaning
than any other in the book. Frederick the Great is replaced by the Crab, pianos by computers, and
so on. Many surprises arise. The Dialogue's content concerns problems of mind, consciousness,
free will. Artificial Intelligence, the Turing test, and so forth, which have been introduced earlier.
It concludes with an implicit reference to the beginning of the book, thus making the book into
one big self-referential loop, symbolizing at once Bach's music, Escher's drawings, and Godel’s
Theorem.


Overview


XIII




FIGURE I. Johann StbtMmn Bach. in 174H. From a panning bj Elias Golllieb
Haussmann.


FIGURE I. Johann Sebastian Bach, in 1748. From a painting by Elias Gottlieb
Hanssmann.


Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering


2


Introduction:


A Musico-Logical Offering

Author:

FREDERICK THE GREAT, King of Prussia, came to power in 1740. Although he is
remembered in history books mostly for his military astuteness, he was also devoted to
the life of the mind and the spirit. His court in Potsdam was one of the great centers of
intellectual activity in Europe in the eighteenth century. The celebrated mathematician
Leonhard Euler spent twenty-five years there. Many other mathematicians and scientists
came, as well as philosophers-including Voltaire and La Mettrie, who wrote some of their
most influential works while there.

But music was Frederick's real love. He was an avid flutist and composer. Some of his
compositions are occasionally performed even to this day. Frederick was one of the first
patrons of the arts to recognize the virtues of the newly developed "piano-forte" ("soft-
loud"). The piano had been developed in the first half of the eighteenth century as a
modification of the harpsichord. The problem with the harpsichord was that pieces could
only be played at a rather uniform loudness-there was no way to strike one note more
loudly than its neighbors. The "soft-loud", as its name implies, provided a remedy to this
problem. From Italy, where Bartolommeo Cristofori had made the first one, the soft-loud
idea had spread widely. Gottfried Silbermann, the foremost German organ builder of the
day, was endeavoring to make a "perfect" piano-forte. Undoubtedly King Frederick was
the greatest supporter of his efforts-it is said that the King owned as many as fifteen
Silbermann pianos!

Artificial Intelligence. This covers programs that can-to some degree-play games, prove

theorems, solve problems, compose music, do mathematics, and use "natural language" (e.g.,

English).

Overview

XII

Contrafactus. About how we unconsciously organize our thoughts so that we can imagine

hypothetical variants on the real world all the time. Also about aberrant variants of this ability-

such as possessed by the new character, the Sloth, an avid lover of French fries, and rabid hater of

counterfactuals.

Chapter XIX: Artificial Intelligence: Prospects. The preceding Dialogue triggers a discussion of

how knowledge is represented in layers of contexts. This leads to the modern A1 idea of "frames".

A frame-like way of handling a set of visual pattern puzzles is presented, for the purpose of

concreteness. Then the deep issue of the interaction of concepts in general is discussed, which

leads into some speculations on creativity. The Chapter concludes with a set of personal

"Questions and Speculations" on A1 and minds in general.

Sloth Canon. A canon which imitates a Bach canon in which one voice plays the same melody as

another, only upside down and twice as slowly, while a third voice is free. Here, the Sloth utters

the same lines as the Tortoise does, only negated (in a liberal sense of the term) and twice as

slowly, while Achilles is free.

Chapter XX: Strange Loops, Or Tangled Hierarchies. A grand windup of many of the ideas

about hierarchical systems and self-reference. It is concerned with the snarls which arise when

systems turn back on themselves-for example, science probing science, government investigating

governmental wrongdoing, art violating the rules of art, and finally, humans thinking about their

own brains and minds. Does Godel’s Theorem have anything to say about this last "snarl"? Are

free will and the sensation of consciousness connected to Godel’s Theorem? The Chapter ends by

tying Godel, Escher, and Bach together once again.

Six-Part Ricercar. This Dialogue is an exuberant game played with many of the ideas which have

permeated the book. It is a reenactment of the story of the Musical Offering, which began the

book; it is simultaneously a "translation" into words of the most complex piece in the Musical

Offering: the Six-Part Ricercar. This duality imbues the Dialogue with more levels of meaning

than any other in the book. Frederick the Great is replaced by the Crab, pianos by computers, and

so on. Many surprises arise. The Dialogue's content concerns problems of mind, consciousness,

free will. Artificial Intelligence, the Turing test, and so forth, which have been introduced earlier.

It concludes with an implicit reference to the beginning of the book, thus making the book into

one big self-referential loop, symbolizing at once Bach's music, Escher's drawings, and Godel’s

Theorem.

Overview

XIII

FIGURE I. Johann StbtMmn Bach. in 174H. From a panning bj Elias Golllieb

Haussmann.

FIGURE I. Johann Sebastian Bach, in 1748. From a painting by Elias Gottlieb

Hanssmann.

Introduction: A Musico-Logical Offering

2

Introduction:

A Musico-Logical Offering

Author:

FREDERICK THE GREAT, King of Prussia, came to power in 1740. Although he is

remembered in history books mostly for his military astuteness, he was also devoted to

the life of the mind and the spirit. His court in Potsdam was one of the great centers of

intellectual activity in Europe in the eighteenth century. The celebrated mathematician

Leonhard Euler spent twenty-five years there. Many other mathematicians and scientists

came, as well as philosophers-including Voltaire and La Mettrie, who wrote some of their

most influential works while there.

But music was Frederick's real love. He was an avid flutist and composer. Some of his

compositions are occasionally performed even to this day. Frederick was one of the first

patrons of the arts to recognize the virtues of the newly developed "piano-forte" ("soft-

loud"). The piano had been developed in the first half of the eighteenth century as a

modification of the harpsichord. The problem with the harpsichord was that pieces could

only be played at a rather uniform loudness-there was no way to strike one note more

loudly than its neighbors. The "soft-loud", as its name implies, provided a remedy to this

problem. From Italy, where Bartolommeo Cristofori had made the first one, the soft-loud

idea had spread widely. Gottfried Silbermann, the foremost German organ builder of the

day, was endeavoring to make a "perfect" piano-forte. Undoubtedly King Frederick was

the greatest supporter of his efforts-it is said that the King owned as many as fifteen

Silbermann pianos!