Task 9

Question 1

What is swarm Intelligence (SI)?

Answer 1

• nature forms real-time close-loop systems with continuous feedback
• enabling large groups to work in synchrony and converge on solutions together
• humans don´t have this ability (=humans lack the innate connections that establish feedback loops among members)
• example: fish school

Question 2

What is artificial swarm intelligence (ASI)

Answer 2

• humans lack the innate connections that establish feedback loops among members
• computational models enable online human groups to work together in real-time
  > forming groips to work together in real-time
  > forming a unified system that can:
  - answer questions
  - make predictions
  - reach decisions
  - take actions
• collectively exploring a decision space and converging upon preferred solutions

Question 3

What is the hypothesis of the Rosenberg article (crowd intelligence vs. swarm intelligence) and what were the results?

Answer 3

Human swarms can outperform their individual members as well as outperform groups taking traditional votes or polls

results:
The swarm outperformed 99% of the individual members of the crowd
= suggesting a significant amplification of intelligence resulting from the swarming process

Question 4

What are CRUM´s challenges?

Answer 4

1. body
   > nature of body is described as irrelevant to cognitive processes
   > body-world interaction is neglected
2. world
   relationship between mind and world is ignored
3. dynamic systems
   what people do involves continuous interaction, thinking is not just in the head (≠ computational process) - dynamic > computational

hammer example:
kinesthetic of arm doing the movement is neglected

Question 5

What is CRUM?

Answer 5

= computational representational understanding of mind

we have concepts and images to represent objects and our actions take place because we can do computational operations on these representations that somehow get translated into physical actions

hammer-example:
How do people hammer in a nail?
They have an image that represents hammers and nails and this image is translated into the action of hammering a nail
–> kinesthetic of arm doing the movement is neglected

Question 6

What is an alternative (and opposing) opinion of how humans perform actions in the world?

Answer 6

• by philosophers
• we function in the world because we are a part of it
• people can perform physical tasks just by virtue of their physical skills, without any kinds of representation
• = being in the world
• intelligent = inherently nonrepresentational
• emphasis on interactions with the world (= embedded computing)

Question 7

what is intentionality?

Answer 7

• being about something
• mental states possess it
• based on our interactions
• computers lack intentionality (= independent of the world)

Question 8

What are dynamic systems?

Answer 8

• changes in the dynamic system can be characterised by a set of equations that show how cirrent values of variables depend mathematically on previous values of those variables
• state-space = set of states that are possible with the variables

Question 9

what is the butterfly effect ?

Answer 9

very small differences in values of variables of its equations can produce dramatically different outcomes as the system develops

Question 10

ways in which the mind has been viewed as a dynamic system

Answer 10

1. using a number of variables and equations
   limitation: human thinking cannot be expressed in terms of numbers and variables (= difficult to do in psychology)
2. using it metaphorically, when the variables and equations cannot be specified
   > changes can be described in terms of state space, attractors, phase transitions and chaos
   > limitation: some concepts are difficult top express in numbers and variables
3. describing behaviour of neural networks
   > connectionist systems contain variables for the actions of the various units and for the strengths of the links between them (+ nonlinear equations)
   > limitation: connectionsims does not necessarily need dynamic system ideas

Question 11

What are explanatory patterns?

Answer 11

• Human thoughts are describable by a set of variables
• The variables are governed by a set of nonlinear equations
• These equations establish a state space that has attractors
• The system (described by the equations) = chaotic
• attractors can explain stable patterns of behaviour
• Multiple attractors explain abrupt phase transitions
• The chaotic nature of the system explains why behaviour is unpredictable.

Question 12

What is epistemology?

Answer 12

• branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and justification of knowledge
• types of (social) knowledge
  > business
  > artistic
  > theatre
• we often have to rely on others to provide us with information

Question 13

What is distributed cognition?

Answer 13

the idea that thinking occurs not only in individual minds, but through the cooperation of many individuals

-> relevant in the understanding of human-computer interaction

Question 14

what is distributed AI (DAI)?

Answer 14

• intelligent computation = distributed
• multiagent system
• link to connectionism: both involve parallel activity of multiple processors