<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="auto">Evocative triggers sound a bit like the concept of a sign stimulus. A sign stimulus in biology, ethology and zoology is a stimulus that serves to start complicated reflex behavior. In German we have the Word "Schlüsselreiz" (literally key-stimulus) for it, coined by zoologist Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989).<br>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed_action_pattern<br><br>There is no doubt doubt we will construct self-learning AIs. OpenAI has created DALL-E and ChatGPT. The statements or questions we enter at the prompt are in a way the evocative triggers that cause them to respond.<br>https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FnjjL_-XoAAx_zA.jpg</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">-J.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div><br></div><div align="left" dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000"><div>-------- Original message --------</div><div>From: Prof David West <profwest@fastmail.fm> </div><div>Date: 1/29/23 12:10 AM (GMT+01:00) </div><div>To: friam@redfish.com </div><div>Subject: [FRIAM] serious AI question </div><div><br></div></div>This is a serious question albeit one in a realm that many would dismiss as non-serious. First, some background.<br><br>Rinzai Zen is the "sudden enlightenment" school that asserts the possibility of a single event serving as a 'trigger' that evokes/instills-in-the-mind a state of enlightenment. The trigger might be a closed fist of your guru striking your ear, or—as was the case with Hui Neng (illiterate peasant who became the Sixth Patriarch) overhearing a fragment of the Diamond Sutra spoken by a passerby of the fish market where he was working.<br><br>This kind of "evocative trigger" is analogous to your nose detecting the scent of cinnamon as you walk past a bakery and your mind instantly filled with a complete memory of grandmother's kitchen, all the scents and sounds, and emotions, an activities, in complete detail.<br><br>A 'Zen evocative trigger' would, by analogy, fill your mind with—put your mind in a state of—Enlightenment. This might be ephemeral, satori with a lower case 's', or permanent, Satori with an upper case 'S'.<br><br>There is a large body of art (calligraphy, painting, poetry, ceramics, ...) that embodies exactly this kind of trigger; one that can be 'sensed' even if its sensing does not trigger (S)satori.<br><br>So the question: is it possible to construct a self-learning AI with a training set of such art and, once trained, turn it loose on the Google image base to find other examples of art with evocative triggers?<br><br>Of course, there is a hidden assertion: whatever the quality or characteristic of the art that embodies the 'trigger' is ineffable; which means, in this case, it has no "representation" (word, symbol, brush stroke, etc.).<br><br>davew<br><br>-. --- - / ...- .- .-.. .. -.. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .<br>FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br>Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam<br>to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com<br>FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/<br>archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/<br> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/<br></body></html>