Le compte est bon, literally meaning “the total is correct” is a game show that exists (or at least existed) in France. The idea is that a contestant is given five small numbers and must combine them using simple mathematics (addition, subtraction, and multiplication) in order to reach a goal number using as many of the numbers as they like (but each only once). To better understand, try your hand at this simple problem:
Numbers you can use: (8 3 9 10 7)
Goal: 87
[British Television show “Countdown”, which shows a very similar problem].
Given this problem it is not very difficult to come to an answer. ((8*10)+7) = 87, or even ((9*10)-3) = 87. We work towards these answers with very little awareness of the deep cognitive processes that are taking place behind the scenes. This makes it difficult for psychologists and neuroscientists to say with absolute certainty how our mind works, and even more difficult for us to create true artificial intelligence (a dream some think will soon become a reality). The best we can do as Computer Scientists is to map out the inner-processes that we believe take place within the human brain.
This is what we are attempting to map out in CSC366 very soon (the course this weblog is for). We’ve already completed the creation of an exhaustive solver for these problems. This wasn’t very difficult. What this does is solve these problems in a way that is very natural for computers; looking through every possible path until an answer is found. However, this bares no resemblance to human cognition; rather, humans will utilize well-trained instinct, take intelligent guesses, or follow many other forms of rational thinking. Very rarely (if ever) do we sequentially search through all possible scenarios until we find a suitable answer.
Our goal, then, is to design a machine which performs, amongst other things, a terraced scan of all possible paths to take (much like the human brain [explained here]), and weed out paths that don’t seem to lead us anywhere. For instance, you knew that multiplying all the numbers together in the above problem wouldn’t get you very far, but did you give the process any thought? It’s likely that your subconscious brushed up against this thought and then disregarded it without you being aware. A great deal happens in the mind we aren’t aware of. This is the goal of designing a machine that can give us deep insight into the human mind. Not only will it give us skills that can aid us in building machines which operate on the same level as humans, but also provides us with a theoretical pathway for mapping out human cognition.
