daniel bigham.ca

This section lists all blog posts, regardless of topic.

Added to list: Make wild blueberry jam in Killarney Provincial Park
July 23, 2008

While in Killarney last weekend I was amazed to discover an abundance of wild blueberries. I guess I've usually been there in the fall, so I've never noticed. We picked about a half quart at the top of Silver Peak and made blueberry pancakes the next morning. Wonderful!

Then I had a great idea: Bring along some pectin and pick a few quarts at the top of Silver Peak and make fresh wild blueberry jam in Killarney! I can't wait! :)

Story 6: I was born in Canada
July 17, 2008

Story: I was born in Canada.
Question: What country was I born in?
Answer: Canada

Required knowledge about the world

person has_a birth
birth is_a event
event has_a location
0.9: location has_a country
"Canada" -> Canada: noun
Canada is_a country
country is_a location
"born" -> birth: noun

Parsing the statement

{noun} was {fragment} -> $1.(($2))
I was born in Canada -> speaker.((born in Canada))

{verb} in {location} -> $1.location = $2
speaker.((born in Canada)) -> speaker.birth.location = Canada

Parsing the question

what {fragment}? -> $1
What country was I born in? -> country was I born in

{noun} was {noun} {verb} {participle} -> $2.(($3 $4 $1))
country was I born in -> speaker.((born in country))

{verb} in {location} -> $1.$2
speaker.((born in country)) -> speaker.birth.country

Comments

Of interest is the following transformations:

{verb} in {location} -> $1.location = $2
{verb} in {location} -> $1.$2

The first is used to parse a statement, the second to answer a question. What makes the second transformation more interesting is that it takes an intermediate form as its input. In this example, the fragment "born in country" wasn't a part of the original question and isn't quite valid English.

Also of interest is that we set speaker.birth.country rather than speaker.birth.location.country. Under the covers, the engine needs to search the has_a graph to determine which child of birth has a country node. The successful search path is:

birth is_a event
event has_a location
location has_a country

current_date
July 17, 2008

The introduction of the current_date entity is especially interesting. In people, this entity might be much like any other, but in designing an AI, it's tempting to wire it into the computer's clock.

It's strange to think what it would be like to know the time intuitively.

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