Science fiction reduces the eeriness of android robots: A field experiment

As suggested by the uncanny valley hypothesis, robots that resemble humans likely elicit feelings of eeriness. Based on the psychological model of meaning maintenance, we expected that the uncanny valley experience could be mitigated through a fictional story, due to the meaning-generating function of narratives. A field experiment was conducted, in which 75 participants interacted with the humanlike robot Telenoid. Prior to the interaction, they either read a short story, a non-narrative leaflet about the robot, or they received no preliminary information. Eeriness ratings were significantly lower in the science fiction condition than in both other conditions. This effect was mediated by higher perceived human-likeness of the robot. Our findings suggest that science fiction may provide meaning for otherwise unsettling future technologies.     

Moving the goal posts: a reply to Dawson and Piercey

Berkeley [Minds Machines 10 (2000) 1] described a methodology that showed the subsymbolic nature of an artificial neural network system that had been trained on a logic problem, originally described by Bechtel and Abrahamsen [Connectionism and the mind. Blackwells, Cambridge, MA, 1991]. It was also claimed in the conclusion of this paper that the evidence was suggestive that the network might, in fact, count as a symbolic system. Dawson and Piercey [Minds Machines 11 (2001) 197] took issue with this latter claim. They described some lesioning studies that they argued showed that Berkeley’s (2000) conclusions were premature. In this paper, these lesioning studies are replicated and it is shown that the effects that Dawson and Piercey rely upon for their argument are merely an artifact of a threshold function they chose to employ. When a threshold function much closer to that deployed in the original studies is used, the significant effects disappear.     

农村电网的无功功率补偿

阐述农村电网无功补偿的意义 .针对农村电网和农村用户的特点 ,提出在农网改造中 ,对各级电力线路 ,以提高农村电网的功率因数 ,保证农网安全、可靠和经济运行 .和电力用户进行无功补偿的方法     

Emergence of communication in embodied agents evolved for the ability to solve a collective navigation problem

In this paper, we present the results of an experiment in which a collection of simulated robots that have been evolved for the ability to solve a collective navigation problem develop a communication system that allows them to co-operate better. The analysis of the results obtained indicates how evolving robots develop a non-trivial communication system and exploit different communication modalities. The results also indicate how the possibility of co-adapting the robots’ individual and social/communicative behaviour plays a key role in the development of progressively more complex and effective individuals.     

论中国传统装饰之道

了解中国传统装饰艺术的历史,需从"纹化"艺术开始,最初的"纹化"是石块刻划所产生的线纹,"纹化"活动的视觉思维方式为"观物取象"。对于装饰艺术的社会存在、社会价值以及目的的不同思想理论、审美要求,进而形成了中国的四种美学思想。装饰是一种审美理想,是一种工艺技法,也是一种艺术形式,有着深层次社会感情和文化意识。主宰着中华民主的文化内涵,并伴随历史的演进不断的丰富发展,并渗透到当今生活的方方面面。     

Active symbols and internal models: Towards a cognitive connectionism

In the first section of the article, we examine some recent criticisms of the connectionist enterprise: first, that connectionist models are fundamentally behaviorist in nature (and, therefore, non-cognitive), and second that connectionist models are fundamentally associationist in nature (and, therefore, cognitively weak). We argue that, for a limited class of connectionist models (feed-forward, pattern-associator models), the first criticism is unavoidable. With respect to the second criticism, we propose that connectionist modelsare fundamentally associationist but that this is appropriate for building models of human cognition. However, we do accept the point that there are cognitive capacities for which any purely associative model cannot provide a satisfactory account. The implication that we draw from is this is not that associationist models and mechanisms should be scrapped, but rather that they should be enhanced.In the next section of the article, we identify a set of connectionist approaches which are characterized by active symbols — recurrent circuits which are the basis of knowledge representation. We claim that such approaches avoid criticisms of behaviorism and are, in principle, capable of supporting full cognition. In the final section of the article, we speculate at some length about what we believe would be the characteristics of a fully realized active symbol system. This includes both potential problems and possible solutions (for example, mechanisms needed to control activity in a complex recurrent network) as well as the promise of such systems (in particular, the emergence of knowledge structures which would constitute genuine internal models).     

实施ERP提升油田企业物资管理水平

物料是油田企业各项生产经营活动正常运行的物资基础和保证。对原有物资管理模式滞后性进行了剖析,ERP物资管理信息系统改变了油田原有的物资管理模式,管理效率和经济效益得到显著提高。为进一步提升油田企业物资管理水平,提出了相应措施。     

Back to the Future: An Historical Perspective on the Pendulum-Like Changes in Literacy

This article focuses on the pendulum-like change in the way people read and use text, which was triggered by the introduction of new reading and writing technologies in human history. The paper argues that textual features, which characterized the ancient pre-print writing culture, disappeared with the establishment of the modern-day print culture and has been “revived” in the digital post-modern era. This claim is based on the analysis of four cases which demonstrate this textual-pendulum swing: (1) The swing from concrete iconic-graphic representation of letters and words in the ancient alphabet to abstract phonetic representation of text in modern eras, and from written abstract computer commands “back” to the concrete iconic representation in graphic user interfaces of the digital era; (2) The swing from scroll reading in the pre-print era to page or book reading in the print era and “back” to scroll reading in the digital era; (3) The swing from a low level of authorship in the pre-print era to a strong authorship perception in the print era, and “back” to a low degree of authorship in the digital era; (4) The swing from synchronic representation of text in both visual and audio formats during the pre-print era to a visual representation only in print, and “back” to a synchronic representation in many environments of the digital era. We suggest that the print culture, which is usually considered the natural and preferred textual environment, should be regarded as the exception.     

基于感知规则集策略的约束空间RFID室内符号定位算法

随着普适计算的不断发展,室内定位技术的研究也成为当今研究的热点问题。室内定位技术的不断进步使得RFID也开始部署到各种各样的室内场景。为了提高室内空间中的定位精度,提出了一种基于感知规则集策略的约束空间RFID室内符号定位方法。算法基于室内空间中的符号,通过定义感知情况来确立定位规则,使得算法具有良好的室内空间适应性,且使用少量的阅读器即可实现较高精度的定位。为了提高定位精度,引入了感知规则集的概念,对场景中的情况抽象提取,进一步增加算法定位精度。最后,以约束空间中的室内场景作为实验环境对算法进行验证,分析结果表明,在室内空间中算法的定位精度及抗干扰能力优于现有算法。