MOPEKS Basic Principles

MOPEKS^® - Basic Principles

Introduction

MOPEKS is what I believe to be a new approach to the problem of building an "intelligent computer". It stands for Methods, Objects, Properties, Environments, Kinetics and Simulation. The technical explanation of these terms can be ignored for the moment.

Background

When electronic computers were introduced in the middle of the last century, people thought it would be simple to emulate the human brain but despite the endless claims, computer scientists are effectively stalled in this quest. The problem is flexibility. Computers can only carry out the precise instructions written into them by human programmers.

For example, chess playing computer programs can now wipe the floor with anybody on this planet - including world champions. But if you suddenly decided to drop the Queen and play on a 7 by 7 board the program would have to be totally re-written. A process that could take many weeks. A human being, on the other hand, would be able to play immediately. That is the difference - we are incredibly adaptable to new circumstances.

Implications

A truly "intelligent computer" would be one whose actions are indistinguishable from those of a human being. Except that it will work 24 hours a day and forget nothing. It will also have the ability to take control (whether you like it or not) of thousands of other internet linked computers and use them not only to improve its speed but also to help rewrite its software in order to improve its own intelligence. This may well be a run away process which will have the most profound and frightening implications.

This event, the first genuinely intelligent computer, is known as "The Singularity" - a term suggested by John von Neumann.

How does MOPEKS Work?

MOPEKS actually generates computer programs by a well established technique called Genetic Programming. In the past this technique has really just been a "fun thing" - sure, it generates computer programs but usually pretty simple ones which could more easily have been written by a human being. So, it was really just a curiosity - not a main stream, significant technique.

I have taken this technique much further so that it provides a framework in which the computer programs it generates actually use each other to create further computer programs and so on in an ever upwards climb towards genuine intelligence.

It is my belief that this is how the human brain works. We cope with new circumstances as follows:

"Do I have a procedure to cope with this situation? If so, use it. If not, attempt to build one by trying out new and interesting combinations of techniques which I have already learned which may be appropriate to this environment. Then choose the best one"

For example, you are a butcher's boy delivering a package to a house in a garden when suddenly a fierce dog appears. Here are the actions in your repertoire for such events:

Run to the gate and go through it
Run to the fence and jump over it
Climb a Tree
Kick the dog
Punch the dog in the face
Throw the package in the dogs face
Hypnotise the dog, if you are Crocodile Dundee

You evaluate all of these techniques in your inbuilt "simulator" and decide that none of them will work. So, you try out the idea of throwing the parcel of meat down in front of the dog. Your mental simulator predicts that the dog will be diverted and allow you to escape. You do this and it works.

On your way home you simulate a number of ways of breaking the bad news to your employer and your simulations suggest that a few scratches may help so you run through a hedge. When you get back, the first thing your employer asks is "why did you run through that hedge?" Real life is tricky.

MOPEKS acts in an identical manner - it builds itself an ever expanding repertoire of techniques (really, computer programs) and uses combinations of these in a Simulator to work out the best solution to the current problem.

It is a general purpose problem solver with the same degree of flexibility as a human being. A chess playing computer based on the principles of MOPEKS would be able to immediately play chess on a 7 by 7 board.

What Now?

If you want to know more, then read the next section in the guide, namely 'Guide ⇨ Key Concepts'