Papers by Bram Van Heuveln
Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, Jun 1, 2006
ABSTRACT There are two main theories as to how humans reason deductively. Mental logic theory sta... more ABSTRACT There are two main theories as to how humans reason deductively. Mental logic theory states that humans reason through the application of formal reasoning schemas of the kind encountered in formal logic. Mental model theory states that humans reason through the construction, combination, and elimination of models compatible with the given information, and inspection of the models that remain. I propose that there exists a natural compromise between these two competing theories of reasoning.
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Apr 6, 2001
ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equa... more ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) class at my school. The goal is essentially to have an ODE class that both exposes students to the solution methods for the traditional classes of solvable ...
Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Feb 1, 1999
... Gerard O'Brien completed his D.Phil. ... In sections 3 and 4, we examine the nature of i... more ... Gerard O'Brien completed his D.Phil. ... In sections 3 and 4, we examine the nature of infor-mation coding in classicism and connectionism, respec-tively, in an effort to determine whether either of these conceptions of cognition ... The same does not apply to connectionists, however ...
Teaching Philosophy, 2004
Applied Mathematics and Computation, May 1, 2006
Do human persons hypercompute? Or, as the doctrine of computationalism holds, are they informatio... more Do human persons hypercompute? Or, as the doctrine of computationalism holds, are they information processors at or below the Turing Limit? If the former, given the essence of hypercomputation, persons must in some real way be capable of infinitary information processing. Using as a springboard Gödel's little-known assertion that the human mind has a power "converging to infinity," and as an anchoring problem Rado's (1963) Turing-uncomputable "busy beaver" (or Σ) function, we present in this short paper a new argument that, in fact, human persons can hypercompute. The argument is intended to be formidable, not conclusive: it brings Gödel's intuition to a greater level of precision, and places it within a sensible case against computationalism.
This thesis explores the foundations of cognition. I present, analyze, and defend the claim of Co... more This thesis explores the foundations of cognition. I present, analyze, and defend the claim of Computationalism, which states that cognition reduces to computations. I show how various objections, in particular Searle's Chinese Room argument, are flawed due to a deep confusion regarding the nature of computation. In my defense of Computationalism, I appeal to the notion of emergence, which is a notion that I analyze in detail, since it has been suggested that emergence can solve the problem of consciousness. I argue against this latter suggestion, proposing an alternative view on consciousness instead. Most importantly, I want to thank Eric Dietrich, who has been my main teacher, advisor, advocate, mentor, and friend over the years. Thanks, Eric! I couldn't have done this without the unending support of my parents, Joost and Margot van Heuveln, who have sacrificed so much in supporting their youngest son in his pursuit of his interests and dreams across the great pond. They have done so with admirable grace, integrity, and love. Also thanks to the rest of the family for understanding my absence and sending me lots of photos.
In this paper we present the aspects of solving complex problems using Worldwide Computing based ... more In this paper we present the aspects of solving complex problems using Worldwide Computing based distributed approach. The Busy Beaver Problem of distributed Turing Machine emulation is considered as a running example.
Philosophy and AI have had a difficult relationship from the beginning. The “classic” period from... more Philosophy and AI have had a difficult relationship from the beginning. The “classic” period from 1950 to 2000 saw four major conflicts, first about the logical coherence of AI as an endeavor, and then about architecture, semantics, and the Frame Problem. Since 2000, these early debates have been largely replaced by arguments about consciousness and ethics, arguments that now involve neuroscientists, lawyers, and economists as well as AI scientists and philosophers. We trace these developments, and speculate about the future.
This paper introduces an approach to, rather than the final results of, sustained research and de... more This paper introduces an approach to, rather than the final results of, sustained research and development in the area of roboethics described herein. Encapsulated, the approach is to engineer ethically correct robots by giving them the capacity to reason over, rather than merely in, logical systems (where logical systems are used to formalize such things as ethical codes of conduct for warfighting robots). This is to be accomplished by taking seriously Piaget’s position that sophisticated human thinking exceeds even abstract processes carried out in a logical system, and by
Various computationally-based approaches to making progress on Rado’s Σ function (the Turing-unso... more Various computationally-based approaches to making progress on Rado’s Σ function (the Turing-unsolvable “Busy Beaver” Problem: BBP) have been taken: brute force searches, genetic algorithms, heuristic behaviour analyses, etc. As a result, candidate BBP champions have been reported with a high degree of confidence for both the quintuple and quadruple formulations of the problem. However, what these previous research efforts lack is a definitive proof which explicitly confirms that these candidate machines are in fact Busy Beavers. The present paper proposes and explores the merits of combining treenormalization search techniques with specific nonhalt detection routines to explicity confirm BBP for small values of n. The start of our planned multi-year attack on BBP, this work establishes a foundation for exploiting a form of distributed computation used previously at our institution on the twin-prime problem and provides a fertile testbed for exploring both “visual” reasoning and pos...
In this paper we present the aspects of solving complex problems using Worldwide Computing based ... more In this paper we present the aspects of solving complex problems using Worldwide Computing based distributed approach. The Busy Beaver Problem of distributed Turing Machine emulation is considered as a running example.
ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equa... more ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) class at my school. The goal is essentially to have an ODE class that both exposes students to the solution methods for the traditional classes of solvable ...
This thesis explores the foundations of cognition. I present, analyze, and defend the claim of Co... more This thesis explores the foundations of cognition. I present, analyze, and defend the claim of Computationalism, which states that cognition reduces to computations. I show how various objections, in particular Searle’s Chinese Room argument, are flawed due to a deep confusion regarding the nature of computation. In my defense of Computationalism, I appeal to the notion of emergence, which is a notion that I analyze in detail, since it has been suggested that emergence can solve the problem of consciousness. I argue against this latter suggestion, proposing an alternative view on consciousness instead.
Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, Mar 1, 2001
ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equa... more ABSTRACT It has been a real challenge to introduce some changes to the Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) class at my school. The goal is essentially to have an ODE class that both exposes students to the solution methods for the traditional classes of solvable ...
Teaching Philosophy, 2004
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Papers by Bram Van Heuveln