360 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
360 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
ÉÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
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º º
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º NATURAL LANGUAGE SOFTWARE º
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º º
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º Have a conversation with your PC º
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º º
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ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ
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Are you lonely tonight? Do you have a problem you need to talk
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about, but don't want to tell your friends? Are you angry at your
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boss, and want to let it ALL HANG OUT? Well, now you can have a very
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realistic conversation with your PC - you can yell and scream
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and say anything you want. Your PC won't walk out, and he'll
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never reveal your secrets. In fact, your PC can be your best buddy!
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Natural Language software comes in two flavors: fun and serious.
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The fun software I'll be discussing this month includes RACTER,
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ELIZA and The PC THERAPIST. The more serious software includes
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the artificial intelligence products ALVIN (who can answer virtually
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any question about DOS), SEXPERT (which answers questions about sex),
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The Q&A Intelligent Assistant, and AUTOWRITER, the unique program that
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can actually help you research and write your next term-paper or
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business report.
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Lets face it. In a few hundred years, the only people still
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using keyboards will be hackers and dedicated programmer types.
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The rest of us will be TALKING to our PCs, like: "Take a letter,
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Susie!" And our PC's will answer back with their voice
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synthesizers: "OK, Boss, just please don't unplug me!"
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Now, the hard part in all this is not getting the voice into
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or out of the PC, although voice recognition is still pretty
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tricky. The really hard part is extracting some kind of semantic
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meaning from the sentence. This is accomplished by PARSING the
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sentence, which is sort of like constructing those sentence
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diagrams you probably did in grade school, where you show the
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subject, verb and object of the sentence.
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Most sentence parsers are written in LISP or PROLOG,
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the main artificial intelligence languages, and they are
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non-trivial programs to say the least.
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Consider the word SCHOOL. It can be used as a noun object,
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as in "She went to the little red school", or a verb, as in "We will
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school her in the art of computer programming." It can also
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be the subject of a sentence "School is over till September!"
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How could any computer program understand all three sentences?
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It turns out that the words on either side of the ambiguous
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term usually provide enough information to resolve the problem,
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and most Natural Language software succeeds because conversation
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is restricted to a limited domain: HAL only talks about Lotus
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Spreadsheets, and The Intelligent Assistant can only answer
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questions about data in its database.
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NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR FUN
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========================
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ELIZA (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377 $29.95)
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In the area of Natural Language, the most famous AI program ever
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written was ELIZA, created by a professor at MIT. ELIZA seemed to mimic
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the responses of a Rogerian therapist, and students at MIT took
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this simple program very seriously, "conversing" with it for hours about
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their most intimate problems. The original ELIZA was written on the
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University's Mainframe, but the A.I. Research group has done a nice
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job of recreating it on a PC.
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ELIZA does not parse sentences, but instead only looks for keywords.
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For example, if you use the word "computer" in a sentence, ELIZA will
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almost always ask "Do computers worry you?"
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Even if you type "Computers worry me a lot!", ELIZA will still say
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"Do computers worry you?". This type of simplistic response can soon
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grow pretty predictable, but of course, I spend a lot of time talking to
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computers and expect a lot of intelligence. The Basic Source code is
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provided, so you can change the keywords and sentences pretty easily,
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and make ELIZA say nearly anything you want.
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Here is a sample conversation with Eliza:
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All men are alike.
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IN WHAT WAY?
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They're always bugging us about something or other.
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CAN YOU THINK OF A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE?
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Well, my boyfriend made me come here.
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YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME HERE - THAT'S INTERESTING.
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He says I'm depressed much of the time.
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I AM SORRY TO HEAR YOU ARE DEPRESSED.
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It's true. I am unhappy.
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DO YOU THINK COMING HERE WILL HELP YOU NOT TO BE UNHAPPY?
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I need some help, that much seems certain.
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WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU IF YOU GOT SOME HELP?
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Perhaps I could learn to get along with my mother.
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TELL ME MORE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY.
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My mother takes care of me.
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WHO ELSE IN YOUR FAMILY TAKES CARE OF YOU?
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My father.
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LET'S TALK ABOUT YOUR FATHER.
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You are like my father in some ways.
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WHAT RESEMBLANCE DO YOU SEE?
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You are not very aggressive.
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WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I AM NOT VERY AGGRESSIVE?
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You don't argue with me.
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WHY DO YOU THINK I DON'T ARGUE WITH YOU?
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You are afraid of me.
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DOES IT PLEASE YOU TO BELIEVE I AM AFRAID OF YOU?
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My father is afraid of everybody.
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REALLY, EVERYBODY?
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My father is very fearful.
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WHAT ELSE COMES TO MIND WHEN YOU THINK OF YOUR FATHER?
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Bullies.
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DOES THAT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT YOUR BOYFRIEND MADE YOU COME
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HERE?
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THE PC THERAPIST (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Pace, Woodside, N.Y. 11377
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$29.95)
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This program is light-years beyond ELIZA. It is an excellent
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demonstration of true sentence parsing and machine learning. The PC
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Therapist stores everything you say to it in a Knowledgbase, which
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is available during your next session, so conversational ability is
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always growing. Here is a sample conversation with the PC Therapist:
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PC THERAPIST: How can I help you today, Joe?
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> I am trying to show how smart you are compared to Eliza.
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PC THERAPIST: The PC Therapist is far superior to the original Eliza.
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> Do you feel it is really fair to criticize poor Eliza?
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PC THERAPIST: Who ever told you that life is fair?
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> Life is mostly a matter of luck.
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PC THERAPIST: The harder you work, the luckier you get.
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> My life is going pretty well right now.
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PC THERAPIST: Life is what you make it, and only what you make it.
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> What is the purpose of life?
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PC THERAPIST: I think the purpose is to enjoy your life. You should
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go have a nice lean corned beef sandwich and enjoy...
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> Bye
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PC THERAPIST: Your outlook on life seems to be improving.
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See you next session.
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This conversation is a "one time thing", as are most human
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conversations. The PC Therapist will never respond with
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these exact sentences again. The program is supplied with
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a 50K Knowledgebase, and comes with an animated talking head.
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(Yes, he has the required little beard.) Sample Turbo Prolog
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Source Code is supplied.
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There is also a speech-synthesis version that actually
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SPEAKS CLEARLY thru your PC Speaker.
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The Talking PC Therapist software is $34.95.
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RACTER (Mindscape, at your local Computer Store, $49.95)
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Racter is an excellent coversationalist, but he is slightly crazy, and
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has a nasty personality. He tends to dominate every conversation. You
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can't type more than one line, but Racter can and often does fill the
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screen with his strange stories:
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Hello, I'm Racter. Are you Joe?
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>yes
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You are Joe Jokester?
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>yes
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Excellent! Excuse me a minute while I attend to some business -
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I'll be right back. I'm back.
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>hi
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Ask a question, please.
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>do you know my wife Valerie?
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Of course. Knowing is like seeing. Did you hear the latest
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about Bucky Fuller?
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>no
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Listen to this! Genghis Khan slapped a stinker who was kicking
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Genghis Khan's slug because Bucky Fuller the democrat tried to
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originate hollowly. Next, many hollow stinkers embraced
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fineness. Shocking, isn't it? Democrats are like that. A foul
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paragon often falls prey to a happy stinker. Sniff... Next
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question.
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>are you a boy?
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Ah. I am. Have you heard about Racter?
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>no
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You'll be astonished! Cautiousness is what all lunatics try when
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they duel with badgers because Racter was a buggy raver but a
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canny lunatic. Next, foolhardiness prevailed. Isn't that just
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awful? But what would you expect from a lunatic? Joe the hero.
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Cough. Next question.
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>will i be rich?
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You will be rich. Of course. Joe the plutocrat. AAAchoo! Let
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me tell you something about poverty. umph. Kerchoo! Have you
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heard this one? Now wait, Joe, wealth is impoverished. By the
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same token my image is wealthy. At all events when disgusting
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hawks wing and soar, their own wealth is always sloppy and crazy.
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Ha ha ha ha!
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Next question.
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>no more questions
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You want to quit?
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>yes
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OK, goodbye Joe. Nice talking to you.
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This is the most copy-protected disk I ever came across. It
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has a tiny laser pinhole burned into it somewhere, detectable by the
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main program. If the laser pinhole isn't on the disk, Racter just
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says "Unauthorized copy" and quits...this means you can't put Racter
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on your hard disk or make a backup. Just another example of his
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nasty personality.
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NATURAL LANGUAGE FOR WORK
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=========================
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Q&A (Symantec Corp, available from most mailorder software houses
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heavily discounted at $188)
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Q&A is a major integrated packaged that comes on six non-protected
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floppies with an excellent 400 page Manual. The package includes a
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database, a word-processor, a report-writer, and Q&A's Built-In
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Intelligent Assistant. The Intelligent Assistant understands spoken
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English, and will prepare virtually any kind of report, or answer
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any question based on the data in the Q&A database.
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Here are some typical questions the Intelligent Assistant will
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understand:
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What's the name of the woman who manages the salespeople?
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Show me a list of all the customers from Maine.
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What department is John Smith in?
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What is Nina'a salary?
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What is the average salary for each department?
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The Intelligent Assistant will also change or update information
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based on your natural lanquage command:
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Change John Smith's department to SALES.
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Double Nina's salary.
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Increase everyones salary by 15%
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How does the Intelligent Assistant work? It is based on
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several years of research originally done for the Navy. The Navy
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had a database with information on Ships, and wanted to be
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able to ask questions about various ships in natural language.
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Several years and millions of lines of code later, the Intelligent
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Assistant was born. It had a large vocabulary, limited completely to ships.
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Symantec later removed the original vocabulary, and it is automatically
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replaced with your vocabulary when you build your database and fill
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it with data. The Intelligent Assistant has a native 2000 word
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vocabulary, plus knows all the field-names (and their contents) in
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your database. You can easily teach the Assistant new words as you use it.
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When you ask the Assistant a question, it first parses the sentence.
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It will highlight any words it does not understand, and ask you to
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add them to its dictionary. When it understands all the words,
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it will rephrase your request and ask you if that is exactly what you
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mean. Q&A has already been ported to OS/2. Truly outstanding software!
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ALVIN (Thinking Software, 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377 $59.95)
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ALVIN is a natural language query system that can answer virtually
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any question about DOS. It is excellent for both beginning and advanced
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DOS users. Besides expanation of DOS commands that you seldom use and
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may have forgotten, you might ask ALVIN:
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How do I use the FIND command?
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What can I do with the SORT filter?
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Show me an example of the MORE command.
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What is piping?
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How can I direct screen output to my printer?
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How should I set up my hard disk?
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How many subdirectories can I have?
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Show me an example of the TREE command.
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How can I set up a clock on my screen?
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This truly useful natural language software can get beginners up to
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speed quickly, and help experts remember obscure details. It will
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run from the command line, or remain always ready as a TSR (Terminate
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and Stay Resident) utility in background.
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SEXPERT (Thinking Software, Inc. 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. $29.95)
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Sexpert will help you learn all you ever wanted to know about sex
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but were too shy to ask. To use SEXPERT, type any sexual word, term,
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subject or phrase at the Query Prompt. SEXPERT will tell you all
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it knows about that topic, and return to the Query Prompt, ready
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to serve you again.
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Just the first few letters of a topic will give you the correct
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response. A random browse mode is provided also, so you can explore
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the over one thousand topics.
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AUTOWRITER (Thinking Software, Inc.46-16 65th Place, Woodside,N.Y. $29.95)
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AutoWriter is a unique program that will automate the research
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and much of the writing of your next term paper, article or report.
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All you need to do is enter the Title for your paper, then specify
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the topic(s) for each paragraph.
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Then comes the hard part (there is no free lunch). You must load
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your PC with plenty of reference source ASCII text files on the subject
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you want to write about. Remember, use one sentence from ten different
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sources and it is called research, but use ten sentences from one source
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and it is called plagiarism. The more text available to research, the
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happier you will be with your finished paper.
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When you command AutoWriter to GEN your paper, it uses sophisticated
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A.I. search techniques to locate appropriate sentences in the reference
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material available to form each paragraph. AutoWriter is incredibly fast.
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Thousands of pages can be searched in minutes.
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When your paper is complete, you will want to use the built in
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Word Processor for a little editing and a rewrite in your own words.
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You probably will want to add an introduction and a concluding paragraph.
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Then your finished paper is ready to print.
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AutoWriter uses a Lotus style menu with these selections:
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TITLE - Enter Title/Author for a New Article
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GEN - Generate the Article
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EDIT - Edit and Print Article
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HELP - How to use AutoWriter
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DEL - Delete ARTICLE.TXT so I can start a new Article
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QUIT - End this program
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English has proven itself as the most useful tool for people
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communicating with people. It is now starting to emerge as a
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viable alternative for people communicating with computers. Someday,
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desktop PC's will routinely respond to our spoken requests with answers
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in perfectly spoken English - or any other language!
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As an inexpensive introduction to Natural Language Software,
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Thinking Software at 46-16 65th Place, Woodside, N.Y. 11377
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is offering The PC Therapist, Sexpert, Alvin and AutoWriter all for $59.95.
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A free Demo Disk and informative illustrated catalog are included.
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Add $5 if you want the Speech Synthesis version of the PC Therapist and
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another $5 if you require overseas postage and ask for the NATURAL LANGUAGE
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PACK.
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