HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_012905.jpg
Extracted Text (OCR)
ix
the set of chapter co-authors does not exhaust the set of significant contributors to the ideas
presented.
The core concepts of the CogPrime design and the underlying theory were conceived by Ben
Goertzel in the period 1995-1996 when he was a Research Fellow at the University of Western
Australia; but those early ideas have been elaborated and improved by many more people than
can be listed here (as well as by Ben’s ongoing thinking and research). The collaborative design
process ultimately resulting in CogPrime started in 1997 when Intelligenesis Corp. was formed
— the Webmind AI Engine created in Intelligenesis’s research group during 1997-2001 was the
predecessor to the Novamente Cognition Engine created at Novamente LLC during 2001-2008,
which was the predecessor to CogPrime.
Acknowledgements
For sake of simplicity, this acknowledgements section is presented from the perspective of the
primary author, Ben Goertzel. Ben will thus begin by expressing his thanks to his primary
co-authors, Cassio Pennachin (collaborator since 1998) and Nil Geisweiller (collaborator since
2005). Without outstandingly insightful, deep-thinking colleagues like you, the ideas presented
here — let alone the book itself—- would not have developed nearly as effectively as what has
happened. Similar thanks also go to the other OpenCog collaborators who have co-authored
various chapters of the book.
Beyond the co-authors, huge gratitude must also be extended to everyone who has been
involved with the OpenCog project, and/or was involved in Novamente LLC and Webmind Inc.
before that. We are grateful to all of you for your collaboration and intellectual companionship!
Building a thinking machine is a huge project, too big for any one human; it will take a team
and I’m happy to be part of a great one. It is through the genius of human collectives, going
beyond any individual human mind, that genius machines are going to be created.
A tiny, incomplete sample from the long list of those others deserving thanks is:
e Ken Silverman and Gwendalin Qi Aranya (formerly Gwen Goertzel), both of whom listened
to me talk at inordinate length about many of the ideas presented here a long, long time
before anyone else was interested in listening. Ken and I schemed some AGI designs at
Simon’s Rock College in 1983, years before we worked together on the Webmind AI Engine.
Allan Combs, who got me thinking about consciousness in various different ways, at a very
early point in my career. I’m very pleased to still count Allan as a friend and sometime
collaborator! Fred Abraham as well, for introducing me to the intersection of chaos theory
and cognition, with a wonderful flair. George Christos, a deep AI/math/physics thinker from
Perth, for re-awakening my interest in attractor neural nets and their cognitive implications,
in the mid-1990s.
e All of the 130 staff of Webmind Inc. during 1998-2001 while that remarkable, ambitious,
peculiar AGT-oriented firm existed. Special shout-outs to the "Voice of Reason" Pei Wang
and the "Siberian Madmind" Anton Kolonin, Mike Ross, Cate Hartley, Karin Verspoor and
the tragically prematurely deceased Jeff Pressing (compared to whom we are all mental
midgets), who all made serious conceptual contributions to my thinking about AGI. Lisa
Pazer and Andy Siciliano who made Webmind happen on the business side. And of course
Cassio Pennachin, a co-author of this book; and Ken Silverman, who co-architected the
whole Webmind system and vision with me from the start.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_012905