Michael Anderson

Theory and Application of Diagrams

This presentation will address the representation of geospatial information in the context of group work. The focus is on visual representations that mediate between human collaborators who are participating in a joint reasoning process, within a place and/or space-based problem context. The perspective developed for addressing the challenges involved builds upon the cognitive-semiotic approach outlined in How Maps Work, extending it to consider the issues that underlie creation of maps and related diagrams that work in a group work context. This context requires representations that depict not only geospatial information but also individual perspectives on that information, the process of negotiation among those perspectives, and the behaviors (work) of individuals participating in that negotiation. M . An d e rson , P. Ch e n g, an d V. Haarsl e v (E d s. ) : D i agram s 2000, LNAI 1889, p . 1, 2000. c

Diagram processing: computing with diagrams

Of the set of behaviors that will be required of an autonomous artificially intelligent agent, a somewhat neglected member has been the ability to deal with diagrammatic information. We describe a theoretical and computational foundation for machine processing of certain forms of diagrammatic information and show its usefulness in enabling a system to draw inferences from diagrammatic information, make decisions using diagrammatic information, learn from diagrammatic information, solve problems posed diagrammatically, and communicate diagrammatically in a variety of domains.

The status of machine ethics: a report from the AAAI Symposium

This paper is a summary and evaluation of work presented at the AAAI 2005 Fall Symposium on Machine Ethics that brought together participants from the fields of Computer Science and Philosophy to the end of clarifying the nature of this newly emerging field and discussing different approaches one could take towards realizing the ultimate goal of creating an ethical machine.

Luminescence probes of vanadium-contaminated fluid cracking catalysts

Vanadium deactivation and tin passivation of vanadium impurities in a model fluid cracking catalyst system consisting of an europium-exchanged Y zeolite and an amorphous aluminosilicate gel have been studied by luminescence techniques. Vanadium is found to be preferentially adsorbed by the gel and does not migrate after deposition and calcination but does migrate between the zeolite and the matrix during steaming. After heating in air at 575 °C, vanadium is in the form of VO2+ cations on the zeolite and primarily in the form of V2O5 on the gel. The environment of Eu3+ cations is found to be very sensitive to heat treatment but not to the order of tin and vanadium deposition. Upon steaming, EuVO4 is formed on the zeolite and this formation is promoted by the presence of excess Sn.

Tin passivation of vanadium in metal-contaminated fluid-cracking catalysts: Electron paramagnetic resonance studies

Abstract Vanadium interactions with model fluid cracking catalysts and vanadium passivation with tin have been monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). Model systems such as EuY, amorphous aluminosilicate gels, and EuY-gel mixtures have been investigated. Vanadium, introduced in the form of vanadyl naphthenate, is stabilized on the zeolite primarily as octahedrally coordinated VO 2+ cations. In contrast, the gel preferentially sorbs vanadium where it is stabilized mainly in the form of V 2 O 5 . The presence of tin on the zeolite favors oxidation of VO 2+ to V 5+ and the generation of Sn 4+ OV 5+ species during steaming. Formation of europium orthovanadate (EuVO 4 ) is promoted by the presence of excess tin. Removal of Eu 3+ ions from the zeolite lattice in the form of vanadates contributes to zeolite destabilization; thus excess tin is to be avoided.

Toward ensuring ethical behavior from autonomous systems: a case-supported principle-based paradigm

Purpose – This paper aims to propose a paradigm of case-supported principle-based behavior (CPB) to help ensure ethical behavior of autonomous machines. The requirements, methods, implementation and evaluation components of the CPB paradigm are detailed. Design/methodology/approach – The authors argue that ethically significant behavior of autonomous systems can be guided by explicit ethical principles abstracted from a consensus of ethicists. Particular cases of ethical dilemmas where ethicists agree on the ethically relevant features and the right course of action are used to help discover principles needed for ethical guidance of the behavior of autonomous systems. Findings – Such a consensus, along with its corresponding principle, is likely to emerge in many areas in which autonomous systems are apt to be deployed and for the actions they are liable to undertake, as we are more likely to agree on how machines ought to treat us than on how human beings ought to treat one another. Practical implication...

Ethical Healthcare Agents

We have combined a bottom-up casuistry approach with a top-down implementation of an ethical theory to develop a system that uses machine-learning to abstract relationships between prima facie ethical duties from cases of particular types of ethical dilemmas where ethicists are in agreement as to the correct action. This system has discovered a novel ethical principle that governs decisions in a particular type of dilemma that involves three potentially conflicting prima facie duties. We describe two prototype systems in the domain of healthcare that use this principle, one that advises human beings as to the ethically correct action in specific cases of this type of dilemma and the other that uses this principle to guide its own behavior, making it what we believe may be the first explicit ethical agent.

Guest Editors' Introduction: Machine Ethics

Machine ethics is concerned with how machines behave toward human users and other machines. It aims to create a machine thats guided by an acceptable ethical principle or set of principles in the decisions it makes about possible courses of action it could take. As ethics experts continue to progress toward consensus concerning the right way to behave in ethical dilemmas, the task for those working in machine ethics is to codify these insights. Eight articles in this special issue address the issues.This article is part of a special issue on Machine Ethics.

Integrating an intelligent interface with a relational database for two way man-machine communication

The design of a system capable of handling ad hoc user responses to system-initiated questions is considered. An approach called the expectation-driven response understanding paradigm was developed. In this paradigm, it is assumed that each system-generated question is accompanied by an expectation of what the user should respond. The system attempts to link this expectation with the users response in order to quantify its appropriateness in relation to the systems original question. A prototype system based on this paradigm has been implemented and integrated with the INGRES database system.<<ETX>>

Developing a heuristic via diagrammatic reasoning

Endowing a computer with an ability to reason with diagrams could be of great benefit. To date, research in diagrammatic reasoning has dealt with intra-diagrammatic reasoning (reasoning within a single diagram) almost to the exclusion of interdiagrammatic reasoning (reasoning with related groups of diagrams). We postulate a number of general inter-diagrammatic operators and show how such operators can be useful by developing a heuristic for a simple game with them. [