Re: THEORY: METAGRAM -- Pt.1

--- Caleb Hines <cph9fa@...> wrote:
> I wanted to share a system I'm working on
> developing, tentatively called
> METAGRAM.
<snip>

I started out to do something similar a few years ago
when I was trying to come up with a very formal
version of English to be used to instuct a computer
simulation to cause certain state changes in the
simulation.  Tradtional "text adventure" games or
"Interactive Fiction" uses simple commands like "drop
sword," "walk north," "hit box with hammer," and so
on.

I was looking for a way to "compile" an English
statement into a list of primatives similar to the
manner in which a high level computer language
compiles a complex command into a list of primative
commands.  For example "John gave his green book to
Mary" becomes a series of commands to the simulation:

1. Locate the actor John in the simulation.
2. Locate any book objects in this actor's inventory.
3. Locate any green objects in this list of book
objects.
4. Move the selected book object out of John's
inventory.
5. Locate the actor Mary in the simulation.
6. Move the selected object into Mary's inventory.

In other words, a descriptive sentence is translated
in whatever commands must be given to the computer
simulation in order for it to maintain the simulation
(the computer's "mental model") in synch with the
events or conditions described in the real world.  In
this way the computer was to "understand" what it was
being told by constructing a simulated mental model of
what it was being told.

I look forward to reading more about your system,
since, in spite of the fact that it seems to have a
similar idea behind it, it is quite different from the
system I started developing.

--gary