Why We Need Vector Symbolic Architectures

A couple months ago I gave a talk at Haskins about Vector Symbolic Architectures, a new approach to knowledge representation and computing that is very robust to even large amounts of noise. This blog post describes how a classical (von Neumann) computing architecture can fail from the random flipping of even a single bit. Whatever organizing principles the mind/brain is using, they can't be anything like this!

Long Compound Noun Alert

When I was a grad student at Brandeis, I always enjoyed the sign that said Volen Center for Complex Systems Building -- a single noun consisting of six words. From today's Slashdot comes Chinese Internet Addiction Boot Camp Prison Break. Not only is this compound noun seven words long; it doesn't even use a preposition! The number of possible bracketings (word groupings) of such a string is 429, as determined by the Catalan number with n = 7; however, the bracketing that makes the most sense to me is

[[Chinese [[internet addiction] [boot camp]]] [prison break]]

Avatar: Best. Review. Ever.

Best smackdown review yet of a disappointing movie that I couldn't even make it through.