ROBACUS aka ROBOCOM

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ROBACUS aka ROBOCOM

Postby yew21 » Apr 14th, '21, 06:26

ROBACUS

ROBACUS stands for robotic abacus. ROBACUS is, thus, designed to be as powerful as a robot, yet remains as simple as an abacus. Specifically, ROBACUS is an automated computing environment that is manned by software robots and interfaces the user with an intelligent menu-driven, Q&A-guiding host that speaks in programming-enabled natural-language.

All the interactions between ROBACUS host and its surrounding users are recorded verbatim. Such recordings are saved as software robots as readable text files that are automatically played back when the next user does the same or similar task. These playbacks are identical to the executions of the task by the robot, either transparently in the background or step by step under users’ control. In the step-by-step mode the users are given the ability to modify the execution procedures.

The automation objective here is to minimize the labor required of the user by maximize the reuse of the information contained in the robots. This minimization of labor is both physical and mental. Mentally, it is the “thinking” part of problem solving by the user. The difficult and cumbersome parts of human thought processes are shifted to the computer. And now it’s become the responsibility of the natural-language programming language within ROBACUS.

This thinking program is constructed by programming the human thought processes into the computer. So, in automation mode, the division of labor between the user and computer in problem solving is for users to do the input/output part and the computer, the formulation of the algorithm.

The user starts the process by defining what final answer is to be attained. Then the computer would ask for all the variables and their relations at the appropriate circumstances they are needed. To this the users simply just go fetch them from appropriate sources and input them as answers to the computer’s questions. Since the computer is guiding the user in a logically protective path, the user does not need to remember the variable names and formulate the solution scheme. In another word, he can just leave the “thinking” to the computer.

Presently, ROBACUS is installed on Fedora Core 6 Linux. Due to the non-backward compatibility of many of the window managers in the latest Linux distributions, some of the automation features in ROBACUS are compromised by both the GNOME and KDE window managers. Fortunately, KDE is still fully compatible with ROBACUS in Fedora Core 6 and Mandriva 2007. But Fedora Core 6 has more unrestricted software packages needed by ROBACUS. So, it will be picked as the host of ROBACUS, until all the backward incompatibility issues can be properly addressed.

Introductions to both the software robots and natural language have already been presented in detail in previous sessions in software automation workshop and lectures. Here, the tools and applications of ROBACUS will be described. The tools consist of the User Interface, Robotic Editor and the Diagnosing Debugger. And the applications covered some of the basic categories in computing. They serve as a lead into actual realistic usage of ROBACUS.

In the application session, that the automated way of solving those problems from scratch, however, could be many times more cumbersome than doing them manually. This is where the tools come in to the rescue. But what really proved that automation is feasible is the fact that the accumulation of capability and experience has now make it possible to solve problem in the automated way faster and more reliable than the conventional manual way.

Still, the end is still very far away. Mainly it’s in the programming of some humanly impossible features into the natural-language programming program and the self-healing feature of ROBACUS. These future aspects for ROBACUS will be discussed in more detail at the end of this session.

The objective in life for ROBACUS is knowledge farming. Knowledge farming is, thus, a process of knowledge accumulation by way of ROBACUS. With its natural-language programming interfacing the users in the frontend and software robots working in the background, ROBACUS would make it possible for the users to “talk” to it in plain English in their problem-solving exercises and “record” all the know-hows and experiences the users input to the Q&A sessions into readily reusable data for all others to use, typically as guides to next users working on the similar types of problems.

Knowledge farming, thus, could be considered as an additional modern way of farming. But instead of crops, the modern farmers farm for knowledge, the food for the mind. In so doing, knowledge farming would complete the cycle of production and distribution of mankind’s basic necessities of clothing, food, housing and transportation by auto-mating the processes.

Based on the notion of knowledge communism and contributions from all the farmers, the knowledge accumulated in ROBACUS will be there for all to share, thus, creating a collective brain in ROBACUS which would expand into a thinking machine capable of solving all the remaining problems that human beings need to solve, that would actually do good, instead of harm.

By Dr.XX
yew21
 
Posts: 10
Joined: Mar 25th, '21, 06:18

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