Re: The mind's inner voice ...

I am wondering if we can exploit inner voice(s) as a way to monitor what a cognitive agent is thinking/feeling, analogous to the SciFi concept of telepathy as a way to listen to another person’s thoughts.  Transparency and explainability after all are strongly desirable features for such agents.

One way to get to that point is via work on natural language semantics, natural language understanding and generation. I think it also relates to how we seek to understand what we observe, e.g. of others, in terms of constructing models of their actions and intent.  Likewise, we can apply metacognition to explain what we are doing at a conscious and subconscious level, and to map this back into the words spoken by our inner voice(s).

This will take a few years to work through, but the general direction seems clear!

> On 2 Nov 2021, at 11:30, Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> wrote:
> 
> You may, like me, enjoy the following article on the mind’s inner voice:
> 
>> Most of us have an inner voice: that constant presence that tells you to “Watch out” or “Buy shampoo” or “Urgh, this guy’s a creep”. For many of us, this voice sounds much like our own, or at least how we think we sound. But for some people, their inner voice isn’t a straightforward monologue that reproaches, counsels and reminds. Their inner voice is a squabbling Italian couple, say, or a calm-faced interviewer with their hands folded on their lap. Or it’s a taste, feeling, sensation or colour. In some cases, there isn’t a voice at all, just silence.
> 
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> https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/25/the-last-great-mystery-of-the-mind-meet-the-people-who-have-unusual-or-non-existent-inner-voices <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/25/the-last-great-mystery-of-the-mind-meet-the-people-who-have-unusual-or-non-existent-inner-voices> 
> 
> The inner voice can be considered as evidence of how metacognition is expressed in terms of natural language semantics and played out as sound within our mind, in a way that resembles the sound we hear when reading text.
> 
> What do you think?   Describe your inner voice(s)!
> 
> 
> Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org <mailto:dsr@w3.org>> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett <http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett>
> W3C Data Activity Lead & W3C champion for the Web of things 
> 
> 
> 
> 

Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org> http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett
W3C Data Activity Lead & W3C champion for the Web of things