I am Thomas Visel, a creator of linguistics-based Human-Level Intelligence (HLI).
The Back Story
As Psybrix founder and former CTO at Neuric Technologies, my entrance to the world of linguistics-based intelligence was a 1992 conversation with Brian, my 12-year old son. Brian posed, “Dad, could you make a Mister Data?” The careful answer was, “No, Brian, you cannot make a Mister Data. The reality is that there are no Positronic Brains. Besides, were we to create such a system, there would have to be some way to store human-like thought in electronic form.”
Brian went silent for about 10 seconds, an eternity; I was troubled that I had quashed his enthusiasm. He then went on, “Dad, I think you can do this!” He then proposed his theory on how we learn in the context of what we already know. As it happened it was Brian who was right.
Contact us: info@psybrix.com
Accomplishments and Interests
Patent-wise, I hold more than a dozen in the fields of
- Machine intelligence
- Linguistics and the parsing of English
- Semantic analysis of English content
In addition I hold a half-dozen patents in such diverse fields as the:
- Removal of distortion from optical holograms
- Nanoparticle-based sensors for oxygen and chemical agents
- The creation of kilo-volt high speed pulses
- Semiconductor packaging and test.
Languages, Computer and Human
Aside from native English (which I disliked in school), I had the usual 2 semesters of Latin, and the later study of Japanese for business reasons. My interest in parsing English had its strong roots in the writing of compilers for C, SPARQL and other computer languages.
Managing a large team of linguists gave daily exposure to the formal concepts of linguistics over a number of years. Linguistics has since become a passion. It enabled development of automated capability equivalent to diagramming sentences, to identify nuanced meaning from word usage, a semantic analysis.
I’ve been privileged to rub shoulders with a number of wonderful psychologists, studying their methods for characterizing the properties of temperament and psychological function. The outcome was creation of a psychological model of human behavior.
Beyond these exposures, I have written more than 1M lines of code in both C and in C++ and about half that amount each in C# and in Java, Java a current favorite. I have also written at least 10K lines of code in each of 35 computer languages and assemblers, a minimal but useful (outdated!) proficiency.
With more than a dozen years in Aerospace behind me, I have hardware and software flying on 8 military and 3 commercial aircraft. Their designs have included cockpit displays, air data, navigation and flight controls.
I love both electronics and software. My favorite playscape is microwave hardware communications design, primarily for amateur radio. The quintessential geek, I’m afraid.