World University and SchoolIBM Cognitive Systems’ Institute Group

An Universal Translator as a Cognitive System, beginning as a Guidebook with Test http://worlduniversityandschool.org

WUaS Overview

• World University and School is like Wikipedia with best STEM-centric OpenCourseWare

• Planned for 7,943+ languages and 204+ countries

• with online university degrees in large languages and most countries

• Accrediting on CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and CC Yale OYC, for example

World University’s Background

• Scott MacLeod, founder & president

• http://scottmacleod.com

• WUaS began in 2008 in a course I was teaching, as conversation, on “Society and Information Technology” on Harvard’s virtual island in cyberspace

• sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org

WUaS-1000 U.T. Language Challenge:

• A first lesson in over 1000 languages:• There are an estimated 7,943+ languages in

the world

• Over 1000 of these languages have written forms and literate populations of over a 100,000

WUaS U.T. as Cognitive System Grand Challenge

• Proposed WUaS cognitive system grand challenge http://worlduniversityandschool.org

• WUaS is seeking collaborators who want to work on getting relevant Universal Translator projects defined and funded

• Seeking to create a reasonably complex learning module and test in over 1,329 languages

• See WUaS-1000 Universal Translator Learning Module Challenge: http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/03/orchidaceae-wuas-1000-proposed-issip.html

This first "WUaS-ready” U.T. learning module

• composed of a standardized guidebook and test, in over 1,329 languages

• will be a proof-point that can help drive the development of cognitive computing componentry in

• machine translation

• machine learning

• natural language processing

• knowledge representation, and other areas needed to develop cognitive assistants for all occupations in all languages

California State Driver's Handbook as example

• For example, the California State Driver's Handbook • https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/drive

r_handbook_toc• and a sample test • would be a possible Universal Translator learning module

submission • if the faculty/programmers negotiated any needed content

rights with the State of California for Research and Education purposes and created and demonstrated vetting of the 1,329 translations

New Testament / Bible• For example, the New Testament / Bible, too,

• which has been translated into about 1,337 languages, per

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_works_by_number_of_translations

• and a sample test

• would be another possible Universal Translator learning module submission

WUaS is seeking collaborators• Faculty members and programmers to submit a • rigorous and operational grand challenge description based on the

WUaS-1000 challenge • that advances the goal of WUaS in an outstandingly creative and

operationally easy to test manner that still • (1) helps learners in over a thousand languages learn material and

pass a test, and • (2) helps advance the state-of-the-art in machine translations

systems

WUaS Universal Translator example

• The WUaS Universal Translator will also help translate

• WUaS's wiki pages with CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and CC Yale OYC from English into all countries' official languages, and vice versa

• Will translate much more between all 7,943 languages.

• Here's a World Univeristy example from English to German -http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/04/coastal-sage-scrub-amazing-concerning.html - having used the Google Translate machine translator

14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 1

• 1. a general Universal Translator between all 7,943+

languages (http://glottolog.org/glottolog/language), building on

Google Translate, Wikimedia Content Translation planning for

voice and text

• 2. one that further focuses on translating STEM areas, Social

Sciences and Humanities' areas (e.g. translating MIT OCW in

7 languages and Yale OYC with video)

• 3. a guidebook with test approach, as a course / learning

module

14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 2

• 4. an approach that focuses on questions of human

consciousness via each of all 7,943 languages, with

phonemes, text, etc., as markers that could be traced to brain

neurophysiology and neuronal firings (and linked with other

parts of the brain), and emerging from the philosophical

literature on mind, e.g. philosophy of mind, philosophy of

consciousness

• 5. one making Latin significant since it's been learned as a

second language from so many languages

14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 3

• 6. a philosophical question generating approach in all 7,943

languages, since analytical philosophy puts logic central, and as a

kind of information technology

• 7. specific focus on contextualizing all-languages' cultural

understandings of spoken and written words in any given

conversation

• 8. A Universal Translator that works in extreme conditions with

ambient sound, such as a smartphone translating between 2 surfers

between two languages

14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 4

• 9. in terms of machine conversation as a generative tool per

new idea creation that can happen in human conversation –

as in the conference method for teaching and learning (viz.

Reed College’s pedagogical method) -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_

Teaching_and_Learning

• 10. a specific artificial intelligence and machine learning focus

concerning questions AGENCY (see blog - http://scott-

macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/avatar%20agency)

14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 5

• 11. a Universal Translator which could help us understand

when avatars in virtual worlds, for example, achieve kinds of

agency (and robots too) re intentional causation, choice as

independent entities, and consciousness

• 12. a service science programming approach

(see: http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/04/drakaea-

service-science-programming.html)

14 initial foci – WUaS – Planned For-profit side, non CC Core

• 13. Book and Textbook translation into all 7,943 languages as

part of the Academic Press at World University and School -

http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html

• 14. Bookstore/computer store into all 7,943 languages, to

create online markets for smallest languages -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bookstore_/_Computer_S

tore_(New_%26_Used)_at_WUaS

• (14 initial foci:

http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2016/05/12-

initial-foci-of-wuas-universal.html)

CC WUaS is like CC Wikipedia …• This Universal Translator would inform WUaS as Wiki• WUaS is wiki-editable by you, and you would be able to add to the

Universal Translator

• Creative Commons’ licensed – for sharing and adapting

• Extensible inter-lingual wiki information technologies

• Plans to build in CC Wikidata database, developed for Wikipedia’s ~300 languages, with Wiktionary

• WUaS’s main Subjects’ page, in English – e.g.

• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects

…with best STEM-centric CC OCW• Such as MIT OpenCourseWare in 7 languages• MIT OCW Translated Courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-

courses/• MIT OCW Audio Video Courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-

courses/• Yale OYC: http://oyc.yale.edu/• upon which WUaS plans to accredit for CC degrees

• WUaS’s main wiki Courses’ page, in English -

• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses

• Creative Commons’ licensed

Example of WUaS lecture for Degree Side

• example of the lectures students will be engaging on WUaS’s degrees’ side (for Bachelor, Ph.D. Law, M.D. and I.B. degrees in large languages & most countries)

• build Universal Translator to include video and virtual worlds

• MIT Professor Anant Agarwal (CEO and President of edX)

• lec 1 | mit 6.002 circuits and electronics, spring 2007

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQxyVuLeCs• (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-spring-2007/video-lectures/lecture-1/)

• With class sections in G+ group video Hangouts and MIT UnHangouts, interactively

For Open Teaching and Learning …

• Anyone can begin a new wiki Subject in any language at WUaS• Add this to Universal Translator• Wxplore how to start a new WUaS wiki subject page as a creative

teaching opportunity with

• WUaS’s Key SUBJECT TEMPLATE page which informs almost all of the wiki pages for open teaching and learning as schools, planned in all languages -

• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE

Proposed WUaS-1000 Grand Challenge

• For this proposed WUaS grand challenge that we are seeking feedback on, please contact: info@worlduniversityandschool.org or

• spohrer@us.ibm.com• Scott MacLeod - http://scottmacleod.com

• CC WUaS is a new community of interest - it’s like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OCW, developing in CC Wikidata – and focusing on innovative service economic models, measures and impacts

Harvard’s virtual island where WUaS began in 2008Planning the WUaS Universal Translator to work in Virtual Earth