Hello. I'm lrh9, a new user. This is my first time visiting these forums. I've posted on www.programmingforums.org under the same user name.
I'm a hobbyist and amateur computer programmer. My primary languages are C++, a custom scripting language for Windows named AutoHotkey, and Python which I've just started out learning but am determined to learn. I learned some Visual Basic 6 - my first programming language -in high school, but I've forgotten most of it. I've also used programming features of graphing calculators to a small extent.
I think I'm naturally inclined to computer programming. When I was a child, I'd often assemble and disassemble objects to learn how they worked. Legos were one of my favorite toys for instance. It was a relatively easy transition from assembling and disassembling physical components to assembling and disassembling virtual components.
I was introduced to computing technologies when my mother bought me my first video gaming system, the Sega Genesis. It was only natural that when I encountered computer games, I wanted a computer. My grandmother purchased my first computer in the late 1990s, my second around 2005, and I assembled a computer using parts purchased with my own money this year.
My current interest in software development is general purpose artificial intelligence. I am an amateur a.i. researcher, with a focus in computer learning. After surveying approaches to artificial intelligence last year, I decided that I'd pursue the child machine hypothesis as it made the most sense to me and develop a general purpose artificially intelligent agent based on the hypothesis. The child machine hypothesis states that initial computer intelligences will not be created smart, but will learn and develop in a manner similar to the way human children do.
Since then I've been studying to the best of my abilities infant cognition, human development, connections between mind and body, learning, consciousness, extensible software, multiprocessing, inter-process communication, flexible software, agent systems, and software modularity. I've posted fairly regularly about these topics on www.aidreams.co.uk and www.ai-forum.org under the same user name.
I'm here because I would like to solicit collaborators and contributors for my project of creating a general purpose artificially intelligent agent, if that is OK. I will await responses here before I create a thread about it. I hope my involvement with the community will be a positive experience for everyone involved regardless of my own project.
