The Spatter Code for Encoding Concepts at Many Levels

Abstract

The Spatter Code is a high-dimensional (e.g., N=10,000), random code that encodes “high-level concepts” in tenns of their “low-level attributes” so that concepts at different levels can be mixed freely. The binary spatter code is the simplest. It has two N-bit codewords for each concept or item, a “high-level,” or dense, word with many randomly placed Is and a “low-level,” or sparse, word with a few (that are contained in the many). The dense codewords can be used as inputs to an associative memory. The sparse codewords are used in encoding new concepts. When several items (attributes, concepts, chunks) are combined to form a new item, the two codewords for the new item are made from the sparse codewords of its constituents as follows: the new dense word is the logical OR of the constiblents (i.e., their sum thresholded at 0.5), and the new sparse word has Is where the constiblent words overlap (i.e., their sum thresholded at 1.5). When the parameters for the code are chosen properly, the number of Is in the codewords is maintained as new items are encoded from combinations of old ones.