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<\/p>\nInside view of the ground floor of a Starbucks in Tokyo – wow! The perfect venue to learn more about language and our ability to understand \u2014 with coffee!<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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OK, how can I claim that learning doesn\u2019t stop while we are young? Why so confident?<\/p>\n
Do you know the (made up) word Preada? It\u2019s a brand that sells glasses, like Prada. Preada puts additional effort (E) into the designs of Prada, making the name PraEda! Now, if those sentences mean nothing to you, you haven\u2019t learned anything, but if you have now heard of Praeda, you have learned a new word that represents a fictitious company. QED: we keep learning as seen with our ability to learn new words in communications.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Why is today\u2019s statistical AI doomed to failure? Because the uses of language are infinite, the goal of finding an example of every kind of communication (to provide accurate recognition) is doomed to failure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Let\u2019s see what I learned at the Tokyo Starbucks!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPlease hand this receipt to our Barista at the hand off.\u201d Nope, that\u2019s not great English, but I understand it perfectly. When we order drinks at a coffee shop, I know that they make the drink and call my name (or activate a ringing device) to alert me it is ready to pick. At the pick up (the hand off of my drinks), I need to provide my receipt to the barista.<\/p>\n I understand a massive amount about the process in question and can understand the change in perspective from my handoff (what I give up) to their handoff (what they give me).<\/p>\n It is like rocket science<\/strong><\/em>: language understanding deals with a very large number of considerations in dealing with the real world. The interactions back in the 1980s were called things like \u2018scripts\u2019 and \u2018frames.\u2019 The UC Berkeley FrameNet<\/strong> system seeks to document these kinds of \u201cframes.\u201d<\/p>\n If you are too old to learn, let me translate the second sentence for you: \u201cWe sincerely serve our almondmilk beverages to our customers by using this receipt.\u201d This means:<\/p>\n \u201cPlease swap this receipt for your almond milk coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Really. There is some sincerity I left out, but the receipt doesn\u2019t cause the drink to be served! I translated the word \u201calmondmilk\u201d into two words \u201calmond\u201d and \u201cmilk.\u201d<\/p>\n The vast scope of my understanding of the situation allows me to effortlessly convert non-standard English into a crystal clear, unambiguous request. Based on brain observations over many years that led to the formation of Patom Theory, we can replicate this without ever needing to store multiple instances of language to recognize new forms of the language. We can learn words on the fly<\/strong> as well as phrases and different perspectives of events!<\/p>\n Let\u2019s do one more example to show our amazing skill at decoding messages in language. Note: I will not attempt to recognize the Japanese language here since I not only don\u2019t recognize the characters, but also the words, phrases and meanings of the relationships!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p> Let\u2019s review each sentence to contrast my English with theirs.<\/p>\n \u201cTo Customers who use table\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n OK, I don\u2019t capitalize \u2018Customers.\u2019 Not \u2018table\u2019, but \u2018this table.\u2019 This sentence introduces the next ones, so perhaps a colon would help \u2018:\u2019?<\/p>\n \u201cThis table will be reserved from 16:30 to close.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n I would change \u2018to\u2019 to \u2018until.\u2019 Why? I don\u2019t know, but I prefer \u2018until\u2019 with time-based (temporal) references of end points in durations. Maybe \u2018we close\u2019 is clearer than \u2018close\u2019 alone. \u201c\u2026 from 16:30 until we close.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the time comes, the staff will communicate to you\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Hhhmmm. A tough one as I wouldn\u2019t be so direct. Perhaps, \u201cWe will remind you if you are still here after 16:30.\u201d (I like each sentence to end with a period) There is no need to say that staff will \u2018talk to\u2019 (communicate WITH) us.<\/p>\n \u201cWe thank you for your cooperation\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Add a period! OK, that\u2019s just my preference. This is a polite way of telling us what to do. \u201cYou have been warned\u201d is more direct, but disrespectful to customers. It uses the \u2018assumptive close\u2019 since many people may not cooperate! But we can embed a false statement \u201cyour cooperation\u201d inside such gratitude: \u201cWe thank you for\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Language is an extremely precise and accurate tool of communication. As an infinite use of composable words and phrases in context, we can understand far more than is written to convey requests.<\/p>\n Understanding isn\u2019t just memorization<\/strong>. The examples show words and phrases that I have never seen!<\/p>\n In this example, perfectly understandable English is being created by native Japanese speakers in a Starbucks shop in Tokyo. While I can write essays on the differences, the purpose of communications is to get our point across in a concise way. This fundamental approach to communications (refer to Grice\u2019s Maxims for more detail) is a standard human model that we are never taught directly, but we seem to follow anyway.<\/p>\n For those who are hoping, sometimes called \u2018hopium\u2019, that statistical AI will \u2018one day\u2019 be able to understand the myriad of points I have made today, perhaps this essay persuades you to look beyond today\u2019s AI approach. Because the Next Generation of AI is emerging from the cognitive sciences!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p> \u00a0<\/p> If you want to get involved with our upcoming project to enable a gamified language-learning system, the site to track progress is here (click)<\/a>. You can keep informed by adding your email to the contact list on that site.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/speechgenie.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https3A2F2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com2Fpublic2Fimages2F0c61042e-b1f9-41e0-a370-686577ec7307_3470x4753.jpeg\")
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n
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\n<\/div>\nDo you want to get more involved?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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