Aristotle was an Android

...but that's OK.

***Update
This project is starting to really take shape.  I'm using OpenCV on a Android smart phone for the vision/object tracking system. 

The servo control and feedback is done with an Arduino.  The mind model is coming together rather well too.  The process has been a real joy. 

...sometime...

The basic premise for this mind model is to share an experience with the beings present.

The questions Aristotle attempts to answer are...
Are you there?
Who are you? (cat or human; which cat or human)
What are you doing?
What are you looking at?

Aristotle is mostly an observer with his only physical interface with the world (no arms yet) being STOUT, a voice syth, beeps and Predator-vs-Alien like processed video. 

...sometime earlier...

Idea chicken operating an abacus.

I believe that we as humans are born completely devoid of knowledge, intelligence, or wisdom.  That's fine, human intelligence maybe completely artificial but these qualities can be learned, even if our only true priori, or innate knowledge is of the biologic nature.  Nonetheless, considering that Aristotle was the first biologist, using his name for a half organic android seems all the more fitting.

Aristotle is the basis of my latest work, an android named "Aristotle".  He has a mechanical mind (electronic for now) and an organic body (wood, of course).  I'll be sharing my explorations of the ROS, a Robot Operating Systems developed by the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.  The hierarchical structure of ROS makes it perfect for an Aristotelian world view, however Plato's ideas will play a big part in the mental components of our android's mind.  Indeed our Android Aristotle will have an Aristotelian structured mind made of Platonic components.

For the uninitiated, ROS is actually an API for C++ and Python rather than an Operating System.  It succeeds in unifying actuators, sensors and logic nodes together into a cohesive system.  The main process of ROS provides a name service to which nodes can register services.  The nodes provide request/response services over which a message topic can be sent.

The name service and message passing creates a bit of latency but makes up for it with the ease of abstracting complexity.  To a paraphrase my friend from Warsaw, "I don't care how long it takes to run, it only took me a minute to write."  Indeed, engineering is about getting things done.  You can always go back and optimize if necessary, however it's way more difficult to fix architectural problems.    

Aristotle's view of the Universe.

Aristotle was a student of Plato, who was a student of Socrates; a great continuum of Philosophical thought in Athens.  Each student simultaneous broke apart the teacher's ideas and built upon them.  Plato answered questions, where Socrates only asked them.  Aristotle searched for understand from observation of the world, where Plato searched for form from within.

Foremost, Aristotle was a scientist.  He rationalized the world by placing it into ever growing hierarchical categorizes; alive or dead, plant or animal, human or beast.  It's a powerful and useful tool to pragmatically explain the world.  This is the main premise of this computerized model of Aristotle’s brain.

Plato believed the world to be rather mechanical compared to Aristotle's biological view.  Plato believed that the "idea" chicken came before both the chicken and the egg.  Although Aristotle rejected Plato’s concept that form came from within, this might have been a bit impetuous.   You'll see later;
how he views the world, categorizes what he sees, and projects his thoughts.
...more to come...