Proposal for the creation of a research facility for the development of
  the SP machine
  This is a proposal to create a research facility for the development of a
high-parallel version of the "SP machine", based on the "SP theory of
intelligence". We envisage that the new version of the SP machine will be an
open-source software virtual machine, derived from the existing "SP computer
model", and hosted on an existing high-performance computer. It will be a means
for researchers everywhere to explore what can be done with the system and to
create new versions of it. The SP system is a unique attempt to simplify and
integrate observations and concepts across artificial intelligence, mainstream
computing, mathematics, and human perception and cognition, with information
compression as a unifying theme. Potential benefits and applications include
helping to solve problems associated with big data; facilitating the
development of autonomous robots; unsupervised learning, natural language
processing, several kinds of reasoning, fuzzy pattern recognition at multiple
levels of abstraction, computer vision, best-match and semantic forms of
information retrieval, software engineering, medical diagnosis, simplification
of computing systems, and the seamless integration of diverse kinds of
knowledge and diverse aspects of intelligence. Additional motivations include
the potential of the SP system to help solve problems in defence, security, and
the detection and prevention of crime; potential in terms of economic, social,
environmental, and academic criteria, and in terms of publicity; and the
potential for international influence in research. The main elements of the
proposed facility are described, including support for the development of
"SP-neural", a neural version of the SP machine. The facility should be
permanent in the sense that it should be available for the foreseeable future,
and it should be designed to facilitate its use by researchers anywhere in the
world.
