Scott MacLeod, founder and president of World University and School gave this presentation at the Cognitive Systems Institute Speaker Series on May 5, 2016.

1. World University and School
IBM Cognitive Systems’ Institute Group
An Universal Translator as a Cognitive System,
beginning as a Guidebook with Test
http://worlduniversityandschool.org

2. WUaS Overview
• World University and School is like Wikipedia
with best STEM-centric OpenCourseWare
• Planned for 7,943+ languages and 204+ countries
• with online university degrees in large languages
and most countries
• Accrediting on CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and
CC Yale OYC, for example

3. World University’s Background
• Scott MacLeod, founder & president
• http://scottmacleod.com
• WUaS began in 2008 in a course I was teaching, as
conversation, on “Society and Information
Technology” on Harvard’s virtual island in
cyberspace
• sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org

4. WUaS-1000 U.T. Language Challenge:
• A first lesson in over 1000 languages:
• There are an estimated 7,943+ languages in
the world
• Over 1000 of these languages have written
forms and literate populations of over a
100,000

5. WUaS U.T. as Cognitive System Grand Challenge
• Proposed WUaS cognitive system grand challenge
http://worlduniversityandschool.org
• WUaS is seeking collaborators who want to work on getting
relevant Universal Translator projects defined and funded
• Seeking to create a reasonably complex learning module and test in
over 1,329 languages
• See WUaS-1000 Universal Translator Learning Module Challenge:
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2015/03/orchidaceae-wuas-
1000-proposed-issip.html

6. This first "WUaS-ready” U.T. learning module
• composed of a standardized guidebook and test, in over 1,329
languages
• will be a proof-point that can help drive the development of
cognitive computing componentry in
• machine translation
• machine learning
• natural language processing
• knowledge representation, and other areas needed to develop
cognitive assistants for all occupations in all languages

7. California State Driver's Handbook
as example
• For example, the California State Driver's Handbook
• https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/hdbk/drive
r_handbook_toc
• and a sample test
• would be a possible Universal Translator learning module
submission
• if the faculty/programmers negotiated any needed content
rights with the State of California for Research and Education
purposes and created and demonstrated vetting of the 1,329
translations

8. New Testament / Bible
• For example, the New Testament / Bible, too,
• which has been translated into about 1,337 languages, per
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_works_by_num
ber_of_translations
• and a sample test
• would be another possible Universal Translator learning
module submission

9. WUaS is seeking collaborators
• Faculty members and programmers to submit a
• rigorous and operational grand challenge description based on the
WUaS-1000 challenge
• that advances the goal of WUaS in an outstandingly creative and
operationally easy to test manner that still
• (1) helps learners in over a thousand languages learn material and
pass a test, and
• (2) helps advance the state-of-the-art in machine translations
systems

10. WUaS Universal Translator example
• The WUaS Universal Translator will also help translate
• WUaS's wiki pages with CC MIT OCW in 7 languages and CC Yale
OYC from English into all countries' official languages, and vice
versa
• Will translate much more between all 7,943 languages.
• Here's a World Univeristy example from English to German -
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/04/coastal-sage-scrub-
amazing-concerning.html - having used the Google Translate
machine translator

11. 14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 1
• 1. a general Universal Translator between all 7,943+
languages (http://glottolog.org/glottolog/language), building on
Google Translate, Wikimedia Content Translation planning for
voice and text
• 2. one that further focuses on translating STEM areas, Social
Sciences and Humanities' areas (e.g. translating MIT OCW in
7 languages and Yale OYC with video)
• 3. a guidebook with test approach, as a course / learning
module

12. 14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 2
• 4. an approach that focuses on questions of human
consciousness via each of all 7,943 languages, with
phonemes, text, etc., as markers that could be traced to brain
neurophysiology and neuronal firings (and linked with other
parts of the brain), and emerging from the philosophical
literature on mind, e.g. philosophy of mind, philosophy of
consciousness
• 5. one making Latin significant since it's been learned as a
second language from so many languages

13. 14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 3
• 6. a philosophical question generating approach in all 7,943
languages, since analytical philosophy puts logic central, and as a
kind of information technology
• 7. specific focus on contextualizing all-languages' cultural
understandings of spoken and written words in any given
conversation
• 8. A Universal Translator that works in extreme conditions with
ambient sound, such as a smartphone translating between 2 surfers
between two languages

14. 14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 4
• 9. in terms of machine conversation as a generative tool per
new idea creation that can happen in human conversation –
as in the conference method for teaching and learning (viz.
Reed College’s pedagogical method) -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_
Teaching_and_Learning
• 10. a specific artificial intelligence and machine learning focus
concerning questions AGENCY (see blog - http://scott-
macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/avatar%20agency)

15. 14 initial foci - WUaS CC Universal Translator - 5
• 11. a Universal Translator which could help us understand
when avatars in virtual worlds, for example, achieve kinds of
agency (and robots too) re intentional causation, choice as
independent entities, and consciousness
• 12. a service science programming approach
(see: http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2016/04/drakaea-
service-science-programming.html)

16. 14 initial foci – WUaS – Planned For-profit side, non CC
Core
• 13. Book and Textbook translation into all 7,943 languages as
part of the Academic Press at World University and School -
http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html
• 14. Bookstore/computer store into all 7,943 languages, to
create online markets for smallest languages -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bookstore_/_Computer_S
tore_(New_%26_Used)_at_WUaS
• (14 initial foci:
http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2016/05/12-
initial-foci-of-wuas-universal.html)

17. CC WUaS is like CC Wikipedia …
• This Universal Translator would inform WUaS as Wiki
• WUaS is wiki-editable by you, and you would be able to add to the
Universal Translator
• Creative Commons’ licensed – for sharing and adapting
• Extensible inter-lingual wiki information technologies
• Plans to build in CC Wikidata database, developed for Wikipedia’s
~300 languages, with Wiktionary
• WUaS’s main Subjects’ page, in English – e.g.
• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects

18. …with best STEM-centric CC OCW
• Such as MIT OpenCourseWare in 7 languages
• MIT OCW Translated Courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/translated-
courses/
• MIT OCW Audio Video Courses: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-
courses/
• Yale OYC: http://oyc.yale.edu/
• upon which WUaS plans to accredit for CC degrees
• WUaS’s main wiki Courses’ page, in English -
• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Courses
• Creative Commons’ licensed

19. Example of WUaS lecture for Degree Side
• example of the lectures students will be engaging on WUaS’s
degrees’ side (for Bachelor, Ph.D. Law, M.D. and I.B. degrees
in large languages & most countries)
• build Universal Translator to include video and virtual worlds
• MIT Professor Anant Agarwal (CEO and President of edX)
• lec 1 | mit 6.002 circuits and electronics, spring 2007
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfQxyVuLeCs
• (http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-002-circuits-and-electronics-spring-2007/video-lectures/lecture-1/)
• With class sections in G+ group video Hangouts and MIT UnHangouts,
interactively

20. For Open Teaching and Learning …
• Anyone can begin a new wiki Subject in any language at WUaS
• Add this to Universal Translator
• Wxplore how to start a new WUaS wiki subject page as a creative
teaching opportunity with
• WUaS’s Key SUBJECT TEMPLATE page which informs almost all of
the wiki pages for open teaching and learning as schools, planned
in all languages -
• http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE

21. Proposed WUaS-1000 Grand Challenge
• For this proposed WUaS grand challenge that we are seeking
feedback on, please contact: info@worlduniversityandschool.org or
• spohrer@us.ibm.com
• Scott MacLeod - http://scottmacleod.com
• CC WUaS is a new community of interest - it’s like CC Wikipedia
with best STEM-centric CC OCW, developing in CC Wikidata – and
focusing on innovative service economic models, measures and
impacts

22. Harvard’s virtual island where WUaS began in 2008
Planning the WUaS Universal Translator to work in Virtual Earth