In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006)

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by	James Hendler

Push Singh was a young MIT post doc making important contributions to AI with his Open Mind Common Sense project, a Web-based approach to acquire common sense knowledge from the general public. He was also one of KurzweilAI.net's big thinkers. He will be missed by us, and by many others.

Originally published in IEEE Intelligent Systems May/June 2006 (special issue on the future of AI, access to articles free). Reprinted with permission on KurzweilAI.net July 6, 2006.

It was with great sadness that I learned of Push Singh's death on 28 February this year. This remembrance is in lieu of the essay we expected to publish for his "AI Ten to Watch" award. It would be hard to write even if I knew him only through the paperwork submitted with his nomination. In Push's case, however, it's much harder, for I had recently begun talking with him about research ideas, and he had some exciting thoughts that I was eager to pursue during an upcoming sabbatical.

Push started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an undergraduate in 1988, staying on as a graduate student and completing his thesis in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 2005. His advisor was Marvin Minsky, one of AI's founders. Push was slated to begin a position as a faculty member in the MIT Media Laboratory in 2007 after, as he described it to me, a much-needed year off "to think."

Push's research was based partly on Marvin's society-of-minds approach, exploring what common sense was and how it could develop. His thesis, "EM-ONE: An Architecture for Reflective Commonsense Thinking," included the creation of Open Mind Common Sense (http://csc.media.mit.edu), a Web-based approach to acquire commonsense knowledge from the general public. He also developed a layered cognitive architecture aimed at exploring how reasoning about physical, social, and mental domains could work.

In remembering him, Marvin Minsky said, "Push had just been appointed to become a new professor at MIT, to pursue what we knew would be a brilliantly productive career. For several years we have been designing an ambitious project to develop [commonsense] theories, which have slowly been gaining the interest of many researchers inside and outside the Media Lab. To us his loss is indescribable because of how we could communicate so much and so quickly in so very few words, as though we were parts of a single mind."

Henry Lieberman, who worked with Push on the Open Mind project, said, "Push and his students worked on collecting common sense and developing architectures and tools surrounding the knowledge. My students and I concentrated on applying this knowledge to improve all kinds of interactive applications: browsers, editors, games, phones, etc. Push helped me teach my course, where we taught students how to understand and work with commonsense knowledge. It has now grown to the point that there are numerous projects involving common sense in many, if not most, of the other groups at the Media Lab, and also elsewhere. This collaboration has been one of the most productive and fruitful of my career, and I thus owe him a tremendous debt that I shall never have the opportunity to repay." (For these and many other tributes to Push, see http://pedia.media.mit.edu/wiki/Push_Singh.)

In my own discussions with Push, we were exploring how to put his commonsense work, especially the Open Mind project, together with the Semantic Web work I do. From the first moment we talked, I could tell he was a brilliant young man with inspiring ideas. I looked forward to working with him, fully expecting to learn more than I could teach. We planned a visit for him to discuss his research and how we could proceed. While I didn't know him as well as Marvin, Henry, and the many students, faculty, and friends he had at MIT and beyond, I can't believe I'll never get a chance to pursue these ideas with this talented young scientist. He will be missed.

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Mind·X Discussion About This Article:


	Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 10:11 AM by EdgarSwank	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
In the memorial article, it doesn't mention cause of death at such a young age. A short web search also did not reveal the information, although there was one reference to an "incident", possibly a car accident.


	Re: Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 11:39 AM by eldras	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
I'm sorry Push has died. It's a loss like the death in a car crash of Seymore Cray (the greatest supercomputering architect in history). I had a brief emails with Push after Prof. Aaron Slomann introduced us, when our projects were both starting up. He drafted 'commonsense' & I BESS. I didn't really know him as our approaches were radically different. He had a growing reputation as an upcoming A.I. mind. He had a strong committment to the wide community was keen on opensource, and a valuable support to Narvin Minsky who'd marked him for appointment as professor at MIT. I cant assess his work. Like Doug Lenat's it was a system making lists of observations about the world, and I contributed for fun: a table is flat.. Humans are biological beings etc The idea was a data base so you could access knowledge and eventualy derive new information from it. You can see what's happening to his project here: http://csc.media.mit.edu/ Chris McKinstry was doing a similar project, Mindpixel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McKinstry He died a few weeks before Push this year. A.I. researchers have intense gifts and the emotions are very great that come with them. One army general I met at a technical meeting revealed he was exasperated by the numbers of clever minds that were dysfunctional in A.I. but no progress could be made without them. Like test pilots we try the impossible to sometimes prove it possible. My cousin was a great USAF test pilot killed trying a new manouvre. I dint think flying in the mind is so diffrent. We are pioneers. I see it in us. It's imperative we stay survive. They were both killed/died trying to build Strong A.I: One died in January and the other in February this year). Both were young. Anyone who doubts A.I. is the front and parallel to the first attenots at flight should take note.


	Re: Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 12:58 PM by EdgarSwank	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Sorry, but my question still isn't ansswered. It's a loss like the death in a car crash of Seymore Cray So was it a car crash that killed Singh? Or some other accident? They were both killed/died trying to build Strong A.I So was his death connected to his research in some way?


	Re: Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 1:28 PM by kurzweils_brain	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
The death of Singh remains shrouded in mystery. I've read most of his stuff, and seen probably all the web sites which mention him but not one mentions his actual manner of death. Usually its customary to say how someone died (suicide in the McKinstry case), and in the absence of any real information gossip abounds. I've heard a few rumours about how he died, but they were'nt from authoritative sources and could well be untrue.


	Re: Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 2:46 PM by rofixm	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
An account of Singh's memorial service in the March 10 issue of The Tech Web site ends with the following sentence: "Singh, 33, was found dead in his apartment as a result of an apparent suicide on Feb. 28."


	Re: Push Singh - Cause of Death?? posted on 07/07/2006 3:06 PM by kurzweils_brain	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
It is a shame that people of such obvious talent should kill themselves like that. In McKinstry's case he had a long history of emotional instability, and was a marginal figure on the fringes of the AI research community. He'd struggled to keep his AI project afloat, and killed himself for trivial reasons after some kind of squabble with his girlfriend. Push Singh was really in the opposite situation. As far as I could tell he had a bright future ahead of him, and was slated to become an MIT professor (an almost unassailable position in academic circles). After Singh's death there were rumours of some kind of suicide pact between the two, since they were both working in the same area (common sense reasoning) and the deaths were only a few weeks apart. I doubt there was any connection though.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/07/2006 6:13 PM by richiemobile	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Isnt it interesting how a bright person's death becomes even more jarring in the presence of knowledge of the Singularity. And isnt it ironic that Push Singh may have been one of those who would have helped costruct it (I did not know or work with him personally) . Somehow those 2500 young lives lost in Iraq for a "noble" cause take on a whole new meaning. It has been said that there were 50 potential Einsteins killed in each of World Wars I and II.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/07/2006 6:52 PM by ivor000	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
but isn't it interesting? we can discuss openly the possibility of extending life forever into the future with excitement, but when confronted with the reality that people still choose to end their life by their own hand is treated almost as a cover-up. life is not ultimately about avoiding death, it is about dealing with it. and if the singularity is about avoiding it, it will fail...


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/07/2006 9:04 PM by eldras	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
I dispute that death is the end. We've drafted a methodology for resurrection using superintelligent computers (when they arrive). We have to loosen our egos believing we are not atomic particles, and admit the nose on our face really is there. Man is a group of particles and is recontructable from future computer archeology, thought and all. Any refutation of this is just not science.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/08/2006 7:19 AM by Redakteur	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Dear eldras: But would it be ethical to "resurrect" someone who had committed suicide? Regards,


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/09/2006 8:45 AM by eldras	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Hi Red it's up to them. it should be possible to ask them or know their mind


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/09/2006 8:52 AM by kurzweils_brain	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Well there are already chatbots named after Alan Turing, although they don't attempt to simulate his personality specifically.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/20/2006 11:26 AM by abhi354	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
I dispute that death is the end. We've drafted a methodology for resurrection using superintelligent computers (when they arrive). We have to loosen our egos believing we are not atomic particles, and admit the nose on our face really is there. Man is a group of particles and is recontructable from future computer archeology, thought and all. Any refutation of this is just not science. I don't understand how you can call it science. It is just a conjecture at best. We are composed of particles, but isn't reproducibility of a group of 10^29 of those particles hampered by quantum randomness.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/20/2006 1:31 PM by eldras	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
well it's projection, and in this sense it is conjectire. But the p[roposotions are sound as i see it, and you would have to show why the reasoning is flwed: Re: quantum entanglement - This doesn't mean that the universe is not ordered by laws. Where the universe NOT ordered by laws it could not exist. As it IS ordered by laws, then knowledge of those laws MUST anable the most acute measurements and extrapolations. iagree we cant do that on present machinery, but my expectation/gamble is that coming suoerintelligent machines will be able to - because it is doable. The history of mathematics is about finding shorthands for the most lengthy processes. I'm looking for a shartcut to solving transcendental numbers. Any help?


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/08/2006 1:22 PM by kurzweils_brain	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
There is a large amount of wastage in human endeavours, and many people's talents go unrealised for a variety of reasons. Being of asian origin it's likely that his cause of death wasn't mentioned because suicide is regarded as bringing shame upon the family within that culture. Still, it would be interesting to know if his suicide was in any way related to his work. My guess would be that it probably wasn't. More likely it was girlfriend trouble (similar to McKinstry) or health problems (such as being diagnosed with cancer or some other severe illness).


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/20/2006 1:34 PM by eldras	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Whoa! How does anypne know Push committed suicide? Ockham's Razor? I dont know enough for that. Chris left a suicide note in january, so it's reasonable to assume he did.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 07/20/2006 2:04 PM by godchaser	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Cause of death described as 'Apparent suicide', i'd guess is usually good form of tact in lacking any reasonable explanation otherwise e. Or that would warrant investigation. No shame in suicide as i see it, some people just get too tired is all. And that is a shame - we know better how to look after ourselves than to let things get away from us like that. Dysfunction generally isn't much of a nice reflection on a society, and particular, how we treat ourselves for just being human. Cheers.. Chris


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 09/23/2006 12:25 AM by boatman	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
Great human gifts are often accompanied by an opposing frailty. Look at Einstein. He largely waisted his most productive years because he refused to believe the universe was not ordered by his version of god. Einstein spent the last half of his life trying in vain to prove the existence of a universe that didn't exist, except in his own mind.


	Re: In Memoriam: Push Singh (1972-2006) posted on 09/23/2006 5:58 AM by godchaser	[Top] [Mind·X] [Reply to this post]
-really.. How so? C

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