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Cognitive Engineering for
Next Generation Computing
Scrivener Publishing
100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J
Beverly, MA 01915-6106
Developments in artificial intelligence are made more challenging because the involvement of multi-
domain technology creates new problems for researchers. Therefore, in order to help meet the challenge,
this book series concentrates on next generation computing and communication methodologies involving
smart and ambient environment design. It is an effective publishing platform for monographs, handbooks,
and edited volumes on Industry 4.0, agriculture, smart city development, new computing and communication
paradigms. Although the series mainly focuses on design, it also addresses analytics and investigation of
industry-related real-time problems.
Publishers at Scrivener
Martin Scrivener ([email protected])
Phillip Carmical ([email protected])
Cognitive Engineering for
Next Generation Computing
Edited by
Kolla Bhanu Prakash,
G. R. Kanagachidambaresan,
V. Srikanth, E. Vamsidhar
This edition first published 2021 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA
and Scrivener Publishing LLC, 100 Cummings Center, Suite 541J, Beverly, MA 01915, USA
© 2021 Scrivener Publishing LLC
For more information about Scrivener publications please visit www.scrivenerpublishing.com.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other-
wise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title
is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
For details of our global editorial offices, customer services, and more information about Wiley prod-
ucts visit us at www.wiley.com.
ISBN 978-1-119-71108-7
Set in size of 11pt and Minion Pro by Manila Typesetting Company, Makati, Philippines
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to our parents, family members, students and the Almighty.
Contents
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xix
1 Introduction to Cognitive Computing 1
Vamsidhar Enireddy, Sagar Imambi and C. Karthikeyan
1.1 Introduction: Definition of Cognition, Cognitive Computing 1
1.2 Defining and Understanding Cognitive Computing 2
1.3 Cognitive Computing Evolution and Importance 6
1.4 Difference Between Cognitive Computing and Artificial
Intelligence 8
1.5 The Elements of a Cognitive System 11
1.5.1 Infrastructure and Deployment Modalities 11
1.5.2 Data Access, Metadata, and Management Services 12
1.5.3 The Corpus, Taxonomies, and Data Catalogs 12
1.5.4 Data Analytics Services 12
1.5.5 Constant Machine Learning 13
1.5.6 Components of a Cognitive System 13
1.5.7 Building the Corpus 14
1.5.8 Corpus Administration Governing and Protection
Factors 16
1.6 Ingesting Data Into Cognitive System 17
1.6.1 Leveraging Interior and Exterior Data Sources 17
1.6.2 Data Access and Feature Extraction 18
1.7 Analytics Services 19
1.8 Machine Learning 22
1.9 Machine Learning Process 24
1.9.1 Data Collection 24
1.9.2 Data Preparation 24
1.9.3 Choosing a Model 24
1.9.4 Training the Model 24
vii
viii Contents
xvii
xviii Preface
Editors
Kolla Bhanu Prakash
G. R. Kanagachidambaresan
V. Srikanth
E. Vamsidhar
Acknowledgment
We would like to thank the Almighty and our parents for their endless
support, guidance and love throughout all the stages of our lives. We are
grateful to our beloved family members for standing beside us throughout
our careers, which are advanced with the editing of this book.
We would especially like to thank Sri. Koneru Satyanarayana, president of
K.L. University, India, and Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr.Sagunthala R&D Institute
of Science and Technology for their continuous support and encouragement
throughout the preparation of this book. We dedicate this book to them.
Many thanks go to our students and family members who have put in their
time and effort to support and contribute in some manner. We would like to
express our gratitude to all who supported, shared, talked things over, read,
wrote, offered comments, allowed us to quote their remarks and assisted in
the editing, proofreading and design of this book throughout the journey to
its completion. We also give our sincere thanks to the open dataset providers.
We believe that the team of authors provided the perfect blend of knowl-
edge and skills that went into authoring this book. We thank each of the
authors for devoting their time, patience, perseverance and effort towards
this book; we think that it will be a great asset to all researchers in this field!
We are grateful to Martin Scrivener and all other members of the pub-
lishing team, who showed us the ropes to creating a book. Without that
knowledge we would not have ventured into such a project. Their trust in
us, guidance and the necessary time and resources afforded us, gave us the
freedom to manage this book.
Last, but definitely not least, we’d like to thank our readers, and we hope
our work inspires and guides them.
Editors
Kolla Bhanu Prakash
G. R. Kanagachidambaresan
V. Srikanth
E. Vamsidhar
xix
1
Introduction to Cognitive Computing
Vamsidhar Enireddy*, Sagar Imambi† and C. Karthikeyan‡
Abstract
Cognitive computing is an interdisciplinary subject that brings under its umbrella
several techniques such as Machine learning, big data analytics, artificial intelli-
gence, analytics, natural language processing, and probability and statistics to
gather information and understand it using different senses and learning from their
experience. Cognitive computing helps humans in taking the right decisions at a
right time helping the people to grow in their respective fields. In this chapter, we
are going to discuss cognitive computing and the elements involved in it. Further,
we will learn about the components and hypothesis generation and scoring of it.
1
2 Cognitive Engineering for Next Generation Computing
i. Cognitive Science
ii. Computer Science.
The term cognitive science refers to the science of mind and the other is
a computational approach where the theory is put into practice.
The ultimate objective of cognitive computing is that it must able to rep-
licate the human thinking ability in a computer model. Using technologies
like machine learning, natural language processing, advanced analytics,
data mining, and statistics had made these things possible where the work-
ing of the human brain can be mimicked [8].
From a long back, we can construct the computers which perform the
calculations at a high speed, also able to develop supercomputers which
can do calculations in a fraction of second, but they are not able to perform
the tasks as humans do like the reasoning, understanding and recognizing
the objects and images.
Cognitive researchers discover the mental capability of humans through
an examination of the aspects like memory, emotion, reasoning, percep-
tion, and language [12]. Figure 1.1 shows the Human centered cognitive
cycle. On analysis, the human being’s cognitive process can be divided into
two stages. One is the humans use their sensory organs to perceive the
information about their surrounding environment and become aware of
Provide a break
through in the
limitations of the
data Human Machine’s cognition to provide services
for humans
Emotional Interaction
with Robots
Cyber Space
Information Theory,
Value of Information,
Potential of Information, To improve intelligence of machines
it, in this manner humans gather the input from the outside environment.
The second stage is that this information is carried by the nerves to the
brain for processing and the process of storing, analyzing, and learning
takes place [13].
Many researchers and scientists from many years had tried to develop
the systems that can mimic the human thoughts and process, but it is
relatively complex to transform the intricacy of thinking of humans and
actions into systems. Human beings have a lot of influence on them such
as perception, culture, sentiment, lifestyle, and implicit beliefs about their
surrounding environment. Cognition is the basic framework that not only
leverages the way we imagine but also the way we behave and the way we
make decisions. To understand this let us consider some examples that we
see around us. Why there are different recommendations and approaches
between the treatments for the same disease with different doctors? Why
do people with the same background born and brought up in the same
family have different views and opinions about the world?
Dr. Daniel Kahneman is a Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences in
2002 had paved a way for the cognitive computing approach. He had made
a lot of research in the area of psychology of judgment and decision mak-
ing [11]. The approach is divided into two systems: 1. Intuitive thinking
and 2. Controlled andrulecentric thinking.
Responses
Process
System 2
System 1 Slow thinking
Fast thinking Memory
Natural Language
Processing Layer
Autonomous
1. Learn
2. Model
3. Hypothesis generation.
intelligence to the machine and also analyzes different factors to solve the
problem.
Artificial Intelligence mimics the human intelligence in machines. This
process comprises making the machines learn constantly with the chang-
ing data, making sense of the information, and taking decisions including
the self-corrections whenever needed.
Human beings use the senses to gather information about the surround-
ing environment and process that information using the brain to know
about the environment. In this context, we can define that artificial intelli-
gence can also include replicating the human senses such as hearing, smell-
ing, touching, seeing, and tasting. It also includes simulating the learning
process and this is made possible in the machines using machine learning
and deep learning. Last but not least is human responses achieved through
the robotics [18].
The cognitive computing is used to understand and simulate the rea-
soning and human behavior. Cognitive Computing assists humans to
take better decisions in their respective fields. Their applications are fraud
detection, face and emotion detection, sentiment analysis, risk analysis,
and speech recognition [17].
The main focus of cognitive computing includes
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NORTH AMERICA ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE SOUTH AMERICA
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
NORTH ASIA PACIFIC EUROPE SOUTH MIDDLE EAST
AMERICA AMERICA
Generate Score
Model
Hypotheses Hypotheses
The most critical point is that the decision of which sources to remem-
ber for the underlying corpus. Sources running from clinical diaries to
Wikipedia may now be proficiently imported in groundwork for the dis-
patch of the cognitive framework. It is also important that the unstructured
data has to be ingested from the recordings, pictures, voice, and sensors.
These sources are ingested at the information get to layer (refer figure).
Other information sources may likewise incorporate subject‐specific orga-
nized databases, ontologies, scientific classifications, furthermore, indexes.
On the off chance that the cognitive computing application expects
access to exceptionally organized information made by or put away in
different frameworks, for example, open or exclusive databases, another
structure thought is the amount of that information to import at first. It is
additionally essential to decide if to refresh or invigorate the information
intermittently, consistently, or in light of a solicitation from the framework
when it perceives that more information can assist it with giving better
answers.
During the plan period of an intellectual framework, a key thought is
whether to build a taxonomy or ontology if none as of now exists for the
specific domain. These types of structures not only streamline the activity
of the framework, but they also make them more productive. In any case,
if the designers are accountable for guaranteeing that an ontology and tax-
onomy is absolute and fully updated, it might be progressively viable to
16 Cognitive Engineering for Next Generation Computing
and create trust in the source and also on the content after some time. For
instance, one can find an article related to medicine in a famous magazine,
which can be a good source of information but if this article is contrary
to an article published in a peer-reviewed journal, then the cognitive sys-
tem must able to gauge the contradicting positions. The data that has to be
ingested into the corpus must be verified carefully. In the above example,
we may find that all the information sources that might be helpful ought
to be thought of and conceivably ingested. On the other hand, this doesn’t
imply that all sources will be of equivalent worth.
Consider the case of the healthcare in which we can see that an average
person meets several doctors or specialists for any health issue. A large
number of records will be generated each time he meets the doctors, so
Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) help to place all the records in one
place and also help to refer them whenever required and doctors can map
easily on verifying these records. This helps the specialist to find the asso-
ciation between the blends of side effects and disorders or infections that
would be missed if a specialist or scientist approached uniquely to the
records from their training or establishment. This cannot be done manu-
ally by a person as he may miss or forget to carry all the records with him
while meeting the doctor.
A communications organization using the cognitive approach wants to
improve its performance to capture or improve their market share. The
cognitive system can foresee ant failures in the machine by calculating the
inner variables, for example, traffic and traditional patterns; they also cal-
culate the external components, for example, extreme climate threats that
are probably going to cause over-burdens and also substantial damage.
pixels and it does not completely represent an object in the image. We need
to represent the things in a meaningful manner as in the case of the med-
ical images, where a dog or dog scan is not useful to the veterinary doctor
until the essential structure is captured, identified, and represented. Using
Natural Language Processing the meaning in the unstructured text can be
identified. The corpus is dynamic hence the data is added or removed from
it constantly by using the hypotheses score.
Table 1.1 Different types of analytics and their examples [11]. (Continued)
S. no. Analytics type Description Examples
3 Prescriptive Use to create a What is the best
Analytics framework for blend of items for
deciding what to every locale?
do or not do in the In What Way the
future. The “prescient” consumers in
component ought each zone respond
to be tended to to marketing
in prescriptive promotions and
examination to help deals? What type
recognize the overall of the offer ought
outcomes of your to be made to each
activities. Utilize an client to fabricate
iterative procedure dependability and
so that your model increment deals?
can gain from the
relationship among
activities and results
4 Machine A coordinated effort In What Manner the
Learning and among people and city environment
Cognitive machines to take is secure?
Computing care of complicated Are there any
issues. cautions from
Incorporate and the immense the
evaluate different measure of data
sources of data to spilling from
anticipate results. checking gadgets
Need relies upon (video, sound, and
the issues you detecting gadgets
are attempting to for smoke or
understand. harmful gases)?
Improve adequacy of Which blend of
critical thinking and drugs will furnish
decrease blunders in the best result
predicting outcomes. for a particular
cancer patient
based on precise
attributes of the
tumor and genetic
sequencing?
22 Cognitive Engineering for Next Generation Computing
Cognitive Computing
Prescriptive,
Machine Learning, Natural Language
Predictive,
Processing, Knowledge Representation
Descriptive
application in which the customer calls the executive for some reason, and
in this interaction, with the customer, the executive must clear the doubts
of the client and satisfy him by deciding in a short time. This helps the
organization to retain the customer and helps to add more clients to them
when the service provided to them is done in no time. The problem is that
there is a large amount of data available and to process it also is difficult.
As the data contains structured, semi-structured, and unstructured a large
number of analytical models are need to be incorporated so that the pre-
diction can be improved.
Artificial
Multidisciplinary Field Intelligence
Computational
Complexity Philosophy
Theory Information
Theory
• The quantity and quality of data decide how our model per-
forms. The gathered data is represented in a format which is
further used in training
• We can also get preprocessed data from Kaggle, UCI, or
from any other public datasets.
Testing: Test the model using unseen test data to assess the model accuracy
No. of correct classifications
Accuracy =
Total no of test cases
memorize, and guide the student to derive general rules from these specific
examples.
In the Supervised learning technique, an algorithm learns from histor-
ical data and the related target labels which may consist of numeric values
or string, as classes. And the trained model predicts the correct label when
given with new examples.
The supervised approach is generally similar to human learning under
the supervision of a teacher. There is a need to distinguish between regres-
sion problems, whose target is a numeric value, and classification problems,
whose target is a qualitative variable, such as a class or a tag. A regression
task determines the average prices of houses in the Boston area, and a clas-
sification task distinguishes between kinds of iris flowers based on their
sepal and petal measures. A supervised strategy maps the data inputs and
models them against desired outputs.
The supervised learning technique can be further divided into regres-
sion and classification problems.
SÓCRATES.
Y bien, ¿quieres llevarte a tu hijo, o dejarle para que le enseñe e
arte de hablar?
ESTREPSIADES.
Enséñale, castígale, y no te olvides de afilar bien su lengua, de
modo que uno de sus dos filos le sirva para los negocios de poca
monta, y el otro para los de mucha importancia.
SÓCRATES.
Pierde cuidado; te lo enviaré hecho un completo sofista.
FIDÍPIDES.
Bien pálido, me parece, y bien miserable.
CORO.
Id, pues; creo que te arrepentirás algún día. (Entran en la escuela
de Sócrates.) Queremos deciros, jueces, lo que ganaréis si nos
otorgáis la protección merecida. En primer lugar, al principio de la
primavera, cuando queráis labrar vuestras tierras lloveremos antes
para vosotros y en seguida para los demás; después, cuando vuestras
viñas tengan ya racimos, cuidaremos de que no las perjudiquen ni la
sequía ni la excesiva humedad. Pero, si algún mortal nos ofende
piense en los muchos males que le reserva nuestra venganza. No
recogerá de su campo vino ni fruto alguno; cuando principien a brota
sus vides y sus olivos, los devastaremos y los destruiremos por medio
del huracán; si le vemos fabricar ladrillos, lloveremos y romperemos
con redondo granizo las tejas de su casa; cuando él o alguno de sus
parientes o amigos contraiga matrimonio, lloveremos a torrentes toda
la noche[551], de modo que preferirá haber estado en Egipto a habe
juzgado injustamente.
SÓCRATES.
Salud a Estrepsiades.
ESTREPSIADES.
Salud a Sócrates. Por lo pronto, toma esto[553]. Es justo regala
alguna cosa al maestro. Di, ¿ha aprendido mi hijo el famoso
razonamiento?
SÓCRATES.
Lo ha aprendido.
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Bien, oh Fraude omnipotente!
SÓCRATES.
Podrás ganar todos los pleitos que quieras.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Aunque haya habido algún testigo cuando yo tomé el préstamo?
SÓCRATES.
Aunque haya habido mil.
ESTREPSIADES.
De modo que podré gritar en alta voz: «¡Ay de vosotros, usureros
ahora pereceréis con vuestro capital y los intereses de los intereses
no me vejaréis más, porque en esa escuela se educa un hijo mío
armado de una lengua de dos filos, que será mi defensor, el salvado
de mi casa, el azote de mis enemigos, el que libertará a su padre de
infinitos cuidados y molestias.» Llámale pronto afuera. ¡Hijo mío, hijo
mío! ¡Sal de la casa! ¡Atiende a tu padre!
SÓCRATES.
Helo aquí.
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Oh, amigo mío! ¡amigo mío!
SÓCRATES.
Parte, y llévatelo.
(Sócrates entra en su casa.)
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Oh, hijo mío! ¡Ah! ¡Ah! ¡Cuánto me alegro al ver tu color! Tu rostro
indica que estás dispuesto primero a negar, después a contradecir, y
que te es muy familiar esta frase: «¿Qué dices tú?» y el fingirte
injuriado, cuando injurias y maltratas a los demás. Hasta en tu
semblante brilla la mirada ática. Ahora date maña a salvarme, ya que
me has perdido.
FIDÍPIDES.
¿Qué te atemoriza?
ESTREPSIADES.
El día viejo y nuevo.
FIDÍPIDES.
¿Hay acaso algún día viejo y nuevo?
ESTREPSIADES.
En él dicen que van a hacer sus depósitos para procesarme.
FIDÍPIDES.
Pues perderán los depositantes; porque un día no puede ser dos
días.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Que no puede ser?
FIDÍPIDES.
¿Cómo? A menos que la misma mujer pueda ser a un tiempo vieja
y joven.
ESTREPSIADES.
La ley así lo dispone.
FIDÍPIDES.
Indudablemente no comprenden bien el espíritu de la ley.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Cuál es su espíritu?
FIDÍPIDES.
El viejo Solón era, por carácter, amigo del pueblo.
ESTREPSIADES.
Eso no tiene nada que ver con el día nuevo y viejo.
FIDÍPIDES.
Y fijó dos días para la citación a juicio, el viejo y el nuevo, a fin de
que los depósitos fuesen hechos el día del novilunio.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Y por qué añadió el viejo?
FIDÍPIDES.
¿Preguntas por qué, fatuo? Con objeto de que los que hayan sido
citados tengan un día para arreglar amigablemente el asunto; y de lo
contrario, para que pueda reclamárseles en la mañana misma de
novilunio.
ESTREPSIADES.
Entonces, ¿por qué los magistrados no reciben los depósitos el día
primero de mes, sino en el anterior, en el día nuevo y viejo?
FIDÍPIDES.
Me parece a mí que hacen lo que los glotones, adelantan un día
para disfrutar más pronto de los depósitos de los litigantes.
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Bien! Pobres tontos que servís de juguete a nosotros los sabios
porque sois como piedras, como un rebaño de imbéciles, como
borregos aglomerados al acaso cual si fuerais tinajas. Preciso es que
yo entone un himno de alabanza en honor mió y de mi hijo.
«¡Feliz Estrepsiades, cuán sabio eres, y qué hijo has educado!»
Tales serán las palabras de mis amigos y conciudadanos cuando me
feliciten por haber ganado mis pleitos con tu elocuencia. Pero entra
que antes quiero darte una buena comida.
(Entran en la casa.)
PASIAS (dirigiéndose al testigo que viene con él).
¿Conviene perder alguna vez los bienes propios en provecho de los
demás? Nunca seguramente. Yo debí hace tiempo deponer toda
vergüenza y me hubiera ahorrado estos disgustos. Ahora, para
recobrar mi dinero, tengo que traerte como testigo, y convertir en
enemigo un conciudadano. Pero suceda lo que suceda, jamás
mientras viva, me he de mostrar indigno de mi patria[554]. Citaré a
Estrepsiades...
(Sale Estrepsiades.)
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Quién es este?
PASIAS.
Para el día viejo y nuevo.
ESTREPSIADES.
Sed testigos de que ha indicado dos días a la vez. ¿Por qué me
citas?
PASIAS.
Por las doce minas que te presté cuando compraste el caballo
tordo.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Un caballo? ¿No le oís todos vosotros que sabéis cuánto
aborrezco la equitación?
PASIAS.
Y juraste por los dioses que me las habías de restituir.
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Por Júpiter! Entonces mi hijo Fidípides aún no había aprendido e
razonamiento irresistible.
PASIAS.
¿Y piensas por eso negar ahora tu deuda?
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Qué otro provecho he de sacar de aquella enseñanza?
PASIAS.
¿Y te atreverás a negarla ante los dioses cuando yo te exija e
juramento?
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Qué dioses?
PASIAS.
Júpiter, Mercurio, Neptuno...
ESTREPSIADES.
Sin duda; y aun añadiré tres óbolos por el gusto de que me hagas
prestar juramento.
PASIAS.
¡Ojalá castiguen tu desvergüenza!
ESTREPSIADES.
Si a este hombre le restregasen con sal estaría mejor[555].
PASIAS.
¡Ah, te burlas!
ESTREPSIADES.
Caben en él seis congios[556].
PASIAS.
¡Por el gran Júpiter y por todos los dioses! No te burlarás de m
impunemente.
ESTREPSIADES.
Me estás dando risa con tus dioses. Júpiter, por quien juras, excita
la hilaridad de las personas ilustradas.
PASIAS.
Algún día serán castigadas tus blasfemias. Pero contesta si me
pagarás o no; despáchame pronto.
ESTREPSIADES.
Ten paciencia. En seguida te voy a contestar claramente.
(Entra en su casa.)
PASIAS.
¿Qué te parece que hará?
EL TESTIGO.
Me parece que te restituirá lo que le prestaste.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Dónde está el que reclama el dinero? Di, ¿qué es esto?
PASIAS.
¿Qué es eso? Una pequeña troj.[557]
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Y te atreves a reclamar tu dinero siendo tan rudo? No; jamás
devolveré ni un óbolo a quien llama troj a la troja.
PASIAS.
¿Conque no me pagarás?
ESTREPSIADES.
No, que yo sepa. ¿Pero te marchas, o piensas echar raíces en la
puerta?
PASIAS.
Me voy. Mas ten presente que o me muero, o hago el depósito lega
para demandarte.
ESTREPSIADES.
Será una nueva pérdida que tendrás que añadir a la de las doce
minas. De todas maneras, siento que te suceda eso por haber llamado
neciamente troj a la troja.
AMINIAS.
¡Ay, pobre de mí!
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Hola! ¿Quién es este que se queja? ¿Acaso ha hablado alguno de
los dioses de Carcino?[558]
AMINIAS.
¿Quién soy? ¿Quieres saber quién soy? Soy un hombre
desgraciado.
ESTREPSIADES.
Signe entonces tu camino.
AMINIAS.
¡Oh, triste suerte mía! ¡Oh fortuna, que has roto las ruedas de mis
carros! ¡Oh Palas, tú me has perdido![559]
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Pues qué daño te ha causado Tlepólemo?
AMINIAS.
No te burles de mí, amigo mío; manda más bien a tu hijo que me
devuelva el dinero que me debe, hoy principalmente que estoy en la
desgracia.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿De qué dinero hablas?
AMINIAS.
Del que le presté.
ESTREPSIADES.
Tú no estás bueno, a lo que parece.
AMINIAS.
Es verdad, me he caído al hacer galopar los caballos.
ESTREPSIADES.
Pues no se conoce, porque deliras como si nunca te hubieras caído
del asno.[560]
AMINIAS.
¡Conque deliro porque quiero cobrar lo que se me debe!
ESTREPSIADES.
Es imposible que estés en tu sano juicio.
AMINIAS.
¿Por qué?
ESTREPSIADES.
Me parece que tienes el cerebro algo perturbado.
AMINIAS.
Por Mercurio, te citaré a juicio, si no me devuelves el dinero.
ESTREPSIADES.
Dime: cuando llueve ¿crees tú que Júpiter hace siempre caer agua
nueva, o bien que es la misma suspendida en el aire por el calor de
sol?
AMINIAS.
No lo sé, ni me importa saberlo.
ESTREPSIADES.
Entonces, ¿cómo ha de ser justo el pagarte si no tienes ninguna
noción de meteorología?
AMINIAS.
Si te encuentras apurado, págame al menos el interés.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿El interés? ¿Qué animal es ese?
AMINIAS.
Es el dinero que va creciendo más y más cada día, a medida que
trascurre el tiempo.
ESTREPSIADES.
Muy bien dicho. Pero contesta: ¿crees tú que el mar es ahora más
grande que antes?
AMINIAS.
No, por Júpiter, siempre es igual: porque el mar no puede
aumentarse.
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Y cómo, gran canalla, si el mar no crece a pesar de los ríos que en
él desembocan, pretendes tú aumentar incesantemente tu dinero? A
ver si te largas pronto de esta casa. ¡Pronto! Un palo[561].
AMINIAS.
Sed testigos de esto.
ESTREPSIADES.
¡Largo de aquí! ¿Qué esperas? ¿No te moverás?
AMINIAS.
¿No es esto una injuria?
ESTREPSIADES.
¿Te mueves, o me obligas a que te pinche como a un caballo de
tiro? ¿Huirás? (Sale.) Ya iba yo a removerte con tus ruedas y tus
carros.
(Estrepsiades entra en la casa.)
CORO.
¡Lo que es aficionarse a las malas obras! Este viejo, que las ama
con pasión, quiere defraudar a sus acreedores el dinero que le
prestaron; pero es imposible que hoy no le sobrevenga alguna
desgracia, y que este sofista, en castigo de sus tramas, no sea víctima
de algún mal imprevisto. Creo que muy pronto conseguirá lo que
deseaba, y su hijo sabrá oponer hábiles argumentos contra la justicia
y vencerá a todos sus adversarios aun cuando defienda las peores
causas. Pero quizá llegue a desear que su hijo sea mudo.