Greg Detre
Sunday, 24 June, 2001
@i{OBJECT-SYMBOLS
represent things, ideas, or processes.�
In
languages,
they often correspond to Nouns.� Our
minds describe each
scene,
real or mental, in terms of separate object-things and
relations
between them.
DIFFERENCE-SYMBOLS
represent differences between or changes in
OBJECTS.� In languages, they correspond to Verbs.� When any object
undergoes
a change, or two objects are considered at once, the mind
ascribes
some DIFFERENCES.
CAUSE-SYMBOLS.
When any DIFFERENCE is conceived, the mind is made to
find
a CAUSE for it -- something to be held responsible. We use a
clever
mental trick of representing causes in same way that we
represent
objects.
CLAUSE-STRUCTURES.� Whatever we can express or describe, we can
treat
its
expression or description as though it were a single component
inside
another description.� In languages, this
corresponds to using
embedded
phrases and clauses.}
Minsky (in �Alien intelligence�) assumes that the process of evolution is working in much the same way as terrestrial DNA evolution � I think that�s probably fair enough � except that the selection pressures may be very very different to those on earth � it might not be a fear of predators, but of freak acts of god, wild swings in climate, internal structural breakdowns, illness or microscopic assailants, extremely scarce resources, competitive conspecifics etc. in such cases, we might not be so concerned with attributing mental states (i.e. coinciding object-symbols and cause-symbols)
seems to be making the same point about arithmetic being more easily learnt in less barren, and I imagine, �slender� way