> From: Mike Tintner [mailto:tint...@blueyonder.co.uk] > > Sound silly? Arguably the most essential requirement for a true human- > level > GI is to be able to consider any object whatsoever as a "thing." It's a > cognitively awesome feat . It means we can conceive of literally any > thing > as a "thing" - and so bring together, associate and compare immensely > diverse objects such as, say, an amoeba, a bus, a car, a squid, a poem, > a > skyscraper, a box, a pencil, a fir tree, the number 1... > > Our "thingy" capacity makes us supremely adaptive. It means I can set > you a > creative problem like "go and get me some *thing* to block this doorway > [or > hole]" and you can indeed go and get any of a vastly diverse range of > appropriate objects. > > How are we able to conceive of all these forms as "things"? Not by any > rational means, I suggest, but by the imaginative means of drawing them > all > mentally or actually as similar adjustable gloops or blobs. > > Arnheim provides brilliant evidence for this: > > "a young child in his drawings uses circular shapes to represent almost > any > object at all: a human figure, a house, a car, a book, and even the > teeth of > a saw, as can be seen in Fig x, a drawing by a five year old. It would > be a > mistake to say that the child neglects or misrepresents the shape of > these > objects. Only to adult eyes is he picturing them as round. Actually, > intended roundness does not exist before other shapes, such as > straightness > or angularity are available to the child. At the stage when he begins > to > draw circles, shape is not yet differentiated. The circle does not > stand for > roundness but for the more general quality of "thingness" - that is, > for the > compactness of a solid object as distinguished from the nondescript > ground." > [Art and Visual Perception] >
Even for "things" and "objects" the mathematics is inherent. There is plurality, partitioning, grouping, attributes.. interrelatedness. Is a wisp of smoke a thing, or a wave on the ocean, or a sound echoing through the mountains. Is everything one big thing? Perhaps creativity involves zeroing out from the precise definition of "things" in order to make their interrelatedness less restricting. Can't find a solution to those complex problems when you are stuck in all the details, you can't' rationalize your way out of the rules as there may be a non-local solution or connection that needs to be made. The young child is continuously exercising creativity as things are blobs or circles and creativity combined with trial and error rationalizes things into domains and rules... John ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=123753653-47f84b Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
