In a message dated 10/3/2008 9:17:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: WC: I don't think we are in disagreement except in my questioning the use of the term hardwired. It is not a term applicable to the organic nature of the human brain. This term is newly applied to humans, since the advent of the computer age. Other metaphors to liken the neural structures of the human brain are more accurate, even something as odball as shower-head or fountain plumbing.
LF: Ok, I will accept another more accurate descriptive term, but 'hardwired' is generally well understood and accepted. I appreciate your reference to the human ability to see faces in nearly any pattern. The human brain has an unusually large area devoted to facial recognition enabling us to recall a huge number of different faces and to "read" extremely subtle facial expressions. Our sense of smell, on the other hand, is relatively poor. For dogs it is the opposite. Their brains have a large area devoted to smell and a small area devoted to sight. Yes, I agree that a human brain would not become, say, a dog brain. Any ordinary dog will outsmell any human every time. LF: I agree totally. Oh, yes, I also question the inductive logic of the statement that says in effect that we are only capable of what we are capable of --which is not to say it is a false statement. As I said, it is a truism. WC LF: "I believe that we must already have the built-in cognitive systems to do or recognize anything that we now or in the future may do or recognize. Innate abilities/traits exist cognitively (hardwired potencies) long before we may become conscious, as a culture, of them." William, I had to say this to expand my position. The second sentence is most important as I give more emphasis to inherited cognitive traits than to learning. Perceptual cropping is innate and existed long before any codified notion of edgeness. It is with modern art that hyper sensitivity to edgeness immerges in conjunction with the 'art object as the thing itself' and the attempted obliteration of illusionary space. You and I are immersed in this cultural emphasis so we are hyper-aware of it, and it becomes incorporated in what we do. Again my main point to Frances is that perceptual cropping is inherited first, even if it is later reinforced by cultural learning. Luis Fontanills Architect **************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out! (http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000001)
