That is called differentiation. Adding detail without breaking existing interfaces. ~PM
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 21:21:23 -0600 Subject: Re: [agi] Re: Static and Dynamic Conceptual Structure? From: [email protected] To: [email protected] So I can say something about the compressor in a jet engine with a jet propulsion engineer even though I don't know most of the details about a jet engine or about the compressors of jet engines. I think what enables this is that internally we work with changing levels of detail, enhancing concepts as new information becomes available. We start with a high-level description, which really consists of nothing more than a label, and then progressively decorate that description with details as we are exposed to them. Think of a class in OOP, and imagine progressively adding members, properties, and methods as the need arises rather than statically defining all of them up front. Adding these new components to the class doesn't break existing code that doesn't expect them to be there, but it enables new, more powerful code to be implemented in terms of them. Likewise, new facets of an object or type of object enables new expectations or thought patterns to be formed in terms of those new facets without interfering with existing expectations or thought patterns. As you learn more about jet engines and compressors, your mental representation becomes richer, and so does your capacity for having conversations about them. On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 5:59 PM, Jim Bromer via AGI <[email protected]> wrote: I meant to say: Now the thing is that instruction code is a kind of enumeration (as are most of the referential codes) but the value data may - in many cases - be something more. But I am both right and wrong about that. I wanted to ask the rhetorical question: Can an instruction code be something more than an enumeration just like I said that a value can be? However, after I formed this question I realized that value data can be something more than an enumeration just because it can refer to a dynamic system that can be superimposed on it and that system can be encoded somewhere else in the instructions or in the program. So if the data is typed, for example, then the extra power of the values are due to the algorithms that are used with the that type of data so data can be "something more," as I said, only because it can refer to other dynamic or multiple step instructions. However, with thought those systems may exist in other minds even if they are not explicitly described in a particular mind. So I can say something about the compressor in a jet engine with a jet propulsion engineer even though I don't know most of the details about a jet engine or about the compressors of jet engines. So in one sense I was wrong. The value data is not something more glorious than an enumeration. Technically I was right. The fact that certain data can be used in special ways does not mean that it is just an enumeration. And I am still right in the spirit of the idea, that some static data can implicitly refer to a set of instructions on how to use it. So then value data can also refer to more than one set of instructions. Jim Bromer On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 6:29 PM, Jim Bromer <[email protected]> wrote: > Look at the code for a computer program. Certain values represent > instructions and others represent data and others represent various > references to data. Suppose you had a computer that was nearly as > primitive as a Turing Machine. Could you convert all the program so > that the static data were all replaced by instruction values and the > programming instructions were replaced by value and reference data. I > mean could this be virtually accomplished with something like a > universal turing machine so none of the original data was preserved in > its original forms? Is there a way to make the instruction code do the > stuff that the parameters do and a way to make the parameters do the > stuff the instructions do - for that program? > > The point is that the distinction between instruction code and > parameter code is not set in stone. Now the thing is that instruction > code is a kind of enumeration (as are most of the references) but the > value code in the instruction data may - in many cases - be something > more. > > Is this off topic? > > Jim Bromer ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/23050605-2da819ff Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?&; Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com AGI | Archives | Modify Your Subscription ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
