It's not boring - it's the absolute centre of AGI. Everything AGI wants to do,
I would argue, - produce analogies, metaphors, concepts, creative ideas,
creative generalizations along with visual object recognition - depends on
*figurative thinking" - on thinking with whole, fluid figures (or maps/ body
maps) and not just with fragmented, "crisp", symbolic parts - on imagination
and not just rationality. But it's a long argument, so I'll save it for now.
Valentina:That's a really interesting point you just made.
Movement works in an inherently different way from concept elaboration, or
recalling.
Most movements, particularly those part of the sympathic system do not even
reach our conscious level of our brain - and are not elaborated by higher
functions. If they are - as when you try to center a basket with a ball, you
will be aware of that - therefore it seems that they are done automatically.
That is partly true, in the sense that the lower parts of the brain elaborate
them.
As for the figurative recall it's interesting that you suggested the brain
works that way, because most of our stimuli are elaborated in terms of images,
and so it is very tempting to think that the brain works on images. In a way it
is true I think. But I prefer to call them maps.. in that sets of neurons..
maps of neurons.. interpret what we 'see'. There are tons of different types of
stimuli and concepts, and their difference is not as obvious as one would
think.. that is why there are ppl who 'see' sounds or 'hear' images...
particularly deaf and blind ppl. Also keep in mind that of the incredible
amount of info that reaches us through our senses, we only elaborate a small
percentage. I bet that if you close your eyes now, you won't be able to repeat
word by word, this email. But you can surely repeat its 'meaning' because that
is what the brain extracts. Same goes for words, pictures, sounds..
Have I bored anyone enough yet? ;-)
It strikes me that the prime example of this is movement. The brain
doesn't, I suggest, go through searches in producing movements. When we want to
play a "backhand" or a "forehand" or "throw a punch" or "kick", we more or less
immediately recall a rough, holistic figure of that movement, (mainly
kinaesthetic, partly visual), which is fluidly adaptable to the precise
physical situation and relevant objects - "along these lines" so to speak. We
don't search through lists of alternatives. Motor memories are important
because they are probably, evolutionarily, (no?) about the first form of memory.
Who, if anyone, is arguing for anything like this idea of the brain having
special powers of figurative recall?
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A true friend stabs you in the front. - O. Wilde
Einstein once thought he was wrong; then he discovered he was wrong.
For every complex problem, there is an answer which is short, simple and
wrong. - H.L. Mencken
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