Arman,

>My interest primarily focuses on how the brain represents and reasons
>about parts of the physical universe.

You might like to read:
The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture
by Tooby and Cosmides

An introduction is available at:
http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html

>You see I'm trying to compare the various types of programming
>languages against how closely they match the human thinking process.

I think it is a big mistake to assume we are anywhere close to being
able to perform such a comparison.

>The argument I'm trying to make is that if a computer programming
>method is developed that is well aligned with the human process of
>thought then we shall get more understandable designs.

You are forgetting about culture and peoples past experiences.

The following is a great example of how different cultures use of
metaphor shapes peoples thinking process.
www.mit.edu/~lera/papers/mandarin.pdf 

Perhaps in 50 years we might know enough to be able to
design artifacts to fit snuggly with different peoples way of
thinking.  At the moment any such attempt is like the early
engineers trying to mimic birds when building flying machines.

You might like to look at the discussion in the semantic sections
of: www.knosof.co.uk/cbook/sent782.pdf
The design decision there was to accept that people make mistakes
and try to come up with a set of recommendations that minimise
the consequences of those mistakes.  There is no attempt to
specify a 'natural' way of doing things.


derek

--
Derek M Jones                                           tel: +44 (0) 1252 520 667
Knowledge Software Ltd                            mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Applications Standards Conformance Testing   http://www.knosof.co.uk
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
PPIG Discuss List ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce
PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/

Reply via email to