Well done, David. --- Frank C. Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz, Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918 Santa Fe, NM On Sat, Mar 1, 2025, 9:39 AM Prof David West <profw...@fastmail.fm> wrote: > Just an observation, related, I think to Jon’s post, about biological > entities. Specifically, about humans. > > A standard issue human being exists in a maelstrom of sensory inputs. > Every nerve-ending and most individual cells receive constant stimulus. 100 > billion nerve endings, 30-37 trillion cells. > > The human organism evolved to “make sense” of this massive, and constant, > input: both the inputs—as a whole and by the organism—as a whole. > > Initial “sense-making” probably focused on simple gradient detection: > low-high intensity, intermittent-constant, attractive-repellant, > safe-dangerous, and, likely, some kind of spatial organization—here, there, > up, down, right, left. > > Then, the most primitive of categorizations: ‘self’ versus ‘other’. > > Shortly thereafter, a host of additional categorizations (as yet unnamed), > like this, that, those. Brian Cantwell, On the Origin of Objects, discusses > this extensively. An extension to the self-other category happens here: Us > versus Them. > > The driving force, to this point, is simply survival. This also leads to > the next advances, specialization within the organism (we get a brain) and > “filtering”—prioritization of some inputs over others, especially with > regard those objects along the attractive-repellent and safe dangerous > gradients. > > Not only do we get a brain, we get one with two lobes. Consider a bird, it > must simultaneously locate and consume a seed and maintain constant > awareness of its environment lest it becomes food itself. The two lobes of > the brain assume primary responsibility for one of those two needs. In > humans, the left worries about manipulating the world and the right > maintains our awareness of and place in the world. [I am now channeling Ian > McGilchrist, nearly 3,000 pages in The Master and His Emissary and The > Trouble with Things vol I and II.] > > Then language happened. When communication was exclusively oral, auditory > and visual—and local; it retained an appeal to the whole brain, the whole > organism; e.g., stories, rich in context, evoking memories of shared > experiences and places. > > Written language, however, gave a bit of ascendancy to left-brain skills. > Telegraph and radio technologies removed context and evocation, diminishing > communication to the exchange of mere words. Shared context, evocation of > shared experience, non-verbal communication (e.g., body language, > intonation, even pheromones) were lost. > > Shannon killed “meaning” (and admitted such) with his information theory. > > Digitization stripped data, e.g., the frequencies lost when a square wave > replaces a sine wave. > > Computing added algorithms and finally realized the Cartesian (Leibniz, > Pascal, et. al.) assertion that thought was nothing more than the formal > manipulation of precisely defined “tokens of thought.” > > Computational Thinking reigns supreme as the epitome of the left-brain > mode of thinking. > > But only at the cost of ignoring or refusing to recognize most of the ways > that a human, as a whole-organism, makes sense of the totality of the > stimuli it receives. > > Spurious claims that humans cannot sense or be aware of, and therefore > cognition cannot be affected by, much of the stimulation being received are > easily proven false. “Cocktail party effect;” the human eye can detect a > single photon; subsonic sound inducing fear; human ability to accurately > differentiate between live, analog recorded and digitally recorded music; > pheromonal responses; alterations in brain chemistry; etc., etc. Huxley’s > thesis that, for survival purposes, many sensations and gradations of > sensations are ‘filtered’ (in that they are kept below a threshold of > conscious awareness, but are still being received) and Mescaline inhibits > those filters so that a more complete apprehension of the world around is > obtained. > > Similarly ignored, how the organism-as-a-whole, and the right-brain > specifically, processes inputs-as-a-whole to affect and support cognition. > Muscle-memory, embodied metaphor, and situated cognition (how physical > environment impacts thinking, e.g., Moroccan tailor who can lay out > patterns on cloth to minimize waste in the shop, but not in a classroom or > office) would be examples. > > Then the whole notion of culture. Ninety-percent of what a human being > “knows” is tacit knowledge about one’s culture. It invisibly (below the > threshold of conscious awareness) shapes, constrains, and supports human > cognition. > > AI advocates (especially those claiming the imminence of AGI) are guilty > of extreme hubris. They are exemplars of left-brain, computational, > thinking and, because of that, they assume that that mode of thought is the > be-all and end-all of cognition. In point of fact, left-brain (science, > mathematical, computational) thinking addresses and sometimes resolves only > the simplest of problems. Left-brained thinking is relatively simple to > replicate with a program. This does not mean the program is, in any way, > “intelligent” beyond the most simplistic and limited definition of that > word. Certainly nothing even approximating the whole-organism grounded > intelligence of a human being. > > If, in a year or so, ChatGPT or sibling is capable of recognizing itself > in a mirror, something a human infant can do in 18-24 months, I might > change my mind. > > davew > > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / > ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ >
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