Complex Numbers

Mind Map

Today's link is a bit esoteric, and I wouldn't blame anyone for giving it a miss. But I find this stuff fascinating, so I waded through it, and of course I have comments -- else I wouldn't bother posting it.

Skip to the bottom for Mini-Contest results!

http://nautil.us/blog/new-evidence-for-the-geometry-of-thought

New Evidence for the Strange Geometry of Thought

In 2014, the Swedish philosopher and cognitive scientist Peter Gärdenfors went to Krakow, Poland, for a conference on the mind.

Philosopher and cognitive scientist? That's a dangerous combination.

In his talk, “The Geometry of Thinking,” he suggested that humans are able to do things that today’s powerful computers can’t do—like learn language quickly and generalize from particulars with ease (to see, in other words, without much training, that lions and tigers are four-legged felines)—because we, unlike our computers, represent information in geometrical space.

So, if I'm reading this right, the evidence suggests that we store concepts the same way we store, for example, the layout of our homes.

He argued that the brain represents concepts in the same way that it represents space and your location, by using the same neural circuitry for the brain’s “inner GPS.”

You know, we were talking about inventions yesterday, and as I re-read this article to talk about it, I came to the conclusion that there are, in general, two broad categories of inventions: those that can be compared to other things, and those to which we compare other things. To use yesterday's example, a wheel would be one of the latter. So, apparently, is GPS -- a truly world-changing invention, though one that's built on a multitude of earlier inventions.

The hippocampus’ place and grid cells, in other words, map not only physical space but conceptual space. It appears that our representation of objects and concepts is very tightly linked with our representation of space.

This makes all kinds of sense when you think about it (not that "making sense" means it's necessarily right). At the risk of delving into the kind of evolutionary just-so stories that I despise, our remote pre-hominid ancestors, lacking the concept of "concept," would have known nothing but their environments. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that our brains use the same sorts of brain configurations, adapting them for other purposes.

But again, I don't know; that's pure speculation on my part.

The article goes into some of the studies backing up the mapping idea.

Yet the mind is not just capable of conceptual abstraction but also flexibility—it can represent a wide range of concepts. To be able to do this, the regions of the brain involved need to be able to switch between concepts without any informational cross-contamination: It wouldn’t be ideal if our concept for bird, for example, were affected by our concept for car.

It will be when I finally get the flying car I've been promised.

Scientists still need to experimentally verify the link between the hippocampus and higher-order cognitive functions in humans. fMRI studies like the ones from the group in Oxford are, as yet, only suggestive.

I'm just including this here for anyone who's still with me. This isn't settled science; just an interesting idea with some evidence for it.

One reason the concept is intriguing is the potential impact on AI development:

Gärdenfors’ theory highlights a fruitful path, not only for cognitive scientists, but for neurologists and machine-learning researchers. It is a kind of incomplete, generic sketch on a canvas that invites refinement and elaboration. Cognitive spaces are, as Gärdenfors and Bellmund put it, a “domain-general format for human thinking,” an “overarching framework” that can help unravel the causes of neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, and “to inform novel architectures in artificial intelligence.”

Oh, yeah, and also to help us deal with brain dysfunction. Maybe we could even figure out how to get more people to appreciate science.

Mini-Contest results!

All great responses yesterday! Though I have to admit I'm just a little disappointed that no one said "sliced bread." Let's see, we have:

The Human Genome Project -- while I wouldn't consider that an invention, it's certainly an innovation, and a major one at that. As Sumojo noted, it has improved human life to a vast extent.

Sterilization -- Lazy Writer est 4/24/2008 pointed out that the idea that implements and people should be, you know, clean, that's a big deal. Saved a lot of lives. I don't know why they didn't think of it sooner, to be honest; it shouldn't require knowledge of microorganisms to know that dirty things make people sick.

Writing, as per Zhen -- I think I did a blog entry a while back on that subject. Or maybe a newsletter? If not, I'll have to do one. This one's foundational, the almost-hidden basis for a multitude of other inventions.

Printing Press -- Paul noted that this extended the above to a wider audience.

Vaccinations (and beer!) -- Annette , I'm a big fan of both (though if I had to choose, it would be beer). Both have saved lives. No, I'm not joking -- as with the sterilization one above, the process of making beer required that water be boiled, which had the unintended (pre-germ theory) effect of destroying harmful germs. Beer, for much of human history, was often safer than water to drink.

And Ugly Christmas Sox mostly reiterated other comments, but added "autocorrect," which I'd argue is a mixed blessing, but it's certainly made it easier for people. And yes, beer.

Now, given that it's me here, I'm really tempted to go with beer (and I will, in fact, go have a beer when I'm done posting this). There are suggestions out there that civilization is the result of people doing what needed to be done to make beer. Of course, whether "civilization" is, on balance, better or worse is arguable. (I'm arguing "better" because I like not having to hunt my dinner.) But in terms of Most Important Invention or Innovation, I'mma have to agree with writing. After all, without it, what would I do when I'm not drinking beer?

Oh, right, binge-watching Star Trek. But wait -- that show had scripts. No writing, no scripts, no Star Trek, and no blog entry on this or any other day -- a bleak alternate universe indeed. Maybe even just as bleak as one without beer. So this time the Merit Badge goes to Zhen . I'll send you the MB before I start drinking, promise!

Everyone else, thanks! Great comments, and there will be another opportunity in a few days.