Steven and Rich, (01)
The following comment by Steven may sound perverse to Rich,
but it raises some important questions: (02)
> As I read this, BTW, it appears to suggest that birds can wash dishes
> wash dishes or that one may simply train a beaver. (03)
Three points: (04)
1. Birds can't wash dishes the same way that humans do for the same
reason why humans can't wash dishes with a sewing machine -- they
have the wrong tools. (05)
2. Beavers are born with an instinct to build dams, birds are born
with an instinct to build nests, and humans are born with an
instinct to speak a language. Each species has built-in tools
that are very well adapted for those activities. (06)
3. But to build a good nest, dam, or sentence, they need to learn
from their parents how to use those tools, and they need a large
amount of creativity to discover all the required details. (07)
> Your animal case is no different from the human case, so I find it
> hard to justify that it is "more critical" - from my point of view
> it is the same problem. (08)
I certainly agree that it's the same problem. Learning to build
a nest, a dam, or a sentence involves the same kinds of neural
mechanisms *and* the same kind of learning and creativity. (09)
If Chomsky were a beaver, he would claim that the "poverty of the
stimulus" problem requires a built-in procedure for dam building.
But instinct and built-in tools plus an appropriate environment,
learning from parents, and childhood creativity are sufficient. (010)
To emphasize these points, I added slide 16 (copy below) to
http://www.jfsowa.com/talks/micai.pdf (011)
John
___________________________________________________________________ (012)
Slide 16 of http://www.jfsowa.com/talks/micai.pdf (013)
MAKING AND USING TOOLS (014)
The ability to make tools is a critical sign of intelligence:
* All animals, including humans, are born with a set of built-in tools.
* Birds can’t wash dishes for the same reason that humans can’t wash
dishes with a sewing machine: they have the wrong tools.
* Humans make and use the most elaborate tools, but biologists keep
discovering more species that make and use tools. (015)
The role of instinct:
* Birds have an instinct to build nests, beavers have an instinct
to build dams, and humans have an instinct to speak a language.
* But the details of the nests, dams, and languages depend on the
animals’ built-in tools, the environment, learning from parents,
and creativity. (016)
For every physical tool or activity, there is a kind of mental tool:
* Minsky’s mental agents correspond to the diversity of human
activities.
* The diversity of Wittgenstein’s language games results from the many
ways of using the human vocal tools for talking about the activities. (017)
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