I’m noticing a pattern… some sort of correlation between a quantum unit of dates and the flow of time… but to what end? And how does a continuum translate into an array of discrete units? But more pressing and vexing: to what end? Tick tock, tick tock, tick… NEW DAY. Hmmm.<\/p>\n
Pressing forth into the fourth chapter of Scaruffi’s challenge<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Prequel; or, In last’s week’s episode:<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve finished mind mapping chapter 3, which I point out as a way of hinting to the lacunae that is a better-filled understanding of its contents. I have at least made adequate notes (electronic and analogue) that can serve as a foundation for further and future research into those relevant details, prompts, and general queries. But in the meanwhile…<\/p>\n …in the meanwhile I’ve begun reading further:<\/strong><\/p>\n I’ve only started making headway (electronically and by alternative-retro means), but can state some obvious realizations. This chapter (at least at its beginnings) aims to investigate cognition. In a sense, it continues from the last paragraph of the previous chapter, where it was suggested that an exploration of machine intelligence is misguided since intelligence is a nebulous concept at the best of times, and that the popular approaches towards its construction are fundamentally flawed since they hope to demonstrate problem-solving capacities. That lies in contrast to a better yard-stick (nb. while still neglecting\/avoiding a firm delineation) of intelligence which can be problem-generation (i.e. as related to curiosity, but more importantly, as related to a talent that is at once less precise and more powerful, and one which we often associate with critical thinking).<\/p>\n With that in mind, we can commend the choice of segregating cognitive processes for a choice for focus. That’s not to say that cognitive processes will solve all the problems from previous chapters and which remain unplacated. Instead, once it is recognized that cognitive processes are an exemplary theme for philosophical investigation of the nature of consciousness, we can proceed to the actual investigation. Which is exactly what Scaruffi does, beginning with the question, “How is cognition mediated?” which develops and evolves into a subtly more sophisticated version, “What do the systems that mediate cognition look like?”<\/p>\n That question is treated with tools such as “physical symbol systems”, and “production systems” (the examples given for the latter are ACT and SOAR), and which may incorporate the concept of “mental modules”. Production systems have been argued against, and have been opposed by (including) “mental models”.<\/p>\n Some more time has passed, and more has been read:<\/strong><\/p>\n The next few chapters seem to be variants and derivatives of the mental model theory of cognition. This includes discussions or visual processing and its relation to the mind’s eye – the idea being, I suppose, that the inner life is a less clear version of outer perception, so that to understand their relationship would enlighten a fundamental process. After all, what does it mean to see something inside one’s mind?<\/p>\n Without presuming an attempt on that question I would point to a point (!) of interest: I had not been aware of the anatomical dissection of the visual processing following passage through the visual cortex. Apparently, there is a ventral and a dorsal stream, with the former being associated with conscious, object-recognition type processing, while the latter is utilized more for motor control and is largely unconscious. The author further suggests that this particular dichotomy, or at least its dominance, were a fairly recent evolutionary innovation, and may thus be fundamental to some features of human (and company) species.<\/p>\n What else can I say? Thinking about cognition<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In parallel to my reading of Scaruffi (see above), I’ve been thinking about the question that underlies and justifies largely the subject of chapter 4: What is cognitive processing? What are the principles and processes that underlie it? And consequent from such lines of questioning, follow queries such as: What happens or what needs to happen or what is are the ways by which problems are solved?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m noticing a pattern… some sort of correlation between a quantum unit of dates and the flow of time… but to what end? And how does a continuum translate into an array of discrete units? But more pressing and vexing: to what end? Tick tock, tick tock, tick… NEW DAY. Hmmm. Pressing forth into the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,302,242,128,20,253],"tags":[],"metadata":[],"class_list":["post-2778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-classicalphilosophers","category-evernote-entries","category-journal","category-philosophy","category-scaruffi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2782,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/27\/wednesday-november-27-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":0},"title":"Wednesday November 27, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I look at the moon I think of you. You know that feeling - falling through the stars? Sitting in the park (the vacuum of the cricket field, the silence seeps from cedar benches bereft of players) or along the beach (I hope you're there now, the ocean's lapping\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1637,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2004\/10\/25\/the-drowned-and-the-saved-br\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":1},"title":"The Drowned and the Saved (BR)","author":"meanwhile","date":"October 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This is Shai\u2019s entry into the domain of digital publishing as he contributes an article in the\u00a0Gaia Online Writers Forum. Shai was not only a prolific writer but also an avid reader and it is thus fitting that his first digital post is a book review, the first\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2764,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/11\/06\/wednesday-november-6-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":2},"title":"Wednesday November 6, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"November 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Readings in Scaruffi So I've been reading the third chapter of Scaruffi's book on consciousness, concerning (quote-unquote) machine intelligence. More than the previous chapter, I feel like I'm being presented with a list of relevant facts upon which a narrative is being implied but not explicitly argued. Instead of re-stating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1641,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2004\/11\/06\/the-exam-countdown-4-3-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":3},"title":"The Exam Countdown 4…3","author":"meanwhile","date":"November 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Math Methods Paper 1 (Exam 2\/5) The worst thing about maths is that they've got you sitting two exams for it. Which means, that after nearly two hours of tackling antidifferentiation and binomial probability questions (last Friday), I can't even enjoy the feeling of being over and done with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2811,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2013\/10\/08\/tuesday-october-8-2013\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":4},"title":"Tuesday October 8, 2013","author":"Pala","date":"October 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Meta1: Look at yesterday and realize that I seriously need to revise my ability to use whatever code {fyi: markdown} this site uses for formatting! Meta2: Amongst the (potential) benefits of using a contents page, as introduced yesterday, is that it allows for easy copying and\/or revision, and\/or allowing partial-continuity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":564,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/11\/06\/a-pilot-study-into-the-hermenuetics-of-methodology\/","url_meta":{"origin":2778,"position":5},"title":"A Pilot Study into the Hermenuetics of Methodology","author":"Pala","date":"November 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: This post was found in 'Draft' mode in the original blog and may be incomplete. It is published here in its original state. It was last updated on 06\/11\/2014. Every commentator is an author whose concerns and responses allude to a hidden constellation. Thus a hidden dynamic -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "A Bashful Hope"","block_context":{"text":"A Bashful Hope","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/blog-posts\/a-bashful-hope\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/padotI-IO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2778"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=2778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}