From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Mon Apr 15 2002 - 10:27:20 MDT
Michael Roy Ames wrote:
****
> You omit to mention that thoughts as well as concepts can be
remembered.
> Much of episodic memory consists of memories of thoughts! Thus,
thoughts
> are not really "disposable one-time structures" as you say. Most but
not
> all are disposed of.
Ben: I took Eliezer's DGI design intention, to define thoughts ==
"disposable one-time structures", as a pragmatic deliniation between
'ephemeral' vs. 'permanent'. This 'cut' has to be made somewhere, as
saving
a detailed mind-state for every passing thought is just too expensive.
I
also have described this border as "a storm of thoughts raging over a
sea of
concepts"... when the storm of thoughts abate, the concepts remain,
although
somewhat mixed and changed. This is not to say that a thought cannot
be
saved for later retrieval, just that it won't be saved in the same
format as
it normally exists. Instead it will be encoded as a memory - perhaps
as a
group of related concepts linked to specific imagery.
****
Sure, this is correct. A remembered thought is never quite the same as the
actual thought. Generally when remembering a thought, the most significant
aspects of the thought will be remembered, and the "background" of the
thought, which gives it much of its flavor, will not be stored. When the
thought is revived from memory it then sits against quite a different
context, which can give it a different aspect the second time around...
ben g
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