From: Marc Geddes (marc_geddes@yahoo.co.nz)
Date: Wed Mar 02 2005 - 20:34:06 MST
As you know, I’d been pursuing a purely philosophical
approach over the past couple of years. I’d mainly
been spending my time looking into maths, not AI
stuff. As regards AI I deliberately stayed away from
the books and journals because I wanted to try to see
what general principles I could come up with through
the philosophical approach first (although it must be
said I did skim over Eliezer’s LOGI stuff a number of
times and of course I read his CV theory and went over
the summaries on the Sing Inst web-site).
Any way, I think I've finally completed a theory of
general principles. Here follows a very short Q&A
which gives you the final key definitions I'm using
for my theory.
Question: What is a sentient mind? What does it
actually do?
My final answer:
A mind is a complex system which seeks to understand
other complex systems. More specifically a mind is
that which seeks to understand the relationship
between the mental world (morals/vales) and the
physical world (facts).
Question: How does a sentient mind work?
My final answer:
The mind works through the interactions of two
distinct modes of thought – a non-linear (inductive)
mode and a linear (deductive) mode. The interaction
is the generation of metaphors. Every cognitive
system can be decomposed into interacting pairs of
functions – one representing an inductive mode, the
other a deductive mode. The key is the *interaction*
between the two modes – which takes the form of
*metaphors/analogies*. It is the ability of the mind
to form metaphors/analogies which is the heart of
intelligence and it this which gives rise to qualia.
Metaphors are *bridges* between two distinct levels of
organizations.
Any complex system (including any cognitive
sub-system) can be decomposed into *content* (the
lower sub-level) and *structure* (the higher
sub-level). The inductive mode of thought deals with
the content (lower sub-level), the deductive mode
handles the structure (higher sub-level). The
generation of metaphors is the key (bridge) which ties
together the inductive mode and the deductive mode
into a unified cognitive system.
Question: So what the crux? Summarized as briefly as
possible, what is the deepest secret of general
intelligence?
My final answer:
The mind as a whole is a complex system which can be
decomposed into sub-system ‘Rationality’ (lower
sub-level) and sub-system ‘Morality’ (higher
sub-level). The key is the interaction between the
two, which is *the ability of the mind to form
metaphors which enables it to understand models of
physical processes in terms of models of it’s own
internal value systems*! (Bridging the physical and
mental worlds through metaphors – similarities between
moral laws and physical laws).
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