The invention of language

7 After the Fall

'Adam's one task in the Garden had been to invent language, to give each creature and thing its name. In that state of innocence, his tongue had gone straight to the quick of the world. His words had not been merely appended to the things he saw, they had revealed their essences, had literally brought them to life. A thing and its name were interchangeable. After the fall, this was no longer true. Names became detached from things, words devolved into a collection of arbitrary signs; language had been severed fom God. The story of the Garden, therefore, records not only the fall of man, but the fall of language.' 

    Paul Auster

In, Robert C. Stalnaker (2008) Our Knowledge of the Internal World. Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press. hb. p.132.

Auster, P. (1985) The New York Trilogy (New York: Penguin Books). p.52.

Essay Competition: On the Principles of Intelligence c/o AI-SGES list

On December 17, 1903, two brothers from Dayton,
Ohio, named Wilbur and Orville Wright,
were successful in flying an airplane they built.

Dear all,

Around 1500, Leonardo da Vinci published his sketches of an aircraft with rounded wings, and in 1783 the first manned hot-air balloon took off. It wasn't until 1905 – over 4'000 years after the oldest known depiction of human flight was carved in clay – that the Wright Brothers took off for the first sustained, controlled, and heavier-than-air crewed flight. From today's point of view, the principles of aerodynamics necessary to build operational aircraft seem relatively trivial.

But only in retrospect are the results of such breakthroughs considered part of the 'obvious'. In 1957, psychologist Frank Rosenblatt published the first paper on trainable neural networks. Since then, humans have walked on the moon, the internet has been invented, and smart devices have been built to fit in our pockets – but neural networks have still not led to human-level artificial intelligence. Neural networks appear like wings that fly for a short time but then drop like a stone when confronted with unknown tasks. Therefore, we'd like to propose moving away from the current hype around neural networks and ask you more fundamentally:

Which fundamental principles of intelligence must be considered in the successful design of artificial intelligence?

The appropriate example from aviation would be: "What are the core aspects of flight that must be considered in the successful design of aircraft?" (One possible answer: As a curved airfoil wing flies through the sky, it deflects air and alters the air pressure above and below it. When moving forward, the curved upper part of the wing lowers the air pressure directly above it, so it moves upward.)

With that in mind, we challenge you to write an essay of 2'000 to 3'000 words and become the Wright Brothers in the field of AI! Whether you answer the question from a philosophical, biological, computational, mathematical, neuroscientific, psychological, social, or any other perspective is up to you. We value novel and insightful arguments that are useful in the field of AI.

Go to https://lab42.global/essay/ and hand in your essay by 23:59 GMT on December 31, 2022. The best essays are rewarded with 3'500 USD in total.

Best regards

Oliver Schmid
oliver.schmid AT lab42.global

https://lab42.global/essay

[Do read the guidance on the website. PJ]

Image use here: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_976.html
original credit - inc. Library of Congress

AI-SGES list

Progress in Transdisciplinary Times

For about a decade I think ... hold on please! ...

Since October 2011 in fact, and an issue of -

Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Volume 17, Issue 5

Special Issue: Philosophy of Evidence Based Medicine

- I've carried the concept of 'progress' in my head. I think I picked up this issue somewhere and still have some of its key papers. 

 

Progress is always there in the media, in its obvious forms, technical, education, scientific, social, political, economic, medical; whether or not we agree on the pace, realisation, ethics, extent and contribution to overall well-being. Now, we can also add Earth as the foundational element.

Simon Kuper's 'Opening Shot' in the FT Magazine, 11-12 December 2021 wrote about 'progress' and Thomas Midgley Jr; "often described as the most disastrous peaceable human who ever lived." Responsible for the progressive, at the time, innovations of lead in petrol (to reduce "knocking" in petrol engines), and chlorofluorocarbons - you'll understand that one I think. Kuper notes how:

"Midgley's story illustrates the damage that one brilliant, ambitious, out-of-the-box thinker can do."

Since the early 20th century, we have nuclear fission, biolabs, genetic technology, artificial intelligence, climate change and other 'inventions'. The 'progress' of climate change is catching up with us. Ironic, how the question, after all those millennia remains - can I/We outrun this threat? The problems we face now, we are told, call for transdisciplinary solutions - adding yet more complexity.

Clearly, we need to equip people with the cognitive, conceptual tools to work alternately, in-and-out of the boxes. And, whatever our belief system consider progress in spiritual terms too.

 INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

progress	progress
progress	PROGRESS

Another thing to return to!

Simon Kuper, Opening Shot, When too much progress is a bad thing. FT Weekend, Magazine, December 11-12, 2021, p.8.

Previously on W2tQ: progress

Seeds in 'architecture' iii

Prof. Younés describes 'three essential dualities': 

• IMAGE and WORD 
• TYPE and MODEL
• IMITATION and INVENTION

IMAGE and WORD 

Nursing has its historical images, that are continually presented, the lamp, hands imbued with care and support and others. The attraction to Hodges' model was through its similarity to mind-mapping, but with offering an foundational structure for reflection and critique (learning). So image has been there from the start.

Younés writes: "Within the dialectic of the visible (objects apprehended by the senses) and the invisible (ideas or forms apprehended by the mind), the image acts as a symbol when it supports the visibility of an idea." ... "Forms can be seen as structural potentials ..." p.238.

Younés classifies images (p.241), or the artistically factual through three divisions:

1. visual images (that would include icons and interface features)
   
2. mental images
3. verbal images (including metaphors and descriptions).
   

 "... the mind constructs a world within a world, and then reflects upon its own activity, as well as its own aesthetic appreciation of such activity."

I must stress the Younés context is architecture (and philosophy), but here extending to meaning I'm reminded of the way Hodges' model can span the arts and sciences, and original influences on why this model stood out for me through its facility for mind-mapping.

TYPE and MODEL 

 Here (p.242) Younés returns, not just to the origin, but the concept of origin through Form, the word and the type. Searching for universally shared purposes, within the permanences of human experience  this is health and social care too.

Taking in data, information, knowledge from assessment and other activities, this is usually contextualised - associated with a care domain. A return to the origin (nexus) of Hodges' model, the center is vital to retain balance and provide assurance in what we are doing, or not, and why.

"The architect imitates things as they have essential significance, but he or she does not copy any particular thing. This enables the layered transformation of natural models, without which the column would have always remained a tree. The form of the imitation is always different from that of the model. The roof is different from the forest's canopy. It is here that the pleasure of invention and the evaluation of the new enter, for it is within the recognized distance between the forest's canopy and the roof, that much of art occurs." p.244.

How times change in two decades. So many seek a roof, with architects having a recognized role in providing solutions post-natural disaster and political displacement of people. Not just homelessness, but homes that can cope, adjust to climate change. COVID has reminded us of the rejuvenating properties of nature, of the forest canopy, even that afforded by city centre gardens. 

We now see a roof not merely in physical terms, but social. As the night skies brighten we try to secure the canopy of the stars.

IMITATION and INVENTION 

Have we forgotten the contribution of positive role-models in learning? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and this throws up the constant educational dilemma of the theory - practice gap. Should we be exposed to practice without the guiding mentor represented in theory - that is also evidence-based?

There is an interesting exploration of SCOPE, DISCOURSE and NATURE: On Scope

"Thus a theory that is systemic aims at a certain level of completeness for it establishes the internal organization of architecture as a discipline, and it explains its external relations to other arts, to techniques, to social factors. Put differently, the interior individual realm concerns the intellectual freedom, the inner reflection of the architect-maker. The exterior individual pertains to the thoughts resulting from one architect reflecting upon another architect's work, as well as the individual architect's reflections on the suitability of her or his building to a context. The interior collective bears upon the conscious or unconscious content of culture which thrive within the images of of operative myths that inform architectural production. The exterior collective designates that commonly built sense regarding the suitability of architecture (decorum) within its milieu par excellence: the city. The above concerns the scope of an architectural theoretical system, on the urban, architectural, aesthetic, social, and practical levels." p.245-246.

INDIVIDUAL

|

 INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

interior individual	exterior individual
interior collective	exterior collective

 

I started these three posts noting the addition of 'architecture' to titles, concepts, and 'stretching' disciplines. Also guilty here; in mitigation, I'm aware of how in the mid-late 1970s technical drawing as taught was to change radically in the digital wave.

Hodges' model provides a drawing board, with analogue and digital potential.

I will continue to draw upon the (inspirational) discipline of architecture, it informs and sustains thought, construction, meanings, language use, and effort here.

There is much more to glean from this paper, so I hope to revisit it in the future - with further annotations on my copy.

Over the years I have noted related items in the press (yes, I saved the following):

Designs for life: architecture in the disaster zone, FT Weekend.

and read - A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis

By David Rieff

See also: 

Seeds in 'architecture' i 

Seeds in 'architecture' ii

Younés, Samir. “Constructing Architectural Theory.” Philosophy 78, no. 304 (2003): 233–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3752046.