Jack Park wrote:
> And then, there really is the issue you state, that things change with
> time -- conceptual drift. How does one really handle that? I have been
> toying with the notion that a *concept*, the whole ontological entity, is
> not really a fixed point *out there* in concept space, but rather a kind of
> *attractor basin* that conceptual reasoners (meat and silicon) must orbit
> around. Within that attractor basin resides a kind of central tendency, one
> that is a socially constructed description (likely: probabilistic in nature)
> of the concept and that central tendency is the view of any concept we
> *typically* gravitate towards. I justify this notion by recalling that most
> of the learning theories we apply to child development tend to rely on
> placing conceptual anchors, then reenforcing those anchors; reenforcement
> learning implies repetitive contact with concepts, and not all contacts are
> the same. It would seem that learning is a kind of probabilistic process.
> Given that, one wonders what would happen to the child that attends a church
> representing a different faith on each sabbath...
>
> Do I have any idea how to represent concepts in this way? Just a clue; it
> may well be that the topological algebra called category theory is worth
> studying. Do triads belong in this universe? I think so, but perhaps not as
> triples.
I don;t have a great answer to this. (As I said in my other post, this
is some handwaving on my part). I like where you are going with the
notion of attractors thouhg. I think this issue of how concepts emerge
is a good one and needs further exploration.
> How, then, to build a useful representation without knowing its purpose?
> Start with the stories. Abstract from them the concepts and relations
> <note>remembering that relations are, themselves, concepts</note>. Build a
> solid representation of those abstractions. Then begin telling stories
> (constructing views) with intent.
I think stories are a very good way to approach this. Use cases are sort
of stories -- so this is to an extent defining need by use cases. But,
we are really still defining purpose with stories.
-Paul Fernhout
Kurtz-Fernhout Software
=========================================================
Developers of custom software and educational simulations
Creators of the Garden with Insight(TM) garden simulator
http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com
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