From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 21 2002 - 14:36:29 MDT
Technotranscendence wrote:
On Tuesday, August 13, 2002 6:43 PM Rafal Smigrodzki rms2g@virginia.edu
our whole mind has
> hundreds if not thousands of genetically
> specified modules which channel our
> thinking.
Such as?
Even this does not seem to mean that much. I might have propensity to,
say, come to a certain conclusion. Does that mean my knowledge is
grounded in that propensity? Or, rather, would one want to be aware of
the propensity and find a way to independently evaluate it?
### There is an inborn, genetically determined numerosity system in our
brain. The number of objects in your field of vision, up to 4 or 5 at a
time, is being continuously and subconsciously monitored. Even infants will
detect abnormal changes in the number of some objects (equivalent to
arithmetically false statements). This system guides the development of your
conscious mathematical reasoning. You do have the propensity to think that
2+2=4, you were born with it. Same applies to many rules that form the naive
physics, the simple concepts of space and time. It is the interaction
between your inborn propensities and sensory data, that allows you to build
your conceptual knowledge. Relying on sensory data alone and simple Hebbian
learning (or other context-independent rules) would probably slow your mind
s development by orders of magnitude, if not stymied it altogether. See the
persons with FOX2 mutations - they have a language disability, because of
miswiring in the motor systems, not insufficient sensory data. Both a ready
brain (built by non-sensory accumulation of knowledge in the course of
evolution) and compatible sensory input is needed to make a functional human
mind.
Rafal
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