From: Simon Gordon (sim_dizzy@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Apr 28 2003 - 07:31:54 MDT
--- "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com> wrote: >
> > gut reaction = intuition , and intuition is
> probably a
> > better mind tool than any kind of ordinary logical
> > reasoning.
>
> You are of course entitled to your opinion, but the
> overwhelming body
> of evidence is that you are wrong. "Intuition" and
> "gut reactions"
> would tell you that much which we know to be true is
> nonsense, and yet
> we can verify it. "Intuition" is useless when it
> comes to things that
> are far beyond the world we evolved for. I trust
> your intuition on
> whether your girlfriend might be mad at you, or
> whether you can throw
> a ball a certain distance, but I'd say that given
> the number of people
> who still don't "intuit" even Newton's laws of
> motion, intuition is
> a lousy tool for exploring the universe.
You are assuming that intuition stays bound to some
evolutionary constraints. If that was the case then no
one have a proper understanding of gravity beyond the
behaviour of everyday objects on Earth and Einstein
would not have been able to formulate his general
theory of relativity. I am not saying that everyone's
intuition is correct, that certainly could not be the
case because everyone seems to have different
intuitions (although if you believe in an
observer-relative reality perhaps this is still
possible). However it is possible to develop intuition
in the same way that other brain areas can be trained
to develop certain skills. Mathematicians with highly
developed intuitions in their field are able to come
up with some amazing mathematics for instance, often
opening up whole new avenues of investigation: this is
where Mathematician meets creative genius and its all
thanks to intuition. Similiarly for philosophers,
logicians and metaphysicians: intuition is the tool
used to navigate the complex, the abstract, the
esoteric realms of mind in order to reach a personal
understanding, and allow for those intial creative
sparks to get us further up the ladder of
understanding.
> > Einstein and Goedel would agree with me.
>
> I would say that they would both most certainly
> disagree with you.
Did you know that both Einstein and Goedel were good
friends at one point and they were known to share a
philosophy which included simple mysticism? Goedel
himself claimed to have mystical insights into such
things as absolute negation. "mystical insights" -
otherwise known as intuition.
> > As to my background in metamathematics, most of
> what i
> > have a currently garnered on the subject so far
> has
> > been from reading Rudy Rucker's nonfiction series
> =}
Spike: for your information titles include "Mind Tools
and the Fifth Dimension" and "Infinity and the Mind",
i recommend the latter, its a very entertaining and
enlightening read which includes such great chapters
as "Robots and Souls" -which is very relevant to AI.
Simon.
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