Re: Ontology and Physics
Rob Freeman wrote:
[snip]
> The emergent approaches to physics which are turning up in these
> discussions
> -- Robert Laughlin, and now it seems "Process Physics" -- embody that new
> kind of approach in response to incompleteness,... for physics. We can do
> the
> same thing for ontology by treating ontology as a "process", a search for
> structure, notably over language.
>
> -Rob
I like it! My image of an ontology is the linguistic knowledge in a
person's
head, which of course changes as the person ages.
Presently, I'm about 25% through "The First Idea", by Stanley I. Greenspan,
M.D.
and Stuart G. Shanker, D.Phil. who studied how emotion in a newborn is
strengthened
and focused by interchanges with its caregivers. They make a very strong
case about
how linguistic interactions may have evolved based on studies of the
interactions
between various primate newborns and their own caregivers. It describes the
increasing accumulation of knowledge as the newborn ages.
I've just finished "On Intelligence", by Jeff Hawkins, who is the original
architect
of the Palm Pilot. He has a view of how the neocortex accumulates knowledge
which is a bit more esoteric. He used his money to create a foundation that
studies that kind of thing. Much of the discussion is on the end product of
an
evolving intelligence, rather than on the evolution itself, but I would
still recommend
his book.
JMHO,
Rich