Minsky begins by presenting a topographic learning principle: "The nerve pathways that preserve the physical nearness relations of our skin-sensors can make it easy for inner agencies to discover corresponding nearnesses about the outer world of space." Minsky defines "space" as a society of nearness relations among places. But no one knows how the brain makes such maps. "It is a wonderful fact that, in principle, one can deduce the global geography of a space from nothing more than hints about which pairs of points lie near one another! ... If brains do something of this sort, it might illuminate a problem that has troubled some philosophers: `Why do we all agree on what the outer world of space is like?'".
(NB: This section makes me think about learning associations between processors that are simulataneously active, which in turn makes me think of Hebb learning, which in turn makes me think of NMDA receptor sites (talk about associations!). Could Hebb learning account for the development of "innate geography"? After all, I believe that there is lots of evidence for NMDA receptor sites in the retina. Do such sites exist for other sensory modalities as well?)
Pearl Street | Society Of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |