How is the adult "sense of unity" produced from the infant proto-specialists? "We'll speculate that this coherency is acquired over many `stages of development'. Each new stage first works under the guidance of previous stages, to acquire some knowledge, values and goals. Then it proceeds to change its role and becomes a teacher to subsequent stages."
How is such teaching to be accomplished? Merely by recognizing and rewarding solutions, or by providing new goals. New stages are suppressed until tested (see Minsky's previous account of adding new layers to a hierarchy for a similar point).
"How could so many steps and stages lead to any sense of unity?" Minsky speculates that old stages still remain, to be used when required. "One's present personality cannot share many of the thoughts of allone's older personalities -- and yet it has some sense that they exist. This is one reason why we feel that we possess an inner Self -- a sort of ever-present person-friend, inside the mind, whom we can always ask for help."
(NB: Keep in mind this notion of development, and consider it in the context of Shultz' use of cascade-correlation. Q: Why do new stages emerge? What drives this kind of development? These are questions that Minsky has not yet answered for me!)
Pearl Street | Society Of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |