Some aspects of word meanings can be captured via lists of properties. But what is a property? 1) it is a stable characteristic. 2) It is independent of other characteristics. 3) It reflects the nature of reality.
"We derive a wonderful power from representing things in terms of properties taht do not interact: this makes imagination practical. It lets us anticipate what will happen when we invent new combinations and variations we've never seen before." Minsky's move is to let different agencies represent different properties. "That way, a single word can activate many different kinds of thoughts at once! Thus the word `apple' can set your Color agency into a `redness' state, put your Shape agency into a `roundness state' ...etc."
(NB: On the one hand this reminds me a lot of the old semantic network vs set theoretic debate in cognitive psychology; because each of these approaches really viewed objects as a collection of properties. On the other hand, this stuff makes me wonder -- what in the world is a "word", in the sense of what "word" properties make it possible for all of these properties to be activated?)
Pearl Street | Society of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |