8.11 Layers Of Societies


The K-lines of each agency grow into a new society. Here, Minsky introduces some terminology. S-agents are the original agents, and S-society is their society. K-lines can get added to these agents as memories are recorded, this is the K-society.

"But this will lead to a different problem of efficiency: the connections to the original S-agents will become increasingly remote and indirect. Then everything will begin to slow down -- unless the K-society continues to make at least some new connections to the original S-society. That would be easy to arrange, if the K-society grows in the form of a `layer' close to its S-society."

"If arranged this way, the layer paris could form a curious sort of computer. As S-agents excite K-agents and vice versa, a sort of spiraling activity would ensue." This feedback leads to problems -- chaotic explosions, etc. How is this to be controlled? "By specifying which level-band should remain active and suppressing all the rest. Indeed, that is precisely the sort of coarse control that a B-brain might exercise, since it oculd do allthis without needing to understand the fine details of what is happening inside the A-brain." So, a third controlling agency is required. Now, too, we see an A-brain being decomposed into two layers, the S-society and the K-society.

Finally, Minsky makes the claim that the creation of new layers is the process by which mental capacities develop.


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