For anyone looking for a refreshingly different take on intelligence from, say, what you get in a raging twitter debate between connectionists and symbolists, I highly recommend Peter Godfrey-Smith’s Other Minds. Some highlights… 1/9
An important part of perception is the ability to distinguish between things you sense that are caused by your own actions, and things you sense that have a purely external cause. A solution to this problem is to make an “efference copy” of your actions. 2/9
“Hey brain, you can ignore those ‘movements’ that are simply the result of me turning my head.” Along with the command you send to your muscles to move your head, you send a copy of that command to the visual part of your brain to compensate for the change in view. 3/9
One theory has it that our inner speech comes from the ability to make an efference copy for the action of speech. “Ordinary speech involves, in the background, a kind of internal quasi-saying and quasi-hearing” (p145) 4/9
Having evolved for this function, inner speech has taken on a much more significant role and is the basis for our “system 2 thinking” (from Kahneman). Along with inner visualization and other tools, it is an essential part of our capacity for complex thought. 5/9
Extreme views on the role of language in complex thought (from “it plays no role” to “it’s essential”) are on the decline. It’s known to play a large role for us, but animals without language are known to be capable of complex thought. 6/9
Octopuses, whose spectacularly flexible problem-solving abilities have been well documented, have neurons throughout their body, and most of them are in their arms, which can perform various tasks (such as reaching and grasping) without coordination from the brain. 7/9
Octopuses can change colour (for camouflage and signalling purposes) but cannot see colour, at least not with their eyes. In a sense, their skin “sees” the colour it needs to change to. 🤯🐙 8/9
Those seeking to build “other minds” would do well to read about these Other Minds. The role of action in perception, the idea of decentralized nervous systems, the evolution of language, all make for an enriched conception of intelligence the field of AI could really use. Fin.
