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>Winston said he believes researchers should instead focus on those things that make humans distinct from other primates, or even what made them distinct from N
by davidhollander 15y ago
>Winston said he believes researchers should instead focus on those things that make humans distinct from other primates, or even what made them distinct from Neanderthals.
According to cognitive science, this is capacity for analogical reasoning. Compared to the other self-aware, social, tool using animals exhibiting emotion such as dolphins, elephants, and the great apes, what sets humans apart is our massive capacity for analogical reasoning that leaves dolphins in a distant second.
In other words, humans can not only think in terms of relations, but how relations relate to one another much easier than any other animal.
- lars 15y agoAnd for automatic analogical reasoning, we've had the Structure Mapping Engine [1] since the 80's. I don't think focusing on what makes humans unique is necessarily the way to go, I think a better focus would be on what makes animals in general unique, compared to our computers. Being consciousness and being able to move around in the environment are two things that your average cat is still way better at than any computer. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_mapping_engine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_mapping_engine
- jimbokun 15y agoMy cat also has a much better mental model of me and how I will respond to her stimuli than any computer does.