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I would argue that spatial reasoning encompasses all reasoning. All the things you mentioned have a direct analogue to abstract models and logic we employ and a
by andoando 2y ago
I would argue that spatial reasoning encompasses all reasoning. All the things you mentioned have a direct analogue to abstract models and logic we employ and are engrained deeply into language. For example, shapes containing eachother:
There are two countries both which lay claim to the same territory. There is a set X that contains Y and there is a set Z that contains Y. In the case that the common overlap is 3D and one in on top of the other, we can extend this to there is a set X that contains -Y and a set Z that contains Y, and just as you can only see one on top and not both depending on where you stand, we can apply the same property here and say set X and Z cannot both exist, and therefore if set X is on then -Y and if set Z then Y.
If you pay attention to the language you use youll start to realize how much of it uses spatial relationships to describe completely abstract things. For example, one can speak of disintigrating hegonomic economies. i.e turning things built on top of eachother into nothing, to where it came
We are after all, reasoning about things which happen in time and space.
And spatial != visual. Even if you were blind youd have to reason spatially, because again any set of facts are facts in space-time. What does it take to understand history? People in space, living at various distances from each other, producing goods from various locations of the earth using physical processes, and physically exchanging them. To understand battles you have to understand how armies are arranged physically, how moving supplies works, weather conditions, how weapons and their physical forms affect what they can physically do, etc.
Hell LLMs, the largest advancement we had in artificial intelligence do what exactly? Encode tokens into multi dimensional space.
- parentheses 2y agoSpatial reasoning is easily isomorphic to many kinds of reasoning - just not all of them. Spatial reasoning in this case also limits the AI to 2 dimensions. I concede that with more dimensions, there will be more isomorphisms. Is there a number of dimensions that captures all reasoning? I don't know..
- dimask 2y agoClaims of isomorphisms are really strong claims to not be backed up with some kind of evidence.
- andoando 2y agoI think the reasoning is very simple. Everything that happens happens in space through time. Intelligent systems must solve problems where they observe what's happening in space over some amount of time, and then predict whats going to happen to space over some other amount of time.