AI and cognitive psychology rant (getting more and more OT - tell me if I should shut up)

[Stephen Horne]

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 16:00:12 +0200, anton at vredegoor.doge.nl (Anton
Vredegoor) wrote:

>There *is* no fixed past.

So you are saying that if a psychiatrist convinces his patient that
she was abused by her parents as a child, even though it never
occurred, to the point that she can remember it - then it must be
true!

I'm not confused on this - you are.

Sorry, but you are not keeping a clear distinction between "the past"
and "knowledge of the past". If memory is altered then it doesn't
change the past, only the (now incorrect) memory.

This sounds a lot like extreme cultural relativism. But I'm afraid
that if you drive your car past a village of people with no knowledge
of cars, while they may believe that your car is propelled by a demon
under the hood, in reality the engine will still be there.

Perception is not reality. It is only a (potentially flawed)
representation of reality. But reality is still real. And perception
*is* tied to reality as well as it can be by the simple pragmatic
principle of evolution - if our ancestors had arbitrary perceptions
which were detached from reality, they could not have survived and had
children.

You'll find many people who claim otherwise, of course. But the limits
of perception are actually already better understood than most people
realise. On the whole, they are pretty much the limits of information
processing.


-- 
Steve Horne

steve at ninereeds dot fsnet dot co dot uk