Hong's Cave » world http://sori.org/hongcho The World According to Hong Sat, 22 May 2010 01:13:47 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Brain as a Modeling Tool http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/14/brain-as-a-modeling-tool/ http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/14/brain-as-a-modeling-tool/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 1998 23:06:40 +0000 Hong http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/14/brain-as-a-modeling-tool/ Several months ago, we had a very interesting guest speaker on the campus (the Microsoft campus, that is). It was none other than Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. He was actually there to talk about his upcoming (then) computer adventure game. Fortunately, I don’t remember anything about that. :)

However, what I do remember was his view of the role and function of the human brain. He defined it as a modeling tool (he also talked about how computers act as augmented extensions). This description rang so true to me. I had a similar idea but it wasn’t clear and defined at all. And he made it so clear.

We each have an idea (or a model) of what ourselves and our surroundings (the world) are like. We have formed (and continues to modify) as we grew up, accumulating, processing, and evaluating our interaction (or experiences) with the outside (of the brain) through our sensory systems. Humans have similar shape, dimension, and sensory systems and live on the same planet, so our models (or views) of the world are pretty similar (I think “similar” is the key word, here).

If there were a sentient being somewhere in other galaxy with different dimension, shape and sensory systems (which is very likely), their model of the world would be completely different from ours? How would they act? Can we understand each other?

All these are very fascinating thoughts. I am grateful to Mr. Adams for making things so much clear.

]]> http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/14/brain-as-a-modeling-tool/feed/ 0 The World and the Values http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/08/the-world-and-the-values/ http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/08/the-world-and-the-values/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 1998 22:53:34 +0000 Hong http://sori.org/hongcho/1998/07/08/the-world-and-the-values/ To me, “The World” seems to consist of the continuity of two “concepts:” those of “value” and of “no value”. As a thinking entity, evaluating “values” on what we observe and experience is one of our many essential traits. And as a thinking individual who has different experience, we have different evaluation procedures and standards. This is one of many reasons why we have conflicts. But also, that’s what makes this world much more interesting.

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