Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
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Communication: In general, communication is the transmission of information between several entities (people, animals, cells) that are able to process this information. In communication, information is copied and not merely transmitted, since it is not lost at the original location. New information emerges where applicable in the individuals involved in the communication. The aim of communication is to change the information of a recipient. Human communication also includes the manner of transmission, e.g. ironic coloring of a quotation or the knowledge about the credibility of a source. See also information, language, communication theory, actions, understanding, frame theories._____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Marvin Minsky on Communication - Dictionary of Arguments
nsky I 64 Communication/Minsky: If every mind builds somewhat different things inside itself, how can any mind communicate with a different mind? In the end, surely, communication is a matter of degree but it is not always lamentable when different minds don't understand each other perfectly. For then, provided some communication remains, we can share the richness of each other's thoughts. Understanding/Minsky: The secret of what anything means to us depends on how we've connected it to all the other things we know. That's why it's almost always wrong to seek the real meaning of anything. A thing with just one meaning has scarcely any meaning at all. >Thinking/Minsky, >Meaning/Minsky. Minsky I 67 If agents can't communicate, how is it that people can — in spite of having such different backgrounds, thoughts, and purposes? The answer is that we overestimate how much we actually communicate. Instead, despite those seemingly important differences, much of what we do is based on common knowledge and experience. So even though we can scarcely speak at all about what happens in our lower-level mental processes, we can exploit their common heritage. Internal communication/computers/Minsky: The words and symbols we use to summarize our higher-level goals and plans are not the same as the signals used to control lower-level ones. So when our higher-level agencies attempt to probe into the fine details of the lower-level submachines that they exploit, they cannot understand what's happening. This must be why our language-agencies cannot express such things as how we balance on our bicycles, distinguish pictures from real things, or fetch our facts from memory. Cf. >Translation/Minsky._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Minsky I Marvin Minsky The Society of Mind New York 1985 Minsky II Marvin Minsky Semantic Information Processing Cambridge, MA 2003 |