?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Adc&rft.title=There+is+no+Concrete+(or%3A+Living+Within+One's+Means)&rft.creator=Harnad%2C+Stevan&rft.subject=Robotics&rft.description=We+are+accustomed+to+thinking+that+a+primrose+is+%22concrete%22+and+a+prime+number+is+%22abstract%2C%22+that+%22roundness%22+is+more+abstract+than+%22round%2C%22+and+that+%22property%22+is+more+abstract+than+%22roundness.%22+In+reality%2C+the+relation+between+%22abstract%22+and+%22concrete%22+is+more+like+the+(non)relation+between+%22abstract%22+and+%22concave%2C%22+%22concrete%22+being+a+sensory+term+%5Babout+what+something+feels+like%5D+and+%22abstract%22+being+a+functional+term+(about+what+the+sensorimotor+system+is+doing+with+its+input+in+order+to+produce+its+output)%3A+Feelings+and+things+are+correlated%2C+but+otherwise+incommensurable.%0A%0AEverything+that+any+sensorimotor+system+such+as+ourselves+manages+to+categorize+successfully+is+based+on+abstracting+sensorimotor+%22affordances%22+(invariant+features).+The+rest+is+merely+a+question+of+what+inputs+we+can+and+do+categorize%2C+and+what+we+must+abstract+from+the+particulars+of+each+sensorimotor+interaction+in+order+to+be+able+to+categorize+them+correctly.+To+categorize%2C+in+other+words%2C+is+to+abstract.+And+not+to+categorize+is+merely+to+experience.%0A%0ABorges's+Funes+the+Memorious%2C+with+his+infinite%2C+infallible+rote+memory%2C+is+a+fictional+hint+at+what+it+would+be+like+not+to+be+able+to+categorize%2C+not+to+be+able+to+selectively+forget+and+ignore+most+of+our+input+by+abstracting+only+its+reliably+recurrent+invariants.+But+a+sensorimotor+system+like+Funes+would+not+really+be+viable%2C+for+if+something+along+those+lines+did+exist%2C+it+could+not+categorize+recurrent+objects%2C+events+or+states%2C+hence+it+could+have+no+language%2C+private+or+public%2C+and+could+at+most+only+feel%2C+not+function+adaptively+(hence+survive).%0A%0ALuria's+%22S%22+in+%22The+Mind+of+a+Mnemonist%22+is+a+real-life+approximation+whose+difficulties+in+conceptualizing+were+directly+proportional+to+his+difficulties+in+selectively+forgetting+and+ignoring.%0A%0AWatanabe's+%22Ugly+Duckling+Theorem%22+shows+how%2C+if+we+did+not+selectively+weight+some+properties+more+heavily+than+others%2C+everything+would+be+equally+(and+infinitely+and+indifferently)+similar+to+everything+else.%0A%0AMiller's+%22Magical+Number+Seven+Plus+or+Minus+Two%22+shows+that+there+are+(and+must+be)+limitations+on+our+capacity+to+process+and+remember+information%2C+both+in+our+capacity+to+discriminate+relatively+(detect+sameness%2Fdifference%2C+degree-of-similarity)+and+in+our+capacity+to+discriminate+absolutely+(identify%2C+categorize%2C+name)%2C%0A%0AThe+phenomenon+of+categorical+perception+shows+how+selective+feature-detection+puts+a+Whorfian+%22warp%22+on+our+feelings+of+similarity+in+the+service+of+categorization%2C+compressing+within-category+similarities+and+expanding+between-category+differences+by+abstracting+and+selectively+filtering+inputs+through+their+invariant+features%2C+thereby+allowing+us+to+sort+and+name+things+reliably.%0A%0ALanguage+does+allow+us+to+acquire+categories+indirectly+through+symbolic+description+(%22hearsay%2C%22+definition)+instead+of+just+through+direct+sensorimotor+trial-and-error+experience%2C+but+to+do+so%2C+all+the+categories+named+and+used+in+the+description+must+be+recursively+grounded+in+direct+sensorimotor+invariants.+Language+is+largely+a+way+to+ground+new+categories+by+recombining+already+grounded+ones%2C+often+by+making+their+implicit+invariant+features+into+explicit+categories+too.%0A%0AIf+prime+numbers+differ+from+primroses%2C+it+is+hence+only+in+the+degree+to+which+they+happen+to+be+indirect%2C+explicit%2C+language-mediated+categories.+Like+everything+else%2C+they+are+recursively+grounded+in+sensorimotor+invariants.+The+democracy+of+things+is+that%2C+for+sensorimotor+systems+like+ourselves%2C+all+things+are+just+absolute+discriminables%3A+they+number+among+those+categories+that+our+sensorimotor+interactions+can+potentially+afford%2C+no+more%2C+no+less.+A+primrose+affords+dicotyledonousness+as+reliably+(if+not+as+surely)+as+a+numerosity+of+6+(e.g.%2C+6+primroses)+affords+factoring+(whereas+7+does+not).&rft.date=2003-05&rft.type=Preprint&rft.type=NonPeerReviewed&rft.format=text%2Fhtml&rft.identifier=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3024%2F1%2Fconcrete.html&rft.identifier=++Harnad%2C+Stevan++(2003)+There+is+no+Concrete+(or%3A+Living+Within+One's+Means).++%5BPreprint%5D+++++&rft.relation=http%3A%2F%2Fcogprints.org%2F3024%2F