General Theory of Thinking Systems - Revision history

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‎History

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‎History

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‎History

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‎History

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‎Chunking

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‎Society of Mind

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‎Society of Mind

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‎Society of Mind

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‎Society of Mind

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‎Breakdown

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 Philosophers have been arguing about meaning from the time of the first written language. Here we will start with Descartes and Kant.<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref> From then we get the idea of an image process in the brain as well as a refutation of that idea and movement to a more abstract view of learning plus the idea that the brain is there as a prediction engine which is what human need for survival. The mind has evolved from then when it was just a map of the brain into the collection of processes described by Minsky below. What was missing in the early years was the physiology of the brain and the evaluation of how the brain creates reality as the child, and its brain, grow.<ref>Jean Piaget, ''The Construction of Reality in the Child'' 1957</ref> Even today the philosophers prefer to avoid the science of the main and brain, physiological psychology.
-The biologist Humberto Maturana proposed that systems are operationally closed. What he-meant is that an organism's nervous system doesn't actually let in"reality"—it generates its own internal coherence We don't perceive the world as it is, we perceive the world as we can afford to perceive it. Our nervous systems are not truth-seekers. They are coherence seekers. - Jessica Böhme, PhD
+The biologist Humberto Maturana proposed that systems are operationally closed. What he-meant is that an organism's nervous system doesn't actually let in"reality"; it generates its own internal coherence. We don't perceive the world as it is, we perceive the world as we can afford to perceive it. Our nervous systems are not truth-seekers. They are coherence seekers. - Jessica Böhme, PhD
 ==Chunking==

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 ==History==
 Philosophers have been arguing about meaning from the time of the first written language. Here we will start with Descartes and Kant.<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref> From then we get the idea of an image process in the brain as well as a refutation of that idea and movement to a more abstract view of learning plus the idea that the brain is there as a prediction engine which is what human need for survival. The mind has evolved from then when it was just a map of the brain into the collection of processes described by Minsky below. What was missing in the early years was the physiology of the brain and the evaluation of how the brain creates reality as the child, and its brain, grow.<ref>Jean Piaget, ''The Construction of Reality in the Child'' 1957</ref> Even today the philosophers prefer to avoid the science of the main and brain, physiological psychology.
 ==Chunking==

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 ==History==
-Philosophers have been arguing about meaning from the time of the first written language. Here we will start with Descartes and Kant.<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref>
+Philosophers have been arguing about meaning from the time of the first written language. Here we will start with Descartes and Kant.<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref> From then we get the idea of an image process in the brain as well as a refutation of that idea and movement to a more abstract view of learning plus the idea that the brain is there as a prediction engine which is what human need for survival. The mind has evolved from then when it was just a map of the brain into the collection of processes described by Minsky below. What was missing in the early years was the physiology of the brain and the evaluation of how the brain creates reality as the child, and its brain, grow.<ref>Jean Piaget, ''The Construction of Reality in the Child'' 1957</ref> Even today the philosophers prefer to avoid the science of the main and brain, physiological psychology.
 ==Chunking==

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 ==History==
-<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref>
+Philosophers have been arguing about meaning from the time of the first written language. Here we will start with Descartes and Kant.<ref>H Kim, D Schonecker eds. ''Kant and AI'' ISBN  9783110706543</ref>
 ==Chunking==
 The concept of chunking in human thought was first formally described by the American cognitive psychologist George A. Miller in his landmark 1956 paper “Th''''e Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” Similar limits are found in [[Artificial Intelligence]] where the number of tokens processed concurrently by an LLM is limited to some number like 2048.

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 * See also the wiki on [[Abstract Thinking]].
 ==Chunking==
-The concept of chunking in human thought was first formally described by the American cognitive psychologist George A. Miller in his landmark 1956 paper “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” Similar limits are found in [[Artificial Intelligence]] where the number of tokens processed concurrently by an LLM is limited to some number like 2048.
+The concept of chunking in human thought was first formally described by the American cognitive psychologist George A. Miller in his landmark 1956 paper “Th''''e Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information.” Similar limits are found in [[Artificial Intelligence]] where the number of tokens processed concurrently by an LLM is limited to some number like 2048.
 ==Breakdown==

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 The Society of Mind* — Deep Summary
 # Core Thesis
-- **Intelligence is not a single unified process.**
+## **Intelligence is not a single unified process.**
-- Instead, the mind is a **“society” of many small, simple, mindless processes** called *agents*.
+##  Instead, the mind is a **“society” of many small, simple, mindless processes** called *agents*.
-- These agents interact in layered, hierarchical ways to produce what we call thought, memory, learning, creativity, and consciousness.
+##  These agents interact in layered, hierarchical ways to produce what we call thought, memory, learning, creativity, and consciousness.
-- Quote: *“What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.”*
+##  Quote: *“What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.”*
 # Structure of the Book
-- Composed of **270 short essays** across 30 chapters.
+##  Composed of **270 short essays** across 30 chapters.
-- Each essay is a conceptual “building block,” mirroring the modularity of the theory itself.
+##  Each essay is a conceptual “building block,” mirroring the modularity of the theory itself.
-- The book is not a linear argument but a **mosaic of interconnected ideas**.
+##  The book is not a linear argument but a **mosaic of interconnected ideas**.
 ## Key Concepts
 ### **Agents**

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 - These agents interact in layered, hierarchical ways to produce what we call thought, memory, learning, creativity, and consciousness.
 - Quote: *“What magical trick makes us intelligent? The trick is that there is no trick. The power of intelligence stems from our vast diversity, not from any single, perfect principle.”*
 # Structure of the Book
 - Composed of **270 short essays** across 30 chapters.
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 - Individually simple, but collectively powerful.
 - Different agents specialize in different tasks (perception, memory, language, motor control).
 ### 2. **Societies of Agents**
 - Agents form **agencies** (clusters) to solve more complex problems.
 - Agencies can themselves be combined into higher‑level societies.
 - Intelligence emerges from the **interactions and negotiations** among these societies.
 ### 3. **Knowledge Representation**
 - Minds use multiple forms of representation: symbolic, procedural, analogical.
 - No single representation suffices; diversity is strength.
 ### 4. **Learning**
 - Learning is the process of **restructuring agent societies**.
 - New agents can be created, old ones suppressed, and connections re‑wired.
 ### 5. **Language & Thought**
 - Language is not a separate faculty but a **coordination mechanism** among agents.
 - Inner speech is a way of agents communicating with each other.
 ### 6. **Consciousness & Self**
 - Consciousness is not a central command but an **emergent property** of many agents monitoring and influencing each other.
 - The “self” is a **myth we tell ourselves** — a narrative woven by higher‑order agents to unify diverse processes.
 ### 7. **Emotion & Motivation**
 - Emotions are not irrational add‑ons but **control signals** that regulate which agents dominate at a given time.

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 ==Society of Mind==
 This is a specific models(such as Minsky’s Society of Mind<ref> Marvin Minsky ''Society of Mind'' ISBN 978-0671657130</ref>, or modern neural network approaches) that illustrate these principles in action, or additional case studies comparing natural and artificial thinking systems?
 ==References==

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 A general theory of thinking systems seeks to synthesize how information is received, processed, and output by systems—whether in human cognition or machine intelligence. It posits that through structured, yet adaptable, networks of interconnected components (subject to feedback and self-organization), a limited set of rules and representations can give rise to an almost limitless variety of behaviors and outputs. While the theory draws on principles from systems theory, cybernetics, cognitive science, and AI, it remains an evolving framework—constantly refined in light of new research and technological advances.
-Would you like to explore specific models (such as Minsky’s Society of Mind, or modern neural network approaches) that illustrate these principles in action, or additional case studies comparing natural and artificial thinking systems? There’s a rich palette of interdisciplinary work that further elaborates on these foundational ideas.
+==Society of Mind==
 ==References==