THEORY: Intuition, poetry, and hypertext
Jorn Barger
have evolved the capacity to look at situations ***from
various perspectives*** --and most especially 'from a
distance' or in a broadened context.
Any problem-solving skill will be of limited value if one
only recognises its applicability when the situation is
seen from a particular 'angle', so the brain needs to
devote resources to generalising out the relevant cues.
In a crisis, there will be a payoff for quick responses, as
well, so the generalised cues need to be recognised without
any slow conceptual thought being required. And this I
think is what we call 'intuition'.
Scientific training has little to say about cultivating the
intuition, but I think all great scientists discover their
own personal strategies to achieve this. Trying to
visualise scientific models at various scales and from various
perspectives is surely one technique. The creation of
'objects of contemplation' that lay out a model in the
clearest way possible is also good policy.
One of the most remarkable things about natural language is
that it follows the same pattern as intuition-- you can be
satisfied with clumsy prose that captures an insight in a
purely conventional way, or you can devote some effort to
finding the deepest, clearest, and most elegant way of
describing it.
So the movement towards deeper intuition is also a movement
towards more beautiful poetry. And in informational prose,
this corresponds to simple and clear summation of the
essence of a topic, which not coincidentally is what's
required as efficient linktext in hypertext.
Gearløs
> Even before humans invented language, the hominid brain must
> have evolved the capacity to look at situations ***from
> various perspectives*** --and most especially 'from a
> distance' or in a broadened context.
A brain cannot look at things from different perspectives - a body with a
brain (a person) can.
Gearloose :-)
ian glendinning
> and most especially 'from a
> distance' or in a broadened context.
Isn't this the basis of reflective consciousness - putting oneself
outside immediate experience. Humans have (limited) mastery of
intuition, poetry and hypertext. No other living being does that I'm
aware of.
Ian Glendinning
Jim Bromer
"Jorn Barger" <jo...@enteract.com> wrote in message
news:16e613ec.03041...@posting.google.com...
>
> Any problem-solving skill will be of limited value if one
> only recognises its applicability when the situation is
> seen from a particular 'angle', so the brain needs to
> devote resources to generalising out the relevant cues.
>
>
> Scientific training has little to say about cultivating the
> intuition, but I think all great scientists discover their
> own personal strategies to achieve this. Trying to
> visualise scientific models at various scales and from various
> perspectives is surely one technique. The creation of
> 'objects of contemplation' that lay out a model in the
> clearest way possible is also good policy.
>
>
> So the movement towards deeper intuition is also a movement
> towards more beautiful poetry. And in informational prose,
> this corresponds to simple and clear summation of the
> essence of a topic, which not coincidentally is what's
> required as efficient linktext in hypertext.
Feyerabend pointed out that before the Greek dialectic was developed,
philosohpers had to express themselves through poetry. Philosophy was
completely entwined with performance.