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Article 5162 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Mental Models
Keywords: innovation culture technology
Message-ID: <546@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Date: 16 Apr 92 11:46:30 GMT
Article-I.D.: trwacs.546
Organization: TRW Systems Division, Fairfax VA
Lines: 18

A colleague (S. E. van der Leeuw) has pointed out that he can predict the
likely and unlikely innovations in a culture or technology if he can
understand the "white space" in the mental models of the the participants
in the technology. That requires an understanding of the categories they
use and the transformations they employ. Has anyone pushed this area
further than Rogers did in the '60s?

How it applies to comp.ai.philosophy:
1. This issue of defining mental models is probably central to
understanding how humans define philosophical categories.
2. It's also pretty clear that the current discussion of AI involves a lot
of "white space," and progress probably will involve understanding where
that "white space" is and invading it.

Cheers,
-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com


