Yesterday I gave notice of my new working paper on "Kubla Khan." Today I'm posting the methodological post script.
* * * * *
I can hear the voices now:
Naa, naa, you’re crazy!
You can’t do science like this, too speculative.
Speculative? He’s out to lunch!
On the moon! – “To the moon, Alice, too the moon!”
That’s not how it’s done, son.
How’s WHAT done?
Psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, AI, figuring out the mechanisms of the mind. Those things are complicated. We have to take it a piece at a time, get the details right –
You don’t think I know that? I read the technical literature, been doing it for years, decades. And you know what?
What?
What?
What?
As interesting as a lot of your stuff is, you guys haven’t told me jack shit that’s really useful in figuring out what’s going on in “Kubla Khan.”
But that’s not what we’re trying to do?
Why not?
Because it’s too complicated. We’re not ready.
Well, when are you going to be ready?
I don’t know.
50, 87, 199 years, who knows?
These things take time.
Horse pucky! You know what I hear? I hear you saying, “We’re not worthy.” No, you’re not. Neither am I. No one’s worthy. It’s not about worthyness. It’s about work, and desire, and vision. It’s about risk and speculation. Do you think we can understand the mind?
No, it’s beyond us.
You, you get out! You’ve given up. Come back when you’re sober.
I’d like to think we can understand the mind. But it’s hard, really hard. We’ve chased a lot of rabbits down holes, spilt a lot of milk, got lost on a lot of garden paths, ‘lotta water under the freakin’ bridge –
Enough with the cliches! Let’s say I want to build a cathedral. So I hire the best stone masons, the best carpenters and plumbers, the best electricians, the best glazers, and so on. I gather them together on site and give them the best materials. “Now build me a cathedral,” I say, “Build me a cathedral.” What do you think’s going to happen?
Hmmmm... Not much.
Confusion.
Fighting maybe.
Why?
You need a plan. You can’t build a cathedral from the ground up with just materials and skills. You need to know how to put all those things together.
Right. It’s the same with the mind. You guys have the skills and materials. And I’ve got, well I don’t have a plan, but I’ve got this poem, Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan.” And I know a lot about it, not just what I’ve put up there in that dialog, if you reach right out of this dialog, you’ll find some papers listed in Appendix 3. There’s a large literature on the poem. There’s stuff there too, though not much of it has been crafted with the cognitive and neurosciences in mind, much less deep learning and artificial intelligence. Work toward it.
Work toward it?
Yeah. Dream a little. If you wanted to get there – “Kubla Khan” – from wherever here is for you, what’s the first step you would take? And the next? What kind of cooperation are you going to need from others, from me?
But it’s just so hard. We’ve worked so long.
Is it all work? Haven’t there been some fun times, some excitement?
You’re right. Some of it has been fun.
So, keep on truckin’. We’ll get there.
In the distance –
Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s off to work we go...
Ditty dump di dum, woopsie ding dong daddy,
Heigh-ho,
Heigh-ho,
Heigh-ho,
Heigh-ho!
No comments:
Post a Comment