CP

Francoise Herrmann (fherrmann who-is-at igc.apc.org)
Sun, 6 Jul 1997 11:04:31 -0700 (PDT)

Holey Macanoley! I am just starting chapter 4 of CP and feel as
though I am missing out on my favorite issue (paper clips and
humans!). But here are a few thoughts to share with the joy of
knowing that the author is right here on the other end of the
line. Somewhere in the middle of chapter 2, I wondered "Why in the
world would one want to know or even want to seek to know whether
the natives do it like we do? Can one just not believe in some
kind of universal brother/sisterhood? Why would one be so
unsure?" Then as I wondered to answer my own question, I thought
that perhaps it is outside situations or issues that propell one
to seek, the socio-political agenda of the times. It is perhaps
no less wild to wonder what the differences may be between humans
and computers. Anyone can say, but not to be sure and to seek a
reasoned answer is perhaps as odd as doubting the similarity or
humanness of fellow peoples of the earth. Then I was scaffolded
by one of Chuck's questions of how some of the reading may relate
to one's own work and experience. And I found myself thinking back
with lots of humour to the times when I do interpretation in
psychological testing situations. There is the psycologist (with a
battery of picture tests), the patient and me doing the
interpreting from English to Spanish or French and from Spanish or
French back to English (to the psycologist). And the many, many
times when the answers from the patient were so funny in that they
were perfectly correct but way, way different from what a
conventional answer might be. The syllogistic/theoretic response
modes (p.93/4) provided a good frame for that although those
situations afforded patient/psycologist and I a great deal of
laughter. Finally, I was sort of saddened to see how little
weight ethnographic data bares in comparison to experimental data
in the narrative of cogntive experiments. Given the forceful
critiques of experimental methods (e.g.; Popper) it seems so
outrageous. Like moving mountains (and not the earthen kinds!). I
am enthused though, with the demythications and with the tracking
of ideas which as someone mentioned earlier in the discussion no
doubt resonates with other fields. Well, I may get caught up to
catch the paper clip and humans wave.

Francoise Francoise Herrmann fherrmann who-is-at igc.org
http://www.wenet.net/~herrmann