6.yyy (AKA 6.S079)

The Human Intelligence Enterprise: 2018

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Papers

An Evolutionary Framework for the Acquisition of Symbolic Cognition by Homo sapiens, by Ian Tattersall

What the Frog's Eye Tells the Frog's Brain, by J. Y. Lettvin, H. R. Maturana, W. S. McCulloch, and W. H. Pitts

Just read I.A and VIII, about 2 pages, to get the flavor of what Lettvin discovered about frogs.

Assignment

If you wish, you may use the Tattersall paper as a amnesty substitution for some prior assignment you have not yet done. Identify that assignment, do the work indicated, but use the Tattersall paper rather than whatever was originally assigned.

Otherwise, you do not have to write anything in any form. Just think about the following:

Over spring break, you have two nightmares. In one, you are Jerry Lettvin, and you have forgotten to prepare for a 6.xxx guest lecture on your frog paper. You have only 15 minutes left to put something together. It occurs to you to structure your talk according to the V-S-N-C mantra, decorated with a slogan, symbol, salient, and surprise.

In the other, you are Ian Tattersall, having dinner with President Reif. He asks you how AI research should be informed by paleoanthropology.