Hacker News Reader

Why is the mental model building not seen as a special case of induction? One needs to generalize (i.e. interpolate/extrapolate) from the known instances. The mechanism may be just "replaying" known sequences, but there is still a measure of induction because one needs to decide that which simulation applies to the ball I'm seeing right now (and that what I am seeing is a ball, and that intuitive physics models of balls apply).

View on HN

> Why is the mental model building not seen as a special case of induction? One needs to generalize (i.e. interpolate/extrapolate) from the known instances.

Maybe you are right. Now, the problem is that my explanation pushes the problem down because now I am saying, "I don't know how this model simulator works. I throw a bunch of objects or concepts in a box and they evolve according to some rules, I can see where thing will end up in the future". But I don't have a fine grain understanding of what the simulator is built, or if it has frames or steps that execute and how it combines the rules underneath. That is perhaps in the unconscious. So I haven't solved the problem but just exposed the highest level of reasoning that I am aware of. There is some assembly running that I am not aware.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com