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October 30, 2005
The Shape of Space
When I was younger, I was pretty sure I hated olives. I can't really say how many of them I had ever actually eaten in my life (probably one, ever) but it was enough to know that I didn't like them. But one day, it did occur to me, I think I must have been at a market in Paris looking at the myriad of different flavors laid out before me, that nothing else on this earth tastes like an olive. No one could really describe their flavor to me, except maybe by describing what ingredients had been inserted into the marinade. That's when I decided to make a concerted effort to develop a taste for olives. Because of their uniqueness.
I couldn't help but think of this personal anectdote while reading the Minsky excerpt. It's true of so many things: we know what they are because we know what they are like, and to describe to someone with no frame of reference, or to describe something that is dissimilar to everything else is all but impossible. Because of this, it makes sense to assume that our brains receive and process information regarding the physical space around us by ingesting as much data from all of the objects around us to be able to make a healthy comparison. We may also recall certain bits of information regarding spaces we have been in before and objects we have touched or seen in order to come to a conjecture about things we may never have seen before, or perhaps cannot see in their entirety.
It's incredibly interesting stuff. I've often wondered wether colors exist in the universe (or perhaps some other) that humans have never seen before. I try to imagine what they might look like, but can't.
Posted by Roman, Christin at October 30, 2005 01:39 PM