::scr Re: Cognitive Friction

[Piers Cawley]

celia romaniuk <space@shadowgirl.net> writes:
> On Sun, 23 Dec 2001, Piers Cawley wrote:
>
>> As the old joke has it, the only truly intuitive interface is the
>> nipple. After that everything is learned.
>
> Yeah, I hear trackpad-haters use this argument all the time ;)

Um... I think we're talking about the 'getting milk from it' function,
not the 'arousing pleasurable sensations in the owner of the nipple'
function.

>> Anyway, how do you build learnability into anything? I have a
>> (purely gut) feeling that learnability is something 'deep' that
>> applies to far more than just interfaces. 

[...]

> I also had a quick look through this page, and thought it was quite good:
>
> http://hagar.up.ac.za/catts/learner/peterdl/ID%20Theory.htm
>
> "Jonassen et al. (1997: 28) maintain that the elusive and complex nature
> of human consciousness make it impossible to describe, let alone predict,
> what will happen in learning situations. Knowledge is not a static object,
> but is rather distributed in society, constantly subject to revision and
> negotiation."

Hmm... that sounds a little like Cohen and Stewart's 'Extelligence'
concept. Keith Devlin discusses something vaguely similar in 'The
Maths Gene' as well. Consider this a placeholder for an essay later.
Nag me if you're interested and it doesn't show up.

-- 
Piers

   "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a language in
    possession of a rich syntax must be in need of a rewrite."
         -- Jane Austen?