The Nature Institute - Beyond the Algorithmic Mind: "The past few hundred years have seen an increasing
commitment to abstraction as the primary instrument of cognition. One
result of this commitment is the conviction that the world consists, ultimately,
of nothing but structure%u2014a conviction exemplified in the feeling that
the machine is essentially the algorithm governing its operation. But
the reduction of understanding to the grasp of manipulable abstractions
is at work in our culture far beyond the notion of algorithmic machines.
The reduction is evident even in practical activities such as farming,
chemistry, manufacturing, and business. All of which poses a problem,
since abstraction, by itself, cannot give us a world. What operations
of mind give us a world from which to abstract? What mental activity is
necessary to counterbalance the one-sided drive toward abstraction, rendering
it healthy and constructive? Here I do no more than sketch the background
against which the question can be acutely felt."