The Gap Minding
20 November 2009
One of our most basic tools, the No. 2 pencil, used by every test taker, illustrates the exceptional freedom of the human mind as compared with the limited scope of animal cognition. You hold the painted wood, write with the lead, and erase with the pink rubber held in place by a metal ring. Four different materials, each with a particular function, all wrapped up into a single tool. And although that tool was made for writing, it can also pin hair up into a bun, bookmark a page or stab an annoying insect. Animal tools, in contrast such as the sticks chimps use to fish termites out from their mounds are composed of a single material, designed for a single function and never used for other functions. None have the combinatorial properties of the pencil.
Another simple tool, the telescopic, collapsible cup found in many a camper’s gear, provides an example of recursion in action. To make this device, the manufacturer need only program a simple rule add a segment of increasing size to the last segment and repeat it until the desired size is reached. Humans use recursive operations such as this in virtually all aspects of mental life, from language, music and math to the generation of a limitless range of movements with our legs, hands and mouths. The only glimmerings of recursion in animals, however, have come from watching their motor systems in action.
One of our most basic tools, the No. 2 pencil, used by every test taker, illustrates the exceptional freedom of the human mind as compared with the limited scope of animal cognition. You hold the painted wood, write with the lead, and erase with the pink rubber held in place by a metal ring. Four different materials, each with a particular function, all wrapped up into a single tool. And although that tool was made for writing, it can also pin hair up into a bun, bookmark a page or stab an annoying insect. Animal tools, in contrast such as the sticks chimps use to fish termites out from their mounds are composed of a single material, designed for a single function and never used for other functions. None have the combinatorial properties of the pencil.
Another simple tool, the telescopic, collapsible cup found in many a camper’s gear, provides an example of recursion in action. To make this device, the manufacturer need only program a simple rule add a segment of increasing size to the last segment and repeat it until the desired size is reached. Humans use recursive operations such as this in virtually all aspects of mental life, from language, music and math to the generation of a limitless range of movements with our legs, hands and mouths. The only glimmerings of recursion in animals, however, have come from watching their motor systems in action.
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