The Muse in the Machine

The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought by David Gelernter was published eight years ago but its message still rings true: Emotions are part and parcel of thought. AI must include them.

I'm more interested in the application of this viewpoint to human learning. Gelernter posits that we think differently when attentive than when unfocused. As we turn down the focus knob:

Our thinking switches from the logical operations known to cognitive scientists and economists down to the day-dreamy, intuitive state where emotion ties thoughts together instead of rationalization. It almost goes without saying that how we learn shifts whenever we spin the dial. Intuition tells me (I’m a little sleepy at the moment) that this shift in style has more impact than the “natural” learning style instructional designers have been trying to accommodate with so little success.

Posted by Jay Cross at December 8, 2002 02:51 AM | TrackBack