Integration is a method to deal with complexity. The study of ideological
integration can
help in the development of methods that can be likened to a kind of synthesis
for concepts that would not otherwise combine well. I feel that we need to
develop methods that can be used to
overcome the ragged juxtapositions that are to be expected from the vast
diversity of concepts and conceptual relations that are needed for true insight.
If ideas were simple so that they all fell into a few
categories, or so that they all could be handled with a few simple methods of
association, or so that a myriad of distinct categories could be used with
confidence, then integration, as I see it, would not be necessary. It might be
an embellishment to some AI
paradigm, but little more.
However, since references to the real world or the world of
the imagination are so massively complex we need to study how related ideas (or
idea-like references) can be integrated even when their functional relations do
not match or mesh just right.
Complexity refers to systems of multiple independent sources
of events (or data). We can
effectively categorize occurrences, things and ideas as general classes and
while those categories often prove to be absolutely useful and reliable in some
cases, they can also be absurdly inappropriate and unreliable in others.
So this system, whether it be based explicitly on
categorization or implicitly through association, will need to be tested
empirically against the IO data environment. However, the results of these
tests are not absolutely reliable either, so the
tests will need to be tested and refined as well. Never the less, the results
of this testing and cross-testing could be used
to develop further insight about how ideas can be integrated even though the
system is imperfect.
Many simple ideas can superficially look contradictory or
confused. To understand what they mean,
you have to build up a supporting network of other ideas that can be used to
understand them.
But the problem is, you cannot expect that additional
information will make the problem of understanding something complicated
simpler. The discovery of
supporting evidence or insight for a complex situation usually makes the
overall problem more complex because the additional insights that are needed to
understand the situation will bring even more complexity into the mix.
The study of integrative methods represents an attempt to
solve for the natural complexity of ideas and idea-like relations by finding
ways to make sure that complicated and diverse supports that are needed for
understanding can be utilized and melded without obscuring their potential to
individuate and highlight the true nature of the complex relations being
considered.
Jim
Bromer
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agi
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