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PHD-DESIGN  June 2011

PHD-DESIGN June 2011

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Subject:

Re: Embodied judgment - the human quality of doing design

From:

Ken Friedman <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>

Date:

Sun, 19 Jun 2011 23:02:59 +1000

Content-Type:

text/plain

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Dear Marcio,

Thanks for your thoughtful response to my note on embodied judgment.

While I can see that it may seem that I link our ability to project and
judge to the notion of human mortality, the relation is simpler than
this, but more subtle. Our ability to judge and to project is a function
of being embodied. Our bodies are mortal, and in this respect, empathy,
understanding, and many other aspects of what it is to be human are
predicated on mortality and empathy for the sufferings and pleasures
which all mortals experience. If we had immortal bodies, then the forms
of empathy, understanding, and what it might be to be human would be
predicated on immortality. It is interesting in a speculative sense to
wonder what forms of suffering and pleasure we would experience as
immortals.

I agree with you completely that our human ability to think, to
project, and therefore to design depends on our embodied connection with
the world. Other forms of creatures may think in other ways. If they do,
however, we can’t know this – these creatures exist in the realms of
speculation or fiction. Any creatures we know who think live in bodies.
These bodies condition their relations with the world, therefore
determining who they are, how they think, and what they think about.
Further, the unique embodiment and unique experiences of each individual
bears a relationship to what specific experiences occur in his or her
life-world, and therefore in the thinking he or she does. (This applies
retrospectively to those who lived in human bodies in the past.)

Moravec is right: computational algorithms for certain kinds of
delimited mental processes are easy indeed compared to the immense
complexity of the complex adaptive system of an embodied human mind
interacting with the world. In my view, only an embodied mind can design
in the full sense of the word because only an embodied mind can have
preferences. 

I’d argue from experience that dogs can design in that they can
choose preferred future states over current states, using tools and
processes to achieve their goals. Dogs, like humans, undergo experiences
and learn from them to form preferential judgments. In contrast, a
computer can learn from experience, but it cannot form independent
preferential judgments. Lacking the ability to select among appropriate
goals, a computer cannot design. And then there are the problems of
creative, innovative, or generative thinking. Since dogs lack language
and hands, dogs can't think about the same kinds of things we think
about or design the things we can design, but I'd say they think and
design, and I have seen dogs create and innovate to solve problems. I've
also seen dogs engage in what I'd call generative thinking, but I'm
willing to agree that this may only be my interpretation.

This may be a bit too speculative for the list, but it addresses the
range of reasons I have for arguing that computers cannot think or
design as humans can. In this respect, they are not likely to replace us
in doing human things. Where it comes to work, of course, we have always
used human beings for tasks that are mechanical and repetitive. Many of
the human beings engaged in these tasks can be replaced by machines,
computers, or automated systems. In an era before we could design
appropriately sophisticated machines and systems, this argument was
valid mostly in principle. Now it is increasingly valid in fact. In this
respect, Terry raises concerns that may well be valid for some
occupations. It is unlikely that machines will ever replace dogs: the
difference between an Aibo and a dog is that dogs can play in the
genuine sense of the word. This fact leaves some hope for designers.

Warm wishes,

Ken

--

Marcio Rocha wrote:

—snip—

If I understand you correctly, you seem to suggest that part of our
ability to project is conditioned to the notion of human mortality and
our ephemeral condition. What makes this a strong philosophical
question, especially considering design and project as fundamentally a
thinking about the future in some ways.

If I’m not wrong, another question that seems implicit in this
comment is that part of our human ability to project (and to think, act,
etc.) depends on our embodied connection with the world. (And
externalism versions to philosophy of mind and computationalism). This
reminds me of the Movarec’s paradox, and his historical influence on
artificial inteligence thinking about how important are the bodies (and
therefore Sensimotor apparatus, etc.) for the development of machines
that may seem or simulate the behavior of human beings in efficient way.
As Moravec said: “it is comparatively easy to make computers exhibit
adult level performance on intelligence tests or playing checkers, and
difficult or impossible to give them the skills of a one-year-old when
it comes to perception and mobility.”

Paradigms about manipulating symbols are historically faced by the
philosophy of mind and cognitive sciences, which can be traced back
since Craik, Alan Turing (and Turing’s Machine) until the present,
with new theories, that include the Chinese Room Experiment, among
others. 

—snip—

Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
| Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3
9214 6078 | Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design

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