It’s useful as what Edward de Bono (who is too rarely mentioned on LessWrong) calls a “porridge word”
Is it the same thing which Marvin Minsky calls a “suitcase word”?
See http://edge.org/conversation/consciousness-is-a-big-suitcase : “Most words we use to describe our minds (like “consciousness”, “learning”, or “memory”) are suitcase-like jumbles of different ideas. … those suitcase-words (like intuition or consciousness) that all of us use to encapsulate our jumbled ideas about our minds. We use those words as suitcases in which to contain all sorts of mysteries that we can’t yet explain.”
Is it the same thing which Marvin Minsky calls a “suitcase word”?
Something like, although de Bono sees them more positively as tools for thought, that let you talk about something when you don’t know what it is, and avoid premature commitment to explanations. Minsky is talking about what happens when they are mistaken for explanations.
Is it the same thing which Marvin Minsky calls a “suitcase word”?
See http://edge.org/conversation/consciousness-is-a-big-suitcase : “Most words we use to describe our minds (like “consciousness”, “learning”, or “memory”) are suitcase-like jumbles of different ideas. … those suitcase-words (like intuition or consciousness) that all of us use to encapsulate our jumbled ideas about our minds. We use those words as suitcases in which to contain all sorts of mysteries that we can’t yet explain.”
Something like, although de Bono sees them more positively as tools for thought, that let you talk about something when you don’t know what it is, and avoid premature commitment to explanations. Minsky is talking about what happens when they are mistaken for explanations.