wex@milano.UUCP (07/25/86)
As long as we're on to biological theories of perception:
In their recent book _Understanding Computers and Cognition_, Flores and
Winograd spend some time discussing the work of Humberto Maturana, a
biologist who has apparently done some significant work on perception.
Publications listed include:
Maturana, Humberto, Neurophysiology of cognition, in P. Garvin (Ed.),
_Cognition: A Multiple View_, Spartan Books, 1970, pp 3-23.
Maturana, "The Organization of the living: a theory of the living
organization", International Journal of Man-Manchine Studies, 1975,
Volume 7, pp313-332.
Maturana, "Biology of Language: The epistemology of reality", in
_Psychology and Biology of Language and Thought_, 1978, pp27-64.
Maturana, H.R. and Francisco Varela, _Autopoiesis and Cognition: The
Realization of the Living_, 1980.
These works seem to grow out of some experiments Maturana did in the middle
sixties on vision in frogs and led him to conclude that the nervous system
(including perception) is `closed.' That is, it does not passively accept
information (like reflected light), rather it interacts with other system
and gains information from the interaction.
Anyway, Flores & Winograd's treatment is very superficial and hard to
understand. Has anyone read any of the above; can anyone offer
enlightening comments about Maturana's work?
--
Alan Wexelblat
ARPA: WEX@MCC.ARPA
UUCP: {ihnp4, seismo, harvard, gatech, pyramid}!ut-sally!im4u!milano!wex
Currently recruiting for the `sod squad.'