Common sense and connectionism

Commonsense reasoning in humans is best explained by a "mental topology" of conceptual "halos", which can be understood, in the subsymbolic framework, as overlapping regions in the abstract space.

To illustrate what is meant by a "mental topology" of "conceptual halos", Hofstader observes that the concept of "contact" is surrounded by a halo of concepts including "call on a phone", "go to see", and "write".

Such a mental topology can be explained in the subsymbolic framework, where conceptual halos are understood as overlapping regions in the abstract space.

Note: Also, see the "Can a symbolic knowledge base represent human understanding?" arguments on Map 3.
 
Douglas Hofstadter, 1988.
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