Brains working towards machine consciousness

First, my model of mind and (therefore) of learning - we are pattern matching creatures by dint of the way out brains work, and look for the similarities and differences between things. We also create models in our minds of what we perceive, which are, by definition, abstractions and simplifications of the 'objective reality'. Our perceptions are, I believe, affected by the internal models.

This is an edited extract from a forthcoming book chapter about the use of Folksonomological Reification to examine and bridge the onto-folksonomical divide. That all makes more sense in the context of the full chapter, though, and I won't go into it further here. The chapter is co-authored with Shirley Williams, Karsten Lundqvist and Edwin Porter-Daniels.

I have just been reading Wellman's Little boxes, Glocalization and Networked Individualism. I particularly like the discussion of specialized roles. In this section, Wellman uses scholarly academics as an example of how some people like to maintain contact through the written word (specifically email in this case) in order to be able to live their lives according to their own rhythm whilst still being able to communicate within a network of individuals.