Learning through Language versus Learning by Multi-Sensory Experience
It comes down to how brains are built and grow
Many people are worried about recent developments in artificial intelligence, and rightly so. From sophisticated facial recognition software to software that can generate cogent text and surprising works of art, computational devices that people have created seem about to out-perform our human abilities, possibly rendering us obsolete.
In assessing that possibility, and our future, it is important to understand the differences between how we humans think and how the artificial systems that we have created, so far, think.
We humans have multiple senses for receiving information from our environments, and our brains have evolved over millions of years to respond and grow according to the multi-sensory experiences that we have. Our brains react positively to some of those experiences — involving combinations of happy faces, many attractive smells, sweet tastes, soft touches, harmonious sounds, and so on — and negatively to others — involving scowling faces, nauseating smells, bitter tastes, painful touches, loud and discordant sounds, and so on.
As newborn infants we don’t need language to appreciate the multi-sensory experience of our mothers. And as we and our brains grow, we…
