Homo sapiens

other · 5 mentions across 1 reading

In this course

Homo sapiens in this course functions as a case study in perceptual relativity and the contingency of human cognition, establishing that our categories and interfaces (space, time, position) are evolved satisficing solutions rather than windows onto objective reality. The readings use humans as a baseline from which to measure how differently other organisms parse the world, while also demonstrating how our species-specific interface has historically led us into false but persistent perceptual frameworks (geocentrism, flat earth) with violent social consequences. This grounds discussions of AI and machine learning in a humbling recognition that no intelligence, human or artificial, escapes the constraints of its own perceptual architecture.

Mentioned in 1 reading

Donald Hoffman

The Interface Theory of Perception

Principle of Satisficing Categories: Each perceptual category of an organism, to the extent that the category is shaped by natural selection, is a satisficing solution to adaptive problems. This principle is key to understanding the proven…Our perceptions are a species-specific user interface. Space, time, position and momentum are among the properties and categories of the interface of H. sapiens that, in all likelihood, resemble nothing in the objective world. Different spe…The conventionalist might object that these examples are self-refuting, since they require comparison between the perceptions of an organism and the objective reality that those perceptions get wrong. Only by knowing, for instance, the obje…

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Jacksonii backewelli 1