Re: John O'Keefe's theories on Language & The Cognitive Map

Daniel Kelly (AKA Jack) wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Are you aware of John O'Keefe's theories of language (e.g. O'Keefe
> '96 & O'Keefe '01),

No.

> in which he extends his Cognitive Map theories
> (O'Keefe & Nadel 1978) to human behaviour?  If so, please let me know
> what you think of them... for example: do you agree with O'Keefe that
> prepositions can be thought of as defining the activity of boundary
> vector cells?

No idea. This is way too complicated to understand.

> Do you agree that language requires an intrinsically
> spatial deep structure?

What does this mean?

> And did language really evolve for the
> purpose of communicating spatial knowledge (e.g. the food is over
> there, the enemies are behind us).

Absolutely yes. Language, imo, is a natural evolution from Darwinian
axioms to enable human Replicators to maximize themselves.
http://www.anasoft.co.uk/replicators/index.html
It can't be any other way, if we discount magic.

From: http://www.anasoft.co.uk/replicators/mathematics.html

*************
The information content of a Replicator's memes requires to be
quantified, as does each memes replication rate as a function of its
complete internal and external environment. For example, a set of vocal
utterances like "ugg" "gug" "upu" would require to be related to their
physical response, and what replication rate was obtained for a
Replicator due to such response. Its further complicated by the fact
that language makes use of the prisoners dilemma advantage, that it is
to the advantage to each individual Replicator that language
communication is achived for all replicators.

Just to make the problem more tractable some initial simplifications can
be made, just to get a basic idea of approach. For example:

Rrr = Rrro(1 + kLn)

where Rrr is the Replicator net replication rate, Rrro is the raw
Replication rate, k is a constant, and Ln is the number of word memes in
the general population.

***********


>Why aren't linguists catching on
> to John O'Keefe's ideas?

Probably because it conflicts with their existing knowledge. However,
after having a little skim at the pdf's, its way to verbose to
understand what is being said. It seems too involved with the details.

Kevin Aylward
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.anasoft.co.uk
SuperSpice, a very affordable Mixed-Mode
Windows Simulator with Schematic Capture,
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