For autistic people: “Aargh!”
Somehow green STOP signs and red, octagonal GO signs come to mind. The ‘usefulness’ here seems to be the allowance for individual interpretation of them. Or is there some entirely different logic which is “yes-maybe-no”?
It just doesn’t seem possible for people to calculate all that stuff on-the-fly if it’s so uncertain - unless have "fuzzy logic” mapped, as with engine or HVAC controllers.
To get cutesy-sounding about it, this is where “fuzzy logic” becomes “hairy” for some of us. The very movement/carriage of one’s torso and limbs is a good illustration: consider the iconic photo for the movie “Rain Man”, in which Cruise’s and Hoffman’s characters are walking side-by-side. Cruise appears relaxed and striding, arms swinging, while Hoffman stands bolt upright, with arms simply hanging by his side. What meanings should we convey with our bodies? And how am I to speak in this foreign language? (Even within one language, ambiguities can get out of hand, one famous/notorious example being the British exhortation to “keep your pecker up”, meaning one’s chin. This plays rather differently in the US, though.) I could easily present ambiguities which include - or consist entirely of - elements outside the social norm, and be completely unaware I was doing so.
To use a different facet-analogy: land travel generally involves well-delineated roads, while travel on water is less-rigidly structured. The - well, fluidity - of such travel can be daunting. Where is the right place to be? Where are the lanes, the traffic control signals?
And now turn that analogy around, to reveal another facet: picture a road and a canal running in parallel. To deal with changes in topology, all a road traveler need do is to follow the highway uphill or downhill... but the canal traveler must enter a lock, be raised or lowered to the new elevation, and be released. Try doing that on-the-fly where ambiguities are not just acceptable but prized...
Last revised: June 22, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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