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From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai,sci.psychology,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: Fluid vs. Crystallized Intelligence
Message-ID: <36059@cup.portal.com>
Date: 19 Nov 90 00:23:12 GMT
References: <35870@cup.portal.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 92

I think neural plasticity must be limited to that degree 
which keeps us from getting too screwed up.  For 
example, it would be disadvantageous to learn some 
quirky, non-optimal way of walking -- or not to learn to 
walk at all.  The fact that a few people become cross-
eyed or autistic or dyslexic points out the hazards of 
too much neural plasticity.

So we must be born with crystallized low-level sensory 
and motor agencies.  Indeed, a newborn baby will perform 
walking-like motions if held upright over a surface it 
can reach with its feet.  Move it forward along the 
surface, and it will raise and lower its legs as though 
it is walking.  This ability disappears rapidly, and re-
emerges months later.  Natural selection must have 
programmed us with _how_ to walk.  It is _when_ to walk 
which is controlled by the crystallized agencies which 
develop after birth.

Most of the nervous system is concerned with 
crystallized intelligence.  Some inputs are processed to 
outputs solely through crystallized agencies, such as 
the pathways which control breathing and balance.  
Others have crystallized sensory front-ends, such as the 
visual and speech recognition systems.  They also have 
crystallized motor back-ends, such as the speech and 
walking motor pattern generators.  But in the middle 
sits consciousness -- a mix of fluid and crystallized 
intelligence which has thoughts and makes decisions -- 
as shown below.

  ---->************-*     *    ************---->
I ---->************ *-*-*   *-*************----> O
n ---->************ |   |   |  ************----> u
p ---->************-*   *-*-*  ************----> t
u ---->************-*  *       ************----> p
t ---->************      *   *-************----> u
s ---->************************************----> t
  ---->************************************----> s
  ---->************************************---->

The pool is like the gap of a spark plug.  When the 
voltage across the gap gets high enough, some of the air 
in the gap ionizes.  Soon, a thread of ions bridges the 
gap, and a small electrical current flows across.  The 
initial trickle of current initiates a self-reinforcing 
feedback loop, in which more current ionizes more air, 
lowering the electrical resistance of the gap and 
increasing the current.  Likewise, when a thread of 
crystallized agents forms between a recognized sensory 
event and an appropriate response, that thread gets 
reinforced.  Reinforcement yields more use and more 
reinforcement, which hardens the thread making it a 
permanent addition to the network of crystallized 
intelligence.

In my previous posting, I speculated that there are 
pools of fluid intelligence in each mental organ of the 
conscious brain.  Actually, I think that fluid 
intelligence resides not _within_ an organ, but 
_between_ organs.

This seems obvious when you consider that the 
connections within an organ need very little neural 
plasticity.  An organ is born with its function mostly 
intact.  It is the control paths between organs which 
require plasticity.  For example, the visual system has 
a built-in array of face-recognizers, but it is the 
connections between the face-recognizers and the action-
generators which make the decision to run from the face 
of an enemy.

In this model, the low-level sensory and motor organs 
are capped by an interconnecting network of pipes.  At 
birth, these pipes are clear fluid intelligence.  But 
with use, a web of crystallized intelligence builds up 
in each pipe.  Consciousness is the interaction between 
the web and the fluid, as new threads form and old ones 
either become permanently hardened or dissolve back into 
the fluid.

My model of the organs of consciousness is too complex 
to express in ASCII graphics, but if you send me an 
SASE, I'll send you a free copy of it.  This is the same 
map of consciousness I distributed last year.  I would 
like to hear any comments on improving this map.

Mark Thorson
12991 B Pierce Rd.
Saratoga, CA
95070
USA