Software Engineering discussion

Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles is a one sided conversation. My mind naturally tried to fill in the missing parts of the conversation said by Mr T. It felt a little like the "determining meaning" from the previous chapter.

There's a nice introduction to Figure and Ground in the next chapter too. The introduction was more obvious than the involuntary exercise my brain was doing making up the missing dialog lines.

I once heard that music is what happens between notes too.

One of Hofstadter's research interests is in the relationship between analogy and cognition. To me, this book is a great example of explaining the same core concept from many different perspectives and with many different techniques. And since people resonate with different learning styles, this is a good way to address a diverse audience.

For me, finding meaning in the dialogs is one of the most challenging parts of the book. It just might not be an effective learning style for me.

Brad:

Do you think there is other meaning in the dialogs than just illustrating an idea that he will discuss in the next chapter? That's how I look at the dialogs.

Given my lack of dialog comprehension, I am sure that there is more meaning. I am just starting to watch the first video... great find, Erik... if someone knows how to download the videos instead of having to stream them, let me know!

Is the one voice of this dialog and example of figure and ground? Achilles is the Figure or voice we see in clear relief. The Ground is the unspoken voice of T.

There is also the reference to Bach's Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin. The missing part is a harpsichord accompaniment. This is a good introduction to the next chapter on Figure and Ground.

I updated the MIT OCW video discussion with a link to download the videos using a Torrent application.

Excellent observation. You're right. That's a great "verbal" example of Figure and Ground.