The author had previously developed a framework called Conposit for implementing symbolic representation and reasoning in a connectionist framework. Early theoretical work towards the system placed strong emphasis on handling spatial-imagistic and diagrammatic forms of representation as well as abstract symbolic forms. In the present context the word "diagrammatic" conveys, roughly speaking, both the mixing together of (schematic) spatial-imagistic representational forms and abstract symbolic forms, and the metaphrical use of space and the physical entities bo couch abstract information. However, the imagistic/diagrammatic motivation was not adhered to in the framework that was actualy developed over time-and which therfore concentrated entirely on abstract symbolic representation-except that the representational primitives in the final framework oew much, implicitly, to the original spatial/diagrammatic orientation. The present talk, abstracted here, is an initial, speculative step towards resuscitation of the original spatial/diagrammatic aims. Such a step is timely because of a surge of interest in diagrammatic representation and reasoning in recent years. Suggestions are made about what it means for internal representations (including connectionist ones) to be diagrammatic, and about modifications to the Conposit framework that would be needed to take it (back) towards imagistic/diagrammatic representation and reasoning.
展开▼
