Shakespeare's invention of theatre as simulation that runs on minds

摘要

In any fully functioning cognitive system, such as the human mind, emotions would be central since, as Simon (1967) pointed out, either they, or something like them, are needed to manage cognition and action. The management is in relation to an outer world of objects and events for which mental models will always be incomplete and sometimes incorrect, and for which agency will often be inadequate. In the human case it is also in relation to an inner world in which we humans have many goals (concerns), some of which are in conflict with each other, and in relation to a social world in which we cooperate and conflict with other agents constituted somewhat as we are. I propose that the central issue of designing a complete cognitive system relates to this last issue: distributed cognition and agency. We humans bridge our cognitive deficit of inadequate knowledge and agency, by cooperating with others to extend our mental models and capabilities. We are members of that species who accomplish together what we cannot do alone. This is the solution to which the evolution of the human brain has devoted most of its computing resources. A principal means of improving our understanding of such matters is indeed simulation, but-perhaps paradoxically in the context of AISB-the kind of simulation that runs on minds rather than on computers. In modern Western culture, it was Shakespeare who first implemented this idea. Shakespeare's great innovation was of theatre as a model of the world. The audience member constructs the simulated model in the course of the play, and thereby takes part in the design activity. So fiction is to understanding social interaction as computer simulation is to understanding, perception and reasoning. Shakespeare designed plays as simulations of human actions in relation to predicaments, so that the deep structure of selfhood and of the interaction of people who have distinct personalities becomes clearer. I explore this idea by analyses of Henry IV Part I, As You Like It, and Hamlet. As we run such simulations on our minds, we not only construct and experience the emotions of the vicissitudes that cause them, but we are enabled to reflect on them to create deeper mental models of individuals (including ourselves) and of interaction. Understanding the properties of such mental models is the principal step in designing a fully human-like mind.