Conceptionary

GLOBAL DIALOG PROJECT Integrating our understanding of the world to support wise decisions about the future | << GLOBAL DIALOG HOME You are entering the Conceptionary

MENU | What is the Conceptionary? Why are concepts important ? (Why you should care) 'Concepts' are integrations of complex sets of information. When objects, processes, and ideas are linked in a concept, that concept allows us to 'chunk' or handle information differently. Concepts give us both a linguistic shorthand for that complex set of information, and a mental 'handle' that is more easily graspable than a paragraph full of words. Concepts can be thought of as mental tools, or cognitive infrastructure. Mental tools refers to the ability of concepts to manipulate and handle information; 'cognitive infrastructure' refers to how concepts act as foundations for other concepts and mental constructs. Need to upgrade our concepts – levers for thinking -of the Global Dialog Project lower the energy barriers : What we are talking about is creating - Making it easier to create than to destroy -of systems -from biological systems; biological metaphors catalyst activation energy circuits reward system network hierarchy holoarchy heterarchy recruitment niche generalist/specialist integration/convergence