new research into semantic categories

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/8/2010 10:22 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>http://thetartan.org/2010/2/8/scitech/brainnoun
>
>Some researchers at Carnegie Mellon have, with the aid of an MRI,
>come to the conclusion that human brains classify all non-human
>objects in terms of three dimensions: in plain, "Can I eat it? How do
>I hold it? Can it give me shelter?"

Is this as nonsensical as it sounds to me?  The human brain can only
manage three properties for all non-human objects?  And two of those
properties are the simplest of "enumerated" data types, namely
"Boolean", which can take on only two values, "yes" or "no"?

Apples are not red (usually), plums are not purple -- they are only
"eatable = 'yes'"!

Any relational database system can do better than
that!  (Translating, "property" = column; "object" = "row".)

Joel

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