xi Schank keeps his eye on what one might call prosaic intelligence, the ordinary problem-solving
ability we repeatedly demonstrate in hazily defined situations.
xi Intelligent response presupposes understanding of some sort [JLJ - not if we are executing a diagnostic
test that someone else has written, which will be used later to guide action in a coherent way]
xii While thinking is certainly a complex activity, it may not be quite as complex as many believe. There
are some essentially quite simple mechanisms that underlie an important part of the process of thinking. Thinking
depends very much on storytelling and story understanding
xiii In Schank's view, "we need to know how people do the ordinary things, not the extraordinary"
xliv Thinking depends very much on storytelling and story understanding
p.1 Knowledge is stories
p.1 To be a successful predictor of future events, one has to have explained confusing prior events successfully.
p.10 we can simply state our beliefs, or we can tell stories that illustrate them.
p.15 What makes us intelligent is our ability to find out what we know when we need to know it.
p.18 [Transcript of interaction-conversation between patient and computer program ELIZA, which generates
responses related to the statements made by the patient] We readily assume understanding and intelligence on the part of the
people or [computer] programs with whom we interact until we are given reason not to.
p.24 Storytelling and understanding are functionally the same thing.
p.29 In some sense, we may not even know what our own view of the world is until we are reminded
of and tell stories that illustrate our opinion on some aspect of the world.
p.67 we expect intelligent people to have a story to tell that explains why they believe what they believe.
p.68 Construct a belief and you should be able to find a story that exemplifies that belief.
p.68 Understanding, then, in this model depends upon being able to see one's own
beliefs in whatever one is trying to understand... So what we are seeing in the understanding process is the
attempt to understand the beliefs of another in terms of one's own beliefs.
p.81 When someone tells you a story, however, he is talking not only about plans but often, as we have noticed,
about beliefs.
p.82 Actions can express beliefs, and so as understanders, our job is to find the beliefs that are inherent
and implicit in a given action.
p.82 when the understanding process gets complicated, the primary mechanism that we have available to us
to guide understanding, namely reminding, must work especially hard on rather scanty evidence to find something to get reminded
of. The main fodder for reminding in such circumstances is beliefs that have been extracted from a text.
p.232 Ultimately the value of failure [to predict correctly what would happen next] and the explanation
of failure is to come up with new rules that predict how events will turn out. Of course, these too will fail.
