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What is 'common sense'?

thelongandshort.org

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Re: What is 'common sense'?

#31

Post by Animats »

Important question, weak article.

"Common sense" used to be a term used often in AI research, although seldom implemented. Collecting large numbers of factoids has been done (see Cyc and ConceptNet). That didn't lead to common sense, although it helps some quesion-answering systems.

A useful working definition is that common sense is the predictive capability needed to get through the next seconds to a minute of life. This is what you need to not fall down, get hit by moving objects, and avoid predators. If you can't manage that, life will be short. It's a basic function of animal behavior.

Not enough has been done in that area. It's essential for robots. Google's self-driving cars have something like that, trying to predict what other cars are going to do in the immediate future.

One way to work on this problem is to have a system that looks at movie clips, and is asked to predict what happens next. It can, of course, be trained by looking at what does happen next. Image analysis is now far enough along to attempt this. Anyone doing that in recent years?

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#32

Post by delinka »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #14
delinka wrote: post #10

Not sure about the UK, but in my neck of the woods here in the US, "common sense" refers to not being physically reckless, especially toward others. I understand that politicians like to co-opt terminology for themselves. Let's blame the politicians, not 'proper' vocabulary.

I think that's the "Golden Rule". Either way, your definition of "common sense" isn't particularly common, and whether it even makes sense has long been the subject of debates in ethics.

Human language is ambiguous. As it has been since it was invented. And people abuse this ambiguity to further their interests.

Ultimately, that's my point. Are there any colloquialisms that everyone would agree can have only a single definition?

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#34

Post by e40 »

hzhou321 wrote: post #9

Common sense should not be defined as common knowledge. It is not describing a type of knowledge which one simply know or ignorant. Rather it describes a most general type of critical thinking process where common people will reach the similar conclusion when they are asked to engage in the critical thinking. For example, cutting vegetables. I would say it is a common sense to always put your holding figures on top (…

I've been thinking a lot about this lately, because some people in my life are exhibiting a great lack of common sense.

I think common sense is the ability to correctly prioritize possible solutions to problems, or to prioritize desires vs needs vs abilities.

I often see people incorrectly prioritize solutions because they let their emotion and desires get in the way. When this happens, usually something bad happens and the person making the decision gets exasperated. Do they look to the root cause (their incorrect priorities)? Never. They always find an external cause or ignore the failure.

It's incredibly frustrating to watch this happen in someone else.

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#35

Post by Retra »

cubix wrote: post #26
hzhou321 wrote: post #9

Common sense should not be defined as common knowledge. It is not describing a type of knowledge which one simply know or ignorant. Rather it describes a most general type of critical thinking process where common people will reach the similar conclusion when they are asked to engage in the critical thinking. For example, cutting vegetables. I would say it is a common sense to always put your holding figures on top (…

> For example, cutting vegetables. I would say it is a common sense to always put your holding figures on top That's not actually what most experts advocate. Chefs are trained to hold from the side, but with their finger tips curled underneath their knuckles for protection. https://youtu.be/cV0c7qiNjuI?t=1m56s

Now you're talking about uncommon sense.

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#36

Post by afarrell »

As someone who worked on Open Mind Common Sense as a freshman, I should warn y'all that it accepted submissions from random people on the Internet and so contains many statements that are patently ridiculous.

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#38

Post by AdieuToLogic »

markvdb wrote: post #11

Nazi Germany used the term "gesundes Volksempfinden", not only as a part of its internal propaganda, but even as a legal principle. https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesundes_Volksempfinden (Sorry, I couldn't find a relevant wikipedia article about it in English.)

Pretty quick on that Godwin's Law[1] trigger man...

1 - http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/godwins-law

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#39

Post by tomlock »

It is common sense to think that the "common sense" of 2000 years ago was wrong. It should be common sense to think that common sense today is also likely wrong. :)

Oops.

Re: What is 'common sense'?

#40

Post by AdieuToLogic »

Animats wrote: post #31

Important question, weak article. "Common sense" used to be a term used often in AI research, although seldom implemented. Collecting large numbers of factoids has been done (see Cyc and ConceptNet). That didn't lead to common sense, although it helps some quesion-answering systems. A useful working definition is that common sense is the predictive capability needed to get through the next seconds to a minute of life…

Interesting take on a vague and, IMHO, insoluble question due to its intrinsic subjectivity based on an agent's previous exposure to its observable world.

Continuing along an AI theme, wouldn't "common sense" be closer to the choices selected from the belief network developed by an agent's percepts over time?

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