Throughout this post, we’re going to follow the Cognition -> Convergence -> Consequences methodology[1]. That means we’ll tackle tool-ness in three main stages, each building on the previous:

Cognition: What does it mean, cognitively, to view or model something as a tool?
Convergence: Insofar as different minds (e.g. different humans) tend to convergently model the same things as tools, what are the “real patterns” in the environment which give rise to that convergence?
Consequences: Having characterized the real patterns convergently recognized as tool-ness, what other properties or consequences of tool-ness can we derive? What further predictions does our characterization make?

We’re not going to do any math in this post, though we will gesture at the spots where proofs or quantitative checks would ideally slot in.

Cognition: What does it mean, cognitively, to view or model something as a tool?

Let's start with a mental model of (the cognition [...]

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Outline:

(01:02) Cognition: What does it mean, cognitively, to view or model something as a tool?

(03:27) Convergence: Insofar as different minds (e.g. different humans) tend to convergently model the same things as tools, what are the “real patterns” in the environment which give rise to that convergence?

(06:12) Consequences: From that characterization, what other properties or consequences of tool-ness can we derive?

(06:26) Modularity

(08:34) Loopiness

The original text contained 4 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
June 25th, 2024

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ajJRyKtwZNnBdmkcv/what-is-a-tool

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

“What is a Tool?” by johnswentworth, David Lorell

LessWrong (30+ Karma)