The Box

Originally posted 5/19/09
Jean Piaget described stages of development based on the idea that humans understand in different ways at different ages. Although Piaget over-simplified, I think the idea is sound. It is impossible for a child to think like an adult. The solutions available to an adult are not available to a child.

What is impossible for an adult to think of? What levels of reasoning or abstraction are humans unable to accomplish.

Can we create computers which can go beyond us? Computers can already duplicate known theories based on data. I suspect that computers will soon be able to create theories which are beyond our ability to think of.

That would truly be thinking outside of the box.