Thanks for posting that reference to Jeff Hawkins book, it might be a handy reference for what I'm currently working on. I don't know how 'new' his theory is though - from the write up he seems to be elaborating on ideas that are not uncommon in cognitive modelling.

If you want to see the other side of the argument, try Jerry Fodors 'The mind doesn't work that way: the scope and limits of computational psychology'.

I quite agree about the value of studying science, as a way of developing logical approaches to problems. But I would say that there is value in learning any discipline (or ideally as many as possible - learn everything!). Studying history, particularly the Enlightenment period, gave me a useful insight into the origins of many of the concepts of science that we now take for granted, and the different approach to research provided a different, additional set of tools to use when approaching a problem.

Now, off to Amazon in search of that book.

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