PoP Book 06.2s MidRes - Flipbook - Page 31
Copycats
wrong to use the verb
mirrors. But, as Susan Blackmore says: ‘we’re
As rafts of tests run on
‘to ape’ to mean imitate, for apes rarely ape.’
f year-old human
chimps and orangutans show, even a two-and-a-hal
is way ahead in social cognitive skills.67
illustrations of this,
If you want one of the simplest and most powerful
games by
just look at the way human children play rule-governed
invent and learn whole
imitation. What you’ll see is that they regularly
using the language
new games without a word being spoken, just
they also imitate what
of the body. And, using these same play skills,
will achieve in the rest
adults do in a much more fluid way than apes
4.20
of their lives.
probably the first to define
Psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike,68 was
it done.’ Yes, it sounds
imitation: ‘learning to do an act from seeing
to unpack. Because imitation
ridiculously simple, but there’s a great deal
the complexity involved,
register
comes so effortlessly to us we barely
young children can even
or realise how special it is. Like the way very
appropriate to particular
encode usable records of speech and actions
characters. They can
roles — detailed ways of being that denote different
suit a fictional being
also act out unobserved behaviours that might
requires an operating
activity
of
kind
This
responding to surprise events.
simulation
advanced
is
This
procedure much more flexible than a script.
crucially, in the human
demanding high-end cognitive engines. And,
rewarding in itself.
brain successfully imitating something is chemically
4.17
starts collecting and
From the moment we’re born the drive to mimicry
from the surroundings, withhoarding; obsessively picking bits and bobs
or how they connect. Our
out necessarily even knowing what they are
sub-skills: making decisions
imitative system, in action, then requires three
s from one perspective
about what to copy, complex mental transformation
and appropriate bodily
to another, and finally the production of matching
style of playful mental
specific
very
a
forms
it
actions. Taken all together
decoded and described by
model-making; and it was comprehensively
the psychologist Merlin Donald.69
4.21
4.18
4.19
4.01
Section 04
77
Play Brain / Copycats
76
Play Brain / Wardance
Play Brain
Life in the Blen
der
y
gs patientl
concrete thin
tual
thoughts of
track of habi
‘Instead of
in a beaten
one another
s-cuts and
following
abrupt cros
most
the
unheard
we have
her… the most
suggestion,
anot
to
ciations
from one idea
subtlest asso
transitions
ents, the
oduced into
ions of elem
intr
inat
comb
enly
-of
we seem sudd
in a word
nerships can
of analogy;
where part
of ideas…
routine
dron
l
caul
dmil
ant, trea
a seething
in an inst
’
or loosened
the only law.
be joined
pected is
and the unex
is unknown,
4.59
, 1880 ¹²¹
William James
as joining
Hume described
sopher David
²²
century philo
mental drawers,¹
What the 18th
away in different
orks of
iously tucked
ects vast netw
two pictures prev
ding, and it conn
blen
cious
al
eptu
as conc
h, at the cons
is now known
products whic
e
mak
to
intersecting
eptual meaning
ess series of
complex conc
le. Like an endl
e ‘input’
elegantly simp
spheres wher
tal
men
tes
level, appear
ding crea
e’ to form
, conceptual blen
‘blended spac
Venn diagrams
together to a
n and projected
ideas are take
.¹²³
new meaning
eptual
because conc
ful imagination
term ‘pet
erhouse of a play
. Think of the
This is the pow
rgent qualities
If you
yield hidden eme
in your mind.
ced
tions
bina
surfa
com
‘talks’ just
of phrase:
possible the word
ic British turn
bird’. It’s quite
take the class
ns abound.
ent example,
es and associatio
want a more pung
d
off a stick”. Imag
calle
shit
’s
like
what
It goes
ding game is
“I love my car.
conceptual blen
, this way
fun part of the
back and forth
And the most
‘run the blend’
and
use it lets us
and more wild
more
ng
getti
elaboration, beca
lation, and
eptual
ing it as a simu
as many conc
and that, treat
We can do it in
how things go.
we like.
connective with
for as long as
we choose, and
directions as
n beings,
huma
•
play for us
is child’s
‘Blending
deep.’
e games run
children whos
Way We Think
nnier & Mark
but we are
Turner, The
Gilles Fauco
for the way a
to chemistry,
be compared
universe of
system could
an astounding
The blending
ks can create
pres sion:
of building bloc
’s talent for com
brain
limited number
the
is
y. The key
and possibilit
ns
ectio
conn
103
Play Brain
102
Play Brain
/ Life in
the Blender
/ Life in
the Blender
