Thomas E. Malloy, University of Utah
Gary C. Jensen, University of Utah

Abstract: Bateson's difference-based epistemology can be simulated by a Boolean network model. Bateson proposed that taking differences in differences would produce emergent hierarchies of knowledge. This study simulated Bateson's proposal by taking differences in differences in a Boolean model. The crucial result is that constancies in the dynamics of the flow of differences in the model (a) define perceptually comprehensible categories of visual forms and (b) that higher-order constancies arrange these categories into a perceptually comprehensible hierarchy. We propose Dynamic Constancy as a new Gestalt-like organizational principle in perception.

Keywords: perceptual categories, epistemology, Bateson, Boolean networks and landscapes, Gestalt organization