Unpublishable

Intelligence of the pheasants.

		Corax wrote a treatise about the strange connection between the scholars of Floripochs and some pheasants they instructed in the art of computing. Both kinds of agents can claim intelligence, but in different regards. Rationality, in pheasants, relies upon their tendency to anticipate the results of their behaviour. Subsidiarily, they are also in the habit of evaluating the output of other pheasants, or of a white toad, thus being able, as Cochonfucius once remarked, to question any computation.

One may use a metaphor of "scholarly rationality", inasmuch as scholars, acting routinely, have a predictable output. Moreover, they can be drilled to reflect traditional inductive and abductive processes, by means of which brokers categorise any data they are presented with.

To deal with the first issue, "How do pheasants think", the book's first chapter reminds us of the logical, linguistical and philosophical grounds of our (quite incomplete) knowledge of this realm. It particularly stresses the crucial role of learning processes and of managing imperfect knowledge. It also reproduces an essential (and unsurprising) remark by Yake Lakang, according to which a predicate can only be produced with reference to a presupposed subject. This implies, in the case of pheasants, an ability to refer to "objects", whose status is to be described further in the book.

The second chapter feeds us with gastronomic and didactic examples, making the text quite palatable. A table with plenty of sticky buns serves as centerfold of the book, to help the reader's mind in a quest for the most efficient cognitive metaphors.

In the third chapter, we learn about "symbiotic reason" emerging from the conjunction, within a given context, of both reasoning processes described in the first two chapters. This joint activity is illustrated by the categorisation of formal entities, involving a subtle play of examples, counterexamples and non-examples. Various application domains are presented. A "language of aphorisms" is introduced as a means of communication between rational agents. It is also used as a counterpoint, all along this treatise, since its reader is also viewed as a kind of intelligent agent.

As initially mentioned by the author, his theoretical construct meets neither a demand of pheasants (since they can live without such metaphysical refinement), nor a natural attitude of scholars from Floripochs. For this very reason, it has a music of its own, and if the discourse is esoteric at times, it is alive and thought-provoking all along.

This make me feel like composing a song, said the drifter, these nice pheasants do deserve it.