# Abstractions [Computation is the Window to the Abstract](Computation%20is%20the%20Window%20to%20the%20Abstract.md) ### An Abstract Idea When used in a standard English sentence an *abstract idea* generally refers to one of two things: 1. An abstract idea refers to ideas that are not concerned with worldly things, e.g. education, happiness, cowardice, self expression, betrayal, cruelty, truth, love, and so on. These things all exist in thought or idea, but have no physical or concrete existence[^1]. We can think of them as concepts. 2. An *abstract idea* can refer to the result of *abstracting* a representation of something from the context it has in reality. So, we could think of it as our "abstract cake". There is no physical instantiation of our abstract cake, meaning it does not exist in reality. ### Importance We have already stressed this above, but let's be very clear: Abstraction is an essential part of any intellectual activity. Let's break this down by analyzing the following sentence: > The boy ran to the store. We may not even realize it but the above sentence has a *great* amount of abstraction! Consider that "boy", "ran", and "store" are all abstractions that are meant to represent a class of concrete objects. Without these abstractions we may need to say: > The small, male human with sandy blonde hair and a freckled face moved his legs at a rapid rate until he was in close physical proximity to an organized pile of bricks in which you can purchase eggs, milk, bread, *and so on*. By having abstractions such as "boy", we don't *need* to describe the boy in full. We can simply say "the boy", and whomever we are talking to will (likely) have the correct activation of concepts in their brain. Douglas Hofstadter in GEB speaks about this at length. --- Date: 20241230 Links to: Tags: References: * []()