To build up cognition languages from the strong basis of the Standardized Generalized Markup Language, another genius, well recognized this time, needed to intervene. Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, rooted the Web in that language. Most of the Web pages we read everyday on our computers are written in a simplified version of the Standardized Generalized Markup Language, called HTML, for HyperText Markup Language. What Berners-Lee did was marry markup languages with the Internet, hereby opening the opportunity for another step in the cognition climb of computers. Moreover, within a relatively short time came XML, the eXtended Markup Language. As we have seen in Chapter 5, it was then possible for computers to communicate via a language that was finally offering, thanks to its filiation, the possibility for them to enter the era of enhanced cognitive performance. However, enough theory; let us see how this is done through an example.

The Structure of Metaphors

A significant leap on the evolutionary ladder in the development of cognitive abilities within the human species was taken when the mind became able to consider objects in an abstract way through metaphorical associations. For example, the ability of a person to manipulate objects through the fine motor skills of the hands can be a foundation for development. Some operations on numbers emanate from the same area of the brain that deals with the manipulation of objects, as presented by George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez in Where Mathematics Comes From. This corroborates the concept of the sensori-motor experience providing the basis for metaphorical understanding and thought at a higher cognitive level. Here, we are interested in the expression in a formal language of the metaphorical meanings of abstract concepts. If we succeed in doing so, we will have illustrated some of the cognitive power of modern computer languages.

The variety of metaphoric phenomena has been recognized for a long time, and an early modern description was done by Christine Brooke-Rose in A Grammar of Metaphor. More broadly, metaphors belong to a more general category of symbolic expressions, as presented by James Fernandez, editor of Beyond Metaphor, The Theory of Tropes in Anthropology. More modestly, in the following, we will consider a metaphoric construction inspired from the seminal Metaphors We Live By, by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson:

“We have a warm relationship. It works well. We are very close.”

These three sentences are called metaphors because at first consideration they seem grounded in physical phenomena unrelated to their actual expression. Warmth is first associated with physical implements elevating temperature, say fire or weather, work is associated with the physical experience of creating structure, and closeness is associated with the immediate perception of distance. To consider the latter, there is a difference between “We are very close” in the expression of a relationship, meaning, say “We love each other dearly,” and the same sentence in the expression of a small physical distance, meaning, say, “We are sitting two feet apart.” Similarly, there is a difference between a relationship that works well, as in “We like each other,” and machinery, say a car or an electric saw, that works well, as in (another set of metaphors) “It runs like a charm.”

While we can see a difference between a warm oven, or a warm motor, and a warm relationship, this example will in fact open the door to a more sophisticated understanding of metaphors. While, in all three sentences, the difference may be characterized as one of abstract (metaphoric) and concrete (real) implements, one should review in detail that difference, and we will start with

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