“Affordances” describes the latent possibilities for action or meaning that emerge from the relationship between an agent and properties of their environment, whether physical, digital, social or linguistic [Chemero (2003)]. In The Atomic Human, this concept provides a crucial framework for understanding how intelligence emerges from the interaction between agents and their environment [Gibson (1979)], with particular focus on the differences between human and artificial intelligence [Norman (1988)].
Relationality
The relationality of affordances - that they emerge from interaction rather than existing solely in agent or environment - appears throughout the book:
Bauby’s “diving bell” metaphor shows how intelligence emerges from interaction between mind and environment Chapter 1
Test pilots developing “feel” for aircraft through direct experience Chapter 6
O’Regan’s sensorimotor approach to perception Chapter 8
The essential role of cultural context in human intelligence Chapter 5
This relational view helps explain why simply replicating human behaviors in machines fails to capture true intelligence.
Potentiality
The concept of potentiality - that affordances represent possibilities that may or may not be realized - appears in discussions of:
System Zero exploiting latent human vulnerabilities Chapter 8
How cultural artifacts create possibilities for action across time Chapter 4
The way HAMs learn patterns without understanding underlying potential Chapter 11
Evolution’s exploration of possibility spaces versus designed solutions Chapter 4
This highlights how human intelligence engages with possibility while machines operate on predetermined patterns.
Constraint
The book examines constraints - how affordances are bounded by properties of both environment and agent:
Human communication bandwidth limitations Chapter 1
The “affordance gap” between human and machine capabilities Chapter 11
How cultural context both enables and limits human action Chapter 5
Physical and computational constraints on artificial systems Chapter 6
Understanding these constraints helps explain fundamental differences between evolved and designed intelligence.
Implications
These three aspects of affordances - relationality, potentiality, and constraint - illuminate key themes:
Why human intelligence can’t be reduced to computation alone
How System Zero exploits human affordances for manipulation
The importance of maintaining appropriate human-machine interfaces
Why diverse perspectives are crucial for technological development
The affordance framework helps explain both the power and limitations of artificial intelligence while highlighting the unique characteristics of human intelligence that emerge from our evolved relationship with the world.
Machine Summary
“Affordances” describes the latent possibilities for action or meaning that emerge from the relationship between an agent and properties of their environment, whether physical, digital, social or linguistic [Chemero (2003)]. In The Atomic Human, this concept provides a crucial framework for understanding how intelligence emerges from the interaction between agents and their environment [Gibson (1979)], with particular focus on the differences between human and artificial intelligence [Norman (1988)].
Relationality
The relationality of affordances - that they emerge from interaction rather than existing solely in agent or environment - appears throughout the book:
This relational view helps explain why simply replicating human behaviors in machines fails to capture true intelligence.
Potentiality
The concept of potentiality - that affordances represent possibilities that may or may not be realized - appears in discussions of:
This highlights how human intelligence engages with possibility while machines operate on predetermined patterns.
Constraint
The book examines constraints - how affordances are bounded by properties of both environment and agent:
Understanding these constraints helps explain fundamental differences between evolved and designed intelligence.
Implications
These three aspects of affordances - relationality, potentiality, and constraint - illuminate key themes:
The affordance framework helps explain both the power and limitations of artificial intelligence while highlighting the unique characteristics of human intelligence that emerge from our evolved relationship with the world.