pages 169 to 193

Now that I am writing, it is essential that I conceive my paper as a surface for inscription.... But if I wished to light a fire, and no other materials were by, the essential way of conceiving the paper would be as a combustible material....

(page 174)

This quote shows very clearly that our active mental representations at any given time are highly context-dependent.

We can - and we do - constantly perceive similar objects in completely different ways:
a liquid may be drinkable in one situation and used to distinguish a fire in another;
a glass may be something to drink out of in one situation and used as a weapon in another.

It is highly unlikely that we constantly are "loading" all concepts into our active mental representations of present occurences. Instead it seems plausible that we only use those concepts that are relevant to a current situation.

Perception and cognition are constantly influencing each other.
If we are thirsty, we will search for drinkable fluids. If we have to put out a fire, we will search for non-inflammable fluids. If we want a container to drink out of, we will usually search for different objects than if we need something to mix glue in.

Many A.I. research projects provide pre-coded representations to their programs.
But due to the above mentioned statements this, most likely, may not be the best approach.

In order to model the human mind, perception and cognition must interact with each other in order to create context-dependent - i.e. flexible - representations.

Trying to create this type of artificial system from scratch would pose immense computational problems because the real world offers an unbelievable amount of information every second throughout various modalities.
Therefore Hofstadter suggests to create microdomains in which artificial systems have a manageable amount of data available and where perception and the creation of representations can interact with each other.

After having read this chapter I definitely agree that this approach sounds highly promising.