Your map/territory risk is exactly what this lineage formalizes -- internal maps are necessary but they shape and limit perception. Walter Lippmann (1922) makes "pictures in our heads" the operative reality of public judgment:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Opinion</a><p>Frederic Bartlett (1932) defines schemas as memory structures that pre-shape perception and recall:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_(psychology)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schema_(psychology)</a><p>Jean Piaget explains schema updating via assimilation/accommodation when evidence conflicts with the map:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(psychology)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assimilation_(psychology)</a><p>Edward Tolman introduces cognitive maps, making "map" literal in psychology:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_map" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_map</a><p>Marvin Minsky formalizes frames as slot-filled expectations that speed inference but can blind you to anomalies:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_(artificial_intelligence)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame_(artificial_intelligence...</a><p>voidhorse: "mental model" vs "theory" is a real distinction in the literature. Kenneth Craik frames small-scale models as internal simulations for reasoning, not public theories:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Craik" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Craik</a><p>Philip Johnson-Laird formalizes mental models as internal simulations used for inference and prediction:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Johnson-Laird" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Johnson-Laird</a><p>andsoitis: "informal, simplified, personal" models are exactly why systematic errors show up. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky document heuristics and biases when internal maps are over-trusted:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristics_in_judgment_and_decision-making" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heuristics_in_judgment_and_dec...</a><p>Repair loop: Seymour Papert's microworlds provide controlled sandboxes for testing and revising models:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_(learning_theory)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructionism_(learning_theo...</a><p>Gary Drescher gives a schema mechanism for incremental action/outcome updates that rebuild the map from experience:<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262517089/made-up-minds/" rel="nofollow">https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262517089/made-up-minds/</a><p>If you want to see Drescher operationalized, MOOLLM turns the schema mechanism into working skills. Schema Mechanism is the causal core, Schema Factory adds a deterministic toolchain and context bundles for LLM reasoning, and Play-Learn-Lift is the governance loop that maps ACT/OBSERVE/ATTRIBUTE/SPIN OFF into audited upgrades. This is GOFAI made practical with LLMs filling the old gaps in grounding and explanation.<p>Drescher's Schema Mechanism as Anthropic Skill:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-mechanism/SKILL.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-...</a><p>Drescher's Schema Factory as Anthropic Skill:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-factory/README.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-...</a><p>Play=>Learn=>Lift methodology as Anthropic Skill:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/play-learn-lift/SKILL.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/play-le...</a><p>Here is the exact kind of thing we are talking about -- the YAML Jazz schema examples are live, readable schemas-by-example with causal context, semantic comments, evidence counts, side effects, and marginal attribution notes, including a practical devops edgebox/ingest cluster and a Zork/MUD "learn by dying" cluster so you can see the mechanism at work in real data:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-factory/examples/schema-jazz-example.yml" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/skills/schema-...</a><p><pre><code> # YAML Jazz schema examples (comments are semantic)
#
# These are schemas-by-example: minimal structure, rich intent.
# Follow canon schema rules where possible, but annotate as needed.
# Ad hoc fields and side-notes are allowed for partially jelled ideas.
</code></pre>
And here is a MOOLLM simulation session explaining Gary Drescher's ideas themselves -- an ethical tribute simulation (not actually real people), grounded in documented work and analyzed source code, and framed for a simulated audience of familiar experts, to show how a Society of Mind meets "The Sims" style ensemble can explain itself:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adventure-4/characters/real-people/don-hopkins/sessions/adventure-uplift.md#4-gary-dreschers-schema-mechanism-talk" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/examples/adven...</a><p>Finally, if you want the deeper connections tour written specifically for this thread -- the big-picture synthesis that ties Papert, Minsky, Drescher, Play-Learn-Lift, and live microworlds into one operational map -- dive here:<p><a href="https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/designs/CONNECTIONS-MAP-FRAME-SCHEMA-MICROWORLD.md" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/SimHacker/moollm/blob/main/designs/CONNEC...</a>