ABSTRACT
The abstract analysis of the world by mathematics and physics rests on the concepts of space and time. In a theory of information-based perception, learning to perceive affordances is only one kind of perceptual learning or perceptual development. The human young must learn to perceive these affordances, in some degree at least, but the young of some animals do not have time to learn the ones that are crucial for survival. Animals, and children until they learn theoretical geometry, pay attention to the affordances of layout rather than the mathematics of layout. Hence, although logically one advances from space to affordance, developmentally the progress is in the opposite direction, from affordance to space. The notion of affordances implies a new theory of meaning and a new way of bridging the gap between mind and matter. The affordances of the environment are permanent, although they do refer to animals and are species-specific.
