what is the advantage of this high-level picture? Why is it better to say, "Symbols A and B triggered symbol C" than to say, "Neurons 183 through 612 excited neuron 75 and caused it to fire"? This question was answered in the Ant Fugue: It is better because symbols symbolize things, and neurons don't. Symbols are the hardware realizations of concepts. Whereas a group of neurons triggering another neuron corresponds to no outer event, the triggering of some symbol by other symbols bears a relation to events in the real world—or in an imaginary world.