Abstraction can be understood as a relationship between models. You can have a model of what it means to “brush your teeth”, and you can have models of what it means to “prepare toothbrush”, etc… The models of the subtasks can be composed into a model of the whole sequence, and the abstraction relationship tells you how this model is a realization of the abstract “brush your teeth” model. Similarly, we can have a model of what an “animal” is, and models for “dogs”, “humans”, “cats”. The abstraction relationship tells you how each of these models are realizations of the “animal” model. Removing properties is an easy way to create models with this relationship, but it’s not the only way. For example, you can also replace continuous time with discrete time.
You can chain this relationship to create a hierarchy, and for humans, the most concrete models we typically use are the ones that are “modeling” our raw sensory experiences. I think that adequately explains why people use it this way, but that this isn’t what abstraction is.
Abstraction can be understood as a relationship between models. You can have a model of what it means to “brush your teeth”, and you can have models of what it means to “prepare toothbrush”, etc… The models of the subtasks can be composed into a model of the whole sequence, and the abstraction relationship tells you how this model is a realization of the abstract “brush your teeth” model. Similarly, we can have a model of what an “animal” is, and models for “dogs”, “humans”, “cats”. The abstraction relationship tells you how each of these models are realizations of the “animal” model. Removing properties is an easy way to create models with this relationship, but it’s not the only way. For example, you can also replace continuous time with discrete time.
You can chain this relationship to create a hierarchy, and for humans, the most concrete models we typically use are the ones that are “modeling” our raw sensory experiences. I think that adequately explains why people use it this way, but that this isn’t what abstraction is.