Probability as a Mental Model is Bullshit
The idea is simple: probabilities don’t make any sense as tools for explaining the brain, they make sense as tools for describing what is literally possible. Describing what is possible and what is likely in the physical universe is awesome, I’m all for it. It’s cool that we can understand particle physics which may or mayContinue reading “Probability as a Mental Model is Bullshit”
Concepts Are Tools, Not Artifacts
The delightful John Nerst points out that we have more of a problem organizing and moving around knowledge than we do creating it. I think we need a Conceptual Logistics that tells us what kind of patterns people have observed over the centuries, how they relate to each other, and where we can find evidenceContinue reading “Concepts Are Tools, Not Artifacts”
Other Kinds of Inference
In 1822 some people in what is now Germany were like: “Yo, isn’t that an African arrow in that stork’s neck?” Sure enough it was, and this lead to a lot of progress on the question of “Where the hell do birds go when they’re not here, anyway?” All in all it was a greatContinue reading “Other Kinds of Inference”
