If we believe we can empathize with people by seeing the world the way they do, what are we saying? We are saying that, given the internal and external pressures they face, the landscape they see, their impression of their own identity, the individual’s actions make sense. If we believe we can empathize, my questionContinue reading “Pragmatic Narrative Microeconomics”
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Communicative Minima
In the Machine Learning literature much fuss is made about local minima, locations in the parameter space in which no adjacent solution is better. Most local minima are not global minima i.e. they are not the best solution to the problem. There are many interesting challenges and solutions regarding getting out of local minima. MostContinue reading “Communicative Minima”
Empty Enough for a Battlefield
When I was in High School, an administrator pointed out to my class that our mission statement was printed, framed, and put up in every class. But most of us had never read it. The silence that followed mocked us: “How could we be so uncultured and ignorant?” Of course, he really had to goContinue reading “Empty Enough for a Battlefield”
What Works and for Whom
I’ve been reading a bunch of Slate Star Codex and thinking a lot about what makes something “instrumentally useful” i.e. it helps you survive or complete some goal that will reinforce its use; both of these have a lot to do with natural selection, probably one of my top 5 favorite concepts. One of theContinue reading “What Works and for Whom”
What Kinds of Things Are Incommunicable in Language?
I’d like to talk about what kinds of thing are incommunicable in language and what that really means. I don’t have it all in one beautiful system, but I’m looking forward to being mortified by how wrong this post sounds when I come up with such a system. One thing I want to setup isContinue reading “What Kinds of Things Are Incommunicable in Language?”
Too Big to Be True
I’ve been thinking a lot about what the problems around information production and dissemination are in contemporary times. The go-to example for this is fake news, but it’s a bad example. Fake news is a real problem that has real effects, but most fake news is written in such a way that a discerning readerContinue reading “Too Big to Be True”
Conspicuous Communication
The shorthand for the meaning of an utterance is communicative intent in the form of new information or a desired reaction in the interlocutor. To see why a deeper notion of communicative intent is needed, let us consider Conspicuous Communication, when communication-like rituals take place in order to have such experiences “on record” rather thanContinue reading “Conspicuous Communication”
