So I’m planning a sequence on luminosity, which I defined in a Mental Crystallography footnote thus:
Introspective luminosity (or just “luminosity”) is the subject of a sequence I have planned—this is a preparatory post of sorts. In a nutshell, I use it to mean the discernibility of mental states to their haver—if you’re luminously happy, clap your hands.
Since I’m very attached to the word “luminosity” to describe this phenomenon, and I also noticed that people really didn’t like the “crystal” metaphor from Mental Crystallography, I would like to poll LW about how to approach the possibility of a “light” metaphor re: luminosity. Karma balancer (linked for when it goes invisible).
Vote this comment up if you have no idea what Alicorn’s metaphor of luminosity means.
But figured it wouldn’t be nice to screw with your poll. :)
The point, though, is that I really don’t understand the luminosity metaphor based on how you have currently described it. I would guess the following:
A luminous mental state is a mental state such that the mind in that state is fully aware of being in that state.
The adjective is “luminous”, not “luminescent”, but yes! Thanks—it’s good to get feedback on when I’m not clear. However, the word “luminosity” itself is only sort of metaphorical—it’s a technical term I stole and repurposed from a philosophy article. The question is how far I can go with doing things like calling a post “You Are Likely To Be Eaten By A Grue” when decrying the hazards of poor luminosity.
The question is how far I can go with doing things like calling a post “You Are Likely To Be Eaten By A Grue” when decrying the hazards of poor luminosity.
One way to guess what might happen in a given situation is to compare it to similar situations in the past. Assume we already have some way of measuring similarity. Some past situations will be extremely similar to the current situation, and some will be less similar but still pretty close. How much weight should we attach to each?
If your data set is very small, then it is usually better for the weight to drop off slowly, while the opposite is true if your data set is large. Perhaps different individuals use different curves, and so some people will have an advantage at reasoning with scanty data, while others will have an advantage at reasoning with mountains of data. I thought that Alicorn was suggesting “luminosity” as a name for this personality trait. It looks like I was way off, though :-)
Fortunately, my first post in the sequence will be devoted to explaining what luminosity is in meticulous detail. Spoiler: it’s not like anything that is described in a Wikipedia article that makes my head swim that badly.
Some people did like the crystal metaphors just fine, but I wouldn’t expect them to tell me to do anything I wouldn’t have naturally chosen to do with light metaphors, so their opinions are less informative. (I don’t expect them to dislike reduced-metaphor or metaphor-free posts.)
I think some people might just have a negative disposition toward crystals because of their association with New Ageism, magic healing and other assorted woo. That’s too bad because crystals and their molecular structures are really cool! And make acceptable metaphors!
So I’m planning a sequence on luminosity, which I defined in a Mental Crystallography footnote thus:
Since I’m very attached to the word “luminosity” to describe this phenomenon, and I also noticed that people really didn’t like the “crystal” metaphor from Mental Crystallography, I would like to poll LW about how to approach the possibility of a “light” metaphor re: luminosity. Karma balancer (linked for when it goes invisible).
Vote this comment up if you want to revisit the issue after I’ve actually posted the first luminosity sequence post, to see how it’s going then.
I was tempted to add this comment:
But figured it wouldn’t be nice to screw with your poll. :)
The point, though, is that I really don’t understand the luminosity metaphor based on how you have currently described it. I would guess the following:
Am I close?
Edit: Terminology
The adjective is “luminous”, not “luminescent”, but yes! Thanks—it’s good to get feedback on when I’m not clear. However, the word “luminosity” itself is only sort of metaphorical—it’s a technical term I stole and repurposed from a philosophy article. The question is how far I can go with doing things like calling a post “You Are Likely To Be Eaten By A Grue” when decrying the hazards of poor luminosity.
Ok, you just won my vote! ;)
Me too; I’m always fond of references like that one. ;)
My interpretation of your description had been that luminosity is like the bandwidth parameter in kernel density estimation.
Can you elaborate on this? I suspect it’s not what Alicorn was describing, but it may be interesting in its own right.
(For what it’s worth, I understood the math in the Wikipedia article.)
One way to guess what might happen in a given situation is to compare it to similar situations in the past. Assume we already have some way of measuring similarity. Some past situations will be extremely similar to the current situation, and some will be less similar but still pretty close. How much weight should we attach to each?
If your data set is very small, then it is usually better for the weight to drop off slowly, while the opposite is true if your data set is large. Perhaps different individuals use different curves, and so some people will have an advantage at reasoning with scanty data, while others will have an advantage at reasoning with mountains of data. I thought that Alicorn was suggesting “luminosity” as a name for this personality trait. It looks like I was way off, though :-)
Fortunately, my first post in the sequence will be devoted to explaining what luminosity is in meticulous detail. Spoiler: it’s not like anything that is described in a Wikipedia article that makes my head swim that badly.
Hm. Interesting, I don’t think I ever realized those two words had slightly different meanings.
*Files information under vocab quirks.*
Vote this comment up if it’s okay to use metaphors but I should tone it way down.
Vote this comment up if you think I suck at metaphors and should avoid them like the plague.
Note: in such cases, you need to offer some options that aren’t self-deprecating, in case some of your readers liked the crystal metaphors just fine.
(Er, although I personally fall into the category of your third option.)
Some people did like the crystal metaphors just fine, but I wouldn’t expect them to tell me to do anything I wouldn’t have naturally chosen to do with light metaphors, so their opinions are less informative. (I don’t expect them to dislike reduced-metaphor or metaphor-free posts.)
I think some people might just have a negative disposition toward crystals because of their association with New Ageism, magic healing and other assorted woo. That’s too bad because crystals and their molecular structures are really cool! And make acceptable metaphors!
Vote this comment up if you think only crystal metaphors in particular suck, while light metaphors are nifty.
Karma balance. Vote down if you voted up another comment in the poll.
In future, you may wish to advertise the existance of the Karma balance in another post, for obveous reasons.
I linked to it in the poll post itself (great-grandparent of this comment). I’m sorry if it was hard to find.