I would like your posts to include concrete real-world examples, rather than parables.
Real-world examples have two unfortunate properties. First, they tend to be complicated, using up space in the blog post and obscuring the core point. Second, real-world examples name specific targets and thereby make enemies; who may not even deserve the criticism, because people do sometimes change their minds in the three years since I last had a mailing-list conversation with them.
studies show that you use 10% of your brain
Anyone who uses that curiosity-stopper is lying or mistaken; no such studies exist.
So why didn’t you give us a real real-world example, Tiiba...? It would have taken a bit of time to find one, right?
These are blog posts, I’ve got to write them quickly to pump out one a day. While the real-world examples are there in my memory, actually looking them up in the vastness of the Net, when I don’t recall exactly when or where it happened, might take a lot of time.
On the other hand, I can’t recall any examples of anyone using science, complexity or emergence as curiocity stoppers or passwords. It might just be me, I might be stupid, but this has been bothering me.
Ah, so the source and inspiration for your negative examples is a pool of AI geeks, would-be AI geeks, and philosophers who disapprove of the whole enterprise.
That explains a lot. Your examples no longer strike me as artificial. Merely a bit parochial.
But it is a great series, regardless of the personal history that has engendered it. I hope I can make use of some of the ideas and heuristics I have learned here.
I once chased down that “10% of your brain” business to see where it came from. Turns out it was kind of a study. A very old one. Back when they were first figuring out what the brain was even for and had just figured out that nerves used electricity. They tested how much of the brain was “used” by jabbing it with a electric probe and seeing if it made the “patient” twitch. (obviously this was done on “incurably insane” patients that nobody would miss.)
Of course, we now know that the brain runs a lot more stuff than just major muscle groups. But the 10% number persists in popular memory.
I would like your posts to include concrete real-world examples, rather than parables.
Real-world examples have two unfortunate properties. First, they tend to be complicated, using up space in the blog post and obscuring the core point. Second, real-world examples name specific targets and thereby make enemies; who may not even deserve the criticism, because people do sometimes change their minds in the three years since I last had a mailing-list conversation with them.
studies show that you use 10% of your brain
Anyone who uses that curiosity-stopper is lying or mistaken; no such studies exist.
So why didn’t you give us a real real-world example, Tiiba...? It would have taken a bit of time to find one, right?
These are blog posts, I’ve got to write them quickly to pump out one a day. While the real-world examples are there in my memory, actually looking them up in the vastness of the Net, when I don’t recall exactly when or where it happened, might take a lot of time.
On the other hand, I can’t recall any examples of anyone using science, complexity or emergence as curiocity stoppers or passwords. It might just be me, I might be stupid, but this has been bothering me.
If you really want an example, go to the archives of the Artificial General Intelligence mailing list and click around at random. Soon you’ll find one.
Ah, so the source and inspiration for your negative examples is a pool of AI geeks, would-be AI geeks, and philosophers who disapprove of the whole enterprise.
That explains a lot. Your examples no longer strike me as artificial. Merely a bit parochial.
But it is a great series, regardless of the personal history that has engendered it. I hope I can make use of some of the ideas and heuristics I have learned here.
I once chased down that “10% of your brain” business to see where it came from. Turns out it was kind of a study. A very old one. Back when they were first figuring out what the brain was even for and had just figured out that nerves used electricity. They tested how much of the brain was “used” by jabbing it with a electric probe and seeing if it made the “patient” twitch. (obviously this was done on “incurably insane” patients that nobody would miss.)
Of course, we now know that the brain runs a lot more stuff than just major muscle groups. But the 10% number persists in popular memory.