Comments on: Social movements in the consumerist world

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 04:13:04 +0000

xiaogau: Actually, most AI protocols that I’ve studied since my Prolog days use fuzzy logic internally, rather than Boolean/binary logic. In fuzzy logic, the answer to “Do you want to go to the park?” might be “70%”.
The final binary true/false answer comes out by selecting a level (50%, 30%, 90%, whatever) that the result must reach to cause a perambulation to the park, or a missile to be launched, or whatever.
Nothing in nature is truly binary; everything has fuzzy edges if you examine it closely enough.

Some questions, like “is it alive?” have many factors to consider, especially given the imprecise definition that even biologists have for life. Recently (as I discussed in this post in June ‘07) there is a movement to define as living any system that metabolizes, rather than the earlier definition requiring the ability to reproduce itself. Whether viruses are alive is as iffy with this newer definition as it was with the old.

By: xiaogou

xiaogou — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:06:46 +0000

Dan, it is interesting that you mentioned binary as most AIs are based on a ‘is or is not’ tree structure. Is it alive or not? If alive is it animal or plant? Etc. People, I hope, work on a more complex decision base, though the data is slanted to the contrary. Science tends to be more dichotomies based while art tends to be more complex. A scientist tends to put things in categories while an artist for example will say this is not quite the shade of green I want. I use ‘tends’ as I know that there are many shades of grey in people.

By: Vicki Baker

Vicki Baker — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:28:20 +0000

There are 2 kinds of people: the kind that wants to divide people into 2 kinds of people, and the kind that doesn’t.

I tend to think that the reason political discussion is so stunted in this country is because most families don’t even eat together at the same table anymore, or talk to their neighbors. It’s all down to the rat race and the way our cities are built around the need to get from one place to another as quickly as possibly in a metal privacy capsule. Infrastructure tells you what to do, and the infrastructure of suburbia tells you to mind your own business.

By: Dan Klarmann

Dan Klarmann — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 13:17:41 +0000

There are 10 kinds of people: Those who understand binary math, and those who don’t.

Glibness aside, this post reminds me of the 3½ minute Penn and Teller petition video

Humans are joiners, followers. This behavior is basic to commercial marketing, and to the political process. Erich also recently referred to the necessity for “participation by informed citizens”.
But we are only as well informed as those we choose to follow will permit. Some people feel perfectly well-informed by Bill O’Reilly and Drudge. Others choose to listen to NPR, BBC, and also to CBN and FOX to gain a wider view. But they are still selecting their information sources by who they trust.

I don’t think that the sorry state of our electorate is due to a lack of reason, but rather a lack of understanding of our basic social reflexes.

btw: I’m finally aged enough that Krishnas and Scientologists don’t bother to approach me. But Mormons and Jehovah’s Witlesses still accost me on the street.