Much of life is based on judgement. Judgment has two facets, what is good/bad for me, and what is good/bad for the collective. In the short term they may be considered opposites.
This is a great resource material for a one-year course in Behavior Determinants. It touches on a large number of concepts and aligns them in various configurations. The high concentration of concepts and their significance justify separate, in-depth discussions. For the starters, I see “memory” as the core underlying entity upon which the other aspects may be analyzed. Why memory?
Because the whole life, both individual (personal, related to a single person) and communal (tribal, social, related to more than one person), is only possible when the memory function is active.
The memory function is the capacity to store, categorize, analyze, modulate, retrieve, use and transfer information. The obvious question is: “Where is this information stored?”
Well, we don’t know. Memory is not a tangible asset, we cannot “find” or “locate” it.
If we knew where memory is stored, we would be able to extract it based on the properties of the storage medium.
So far, the only way to extract memory information is through the relevant person’s cooperation. This process involves the interaction of two parties - which renders it unreliable. Both parties (memory holder and memory extractor) are burdened with biases, subjective conditions or ad hoc needs.
The stability of memory contents is the crucial matter. We silently assume that our memory holds “facts”, sort of solidified snapshots of reality. The problem is that this is not true. We modulate our memories (plural = memory contents), we strip them of various elements, we add a lot, and we can create interactions of memories which have never taken place in the real life.
Moreover - our memory readily assimilates foreign information and integrates it as its own “native” environment. Read it again: we draw in external and unverified information and assign to it the “absolute truth” label - and then we live with this unverified information as the determinant of our real-life interactions with oneself and with the world. Santa Claus is a classic example of this phenomenon. Here are some other “truths” accepted by adults: shaving hair makes them grow faster or healthier, apple was the forbidden fruit, fortune cookies come from China, alcohol will warm you up, humans evolved from apes, camel’s humps store water, we use 10% of the brain, the sun is yellow, dogs sweat through the tongue, the speed of light is constant, 90/60 mmHg is the healthy blood pressure, eating snow will save you from dehydration, perceivable climate change, speedometer indicates the actual speed od your vehicle, radar speed gun measures the speed of your vehicle, and many more.
We are so certain that such beliefs are the absolute truths that polygraph will never detect them as lies. Why? Because we believe that they are true. Here is the key to the deepest mystery of the human life: what you believe to be true becomes the truth (not the “fact” - only the “truth”). This statement is an absolute truth, it simply reflects how we live and how we adjust our lives. In the ultimate sense, this invalidates the whole science, measurable or not - but leaves philosophy intact... And here we return to the original question: “Who am I?”
An excellent article. There are so many “triggers” there. Hire me as a full-time responder :-) Seriously, a very good inspiration to ponder about some of the most important aspects of daily life.
I meant what I wrote. This particular article resonates with me a lot and I find may inspiring points there, what I call “triggers”, like a pebble making ripples on the water. I wish I had full-time commitment to sharing my insights and being able to write say 7,000-word ad hoc response, supplemented by a 35,000-word detailed reconsideration of your article. Not yet there…
If you want to write something long, I'll ask to set you up to make a post. But still, wouldn't it be better to break up the priorities into several shorter segments?
In talking about the human kinetic abilities (the non-verbal world), I have noted 4 attributes above:
✓the capacity to understand both the conceptual world, and to understand the physical world,
✓the ability to remember and retrieve things, a persistent memory,
✓the ability to reason, and
✓the ability to plan.
When reading about ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta Llama2, and the like, they are all Large Language Models. All LLM’s are based only on words. Their data is ALL the published digital written work. It seems to be a lot; they talk of so many “tokens”? I don’t know what that means, but it is said if you read it all; for 8 hours a day and 7 days a week, it would only take 170,000 years to read it. (I read slowly).
First of all, does it add up to anything? (Something, Yeah.) But perhaps the majority contradict each other. It is like vectors all pointing in a separate 3D direction. Then something in the algorithm throws out what they don’t like. Of course, the MSM does have a lot of consistence in the short run. But then they all shift to the opposite in a moment’s notice.
It is said that there will never (never) be an unbiased LLM.
Then with further reading, no LLM has ever remotely approached the kinetic intelligence of any 4-year-old. It is only all-words, there are no kinetic receptors. How about the kinetic agility of a squirrel, flying through the trees? Not a chance to know anything.
A breakthrough beyond pre-published words is not on the horizon.
This is a great resource material for a one-year course in Behavior Determinants. It touches on a large number of concepts and aligns them in various configurations. The high concentration of concepts and their significance justify separate, in-depth discussions. For the starters, I see “memory” as the core underlying entity upon which the other aspects may be analyzed. Why memory?
Because the whole life, both individual (personal, related to a single person) and communal (tribal, social, related to more than one person), is only possible when the memory function is active.
The memory function is the capacity to store, categorize, analyze, modulate, retrieve, use and transfer information. The obvious question is: “Where is this information stored?”
Well, we don’t know. Memory is not a tangible asset, we cannot “find” or “locate” it.
If we knew where memory is stored, we would be able to extract it based on the properties of the storage medium.
So far, the only way to extract memory information is through the relevant person’s cooperation. This process involves the interaction of two parties - which renders it unreliable. Both parties (memory holder and memory extractor) are burdened with biases, subjective conditions or ad hoc needs.
The stability of memory contents is the crucial matter. We silently assume that our memory holds “facts”, sort of solidified snapshots of reality. The problem is that this is not true. We modulate our memories (plural = memory contents), we strip them of various elements, we add a lot, and we can create interactions of memories which have never taken place in the real life.
Moreover - our memory readily assimilates foreign information and integrates it as its own “native” environment. Read it again: we draw in external and unverified information and assign to it the “absolute truth” label - and then we live with this unverified information as the determinant of our real-life interactions with oneself and with the world. Santa Claus is a classic example of this phenomenon. Here are some other “truths” accepted by adults: shaving hair makes them grow faster or healthier, apple was the forbidden fruit, fortune cookies come from China, alcohol will warm you up, humans evolved from apes, camel’s humps store water, we use 10% of the brain, the sun is yellow, dogs sweat through the tongue, the speed of light is constant, 90/60 mmHg is the healthy blood pressure, eating snow will save you from dehydration, perceivable climate change, speedometer indicates the actual speed od your vehicle, radar speed gun measures the speed of your vehicle, and many more.
We are so certain that such beliefs are the absolute truths that polygraph will never detect them as lies. Why? Because we believe that they are true. Here is the key to the deepest mystery of the human life: what you believe to be true becomes the truth (not the “fact” - only the “truth”). This statement is an absolute truth, it simply reflects how we live and how we adjust our lives. In the ultimate sense, this invalidates the whole science, measurable or not - but leaves philosophy intact... And here we return to the original question: “Who am I?”
I wrote something on memory a couple of months ago. See if that opens any ideas to add to the discussion:
https://whynotthink.substack.com/p/4-ga-recall-is-a-continuum-between
I also have some other notes on memory and identity. Maybe I will make a new post.
.
An excellent article. There are so many “triggers” there. Hire me as a full-time responder :-) Seriously, a very good inspiration to ponder about some of the most important aspects of daily life.
I think that you are referring to me, and not wnt. Thanks; and you're hired. Please report to work with the next go-around.
.
I meant what I wrote. This particular article resonates with me a lot and I find may inspiring points there, what I call “triggers”, like a pebble making ripples on the water. I wish I had full-time commitment to sharing my insights and being able to write say 7,000-word ad hoc response, supplemented by a 35,000-word detailed reconsideration of your article. Not yet there…
If you want to write something long, I'll ask to set you up to make a post. But still, wouldn't it be better to break up the priorities into several shorter segments?
Thanks
.
Right, I will. Good suggestion.
In talking about the human kinetic abilities (the non-verbal world), I have noted 4 attributes above:
✓the capacity to understand both the conceptual world, and to understand the physical world,
✓the ability to remember and retrieve things, a persistent memory,
✓the ability to reason, and
✓the ability to plan.
When reading about ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta Llama2, and the like, they are all Large Language Models. All LLM’s are based only on words. Their data is ALL the published digital written work. It seems to be a lot; they talk of so many “tokens”? I don’t know what that means, but it is said if you read it all; for 8 hours a day and 7 days a week, it would only take 170,000 years to read it. (I read slowly).
First of all, does it add up to anything? (Something, Yeah.) But perhaps the majority contradict each other. It is like vectors all pointing in a separate 3D direction. Then something in the algorithm throws out what they don’t like. Of course, the MSM does have a lot of consistence in the short run. But then they all shift to the opposite in a moment’s notice.
It is said that there will never (never) be an unbiased LLM.
Then with further reading, no LLM has ever remotely approached the kinetic intelligence of any 4-year-old. It is only all-words, there are no kinetic receptors. How about the kinetic agility of a squirrel, flying through the trees? Not a chance to know anything.
A breakthrough beyond pre-published words is not on the horizon.
.