- that's what I need to embrace from other people, those who amaze me with their polymathic natures.
Yet at the same time, I need to maintain the intrinsic route I aim for, in improving myself day by day, moment by moment, thought by thought.
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Invention - not discovery
I am starting to realize and accept that research is about inventing models that capture the world in some useful way to us. It is not necessarily discovery of anything. It's all invention.
Modeling the world. Inventing things that are useful for more and more cases. Accept it - time is an invention, our whole modes of thought with LANGUAGE is an invention. We only perceive the world in the way that we are cognitively set up to see the world (spacially, temporally, causally). We have no way of knowing if the true world is structured that way. So, we can only invent things that better capture and model our experience.
It's all invention.
Why think that there is discovery, as we have, for instance, "discovered" fire? Sure, we encounter this strange dancing substance that emits heat, but we give it a name - we attach our own coined word, "fire," to it, and let that sit in our minds to satisfy our cognition. Neologisms capture the world for us, and sure, fire has existed before our discovery, so we certainly did not "invent" it... but who says that it was ever to be given a name - something to think of it by? The same with time. We invent a word to allow our cognitions to grapple it as a concept, and so we can wrestle it into our own models of understanding, and so we can manipulate these invented names to further invent.
Is the real world really ever named?
Modeling the world. Inventing things that are useful for more and more cases. Accept it - time is an invention, our whole modes of thought with LANGUAGE is an invention. We only perceive the world in the way that we are cognitively set up to see the world (spacially, temporally, causally). We have no way of knowing if the true world is structured that way. So, we can only invent things that better capture and model our experience.
It's all invention.
Why think that there is discovery, as we have, for instance, "discovered" fire? Sure, we encounter this strange dancing substance that emits heat, but we give it a name - we attach our own coined word, "fire," to it, and let that sit in our minds to satisfy our cognition. Neologisms capture the world for us, and sure, fire has existed before our discovery, so we certainly did not "invent" it... but who says that it was ever to be given a name - something to think of it by? The same with time. We invent a word to allow our cognitions to grapple it as a concept, and so we can wrestle it into our own models of understanding, and so we can manipulate these invented names to further invent.
Is the real world really ever named?
Friday, January 4, 2013
Setting up gtest with cmake
All discussed in the README here: https://github.com/dmonopoly/gtest-cmake-example
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Words aren't enough
We need an interface that can pull more than just words from our minds. We need a new model. Words have always fallen short for capturing the mind truly - they only provide a glimpse. I need ideas for some new way to be more expressive. Something beyond writing.
Monday, December 10, 2012
The Ultimate Language
The ultimate language - maybe it's a programming language merged with common language. A language that can speak to machines but also communicate human emotions and abstract thoughts.
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