Communication and ideas

Human communication is a kind of miracle.

Think about it. I have an idea in my mind. In spoken communication, I make a bunch of noises that represent agreed-on noises we call words. You hear the noises translate them to words and end up with an idea of your mind similar to—yet different from— the one that’s in my mind.

It’s all mysterious and miraculous. That we are alive at all is a kind of miracle. That we each have minds. That we have ideas in our minds. And most miraculous of all that I can make noises and cause an idea, like one in my mind appear in yours.

The ideas will be different, of course, and we know that. And we know that we can make our ideas more similar by repeating the process. You make some noises expressing something about the idea in your mind. I now have two ideas in my mind: my original idea and an idea that represents the copy that’s in your mind. I make some noises about the differences. You adjust the idea in your mind and I in mine.

And so the dance goes on.

Same for written communication. I have an idea in my mind. I translate it into words that represent that idea. The words appear to you as pixels on a screen. You translate the pixels back into words and the words into an

That we can communicate with words is also a kind of miracle. Each word is a symbol that means something to the sender and something different to the receiver! My meaning for the word “table” comes from my experience. Your meaning comes from your experience. Most of the things that I have experienced that I would call “tables” are different from most things you would call “tables.” We might have some tables in common, but most are different. And even the ones we share have been seen from different perspectives and different times.

So without agreeing precisely on what a “table” is, we can talk about tables.

Even more miraculous, we can talk about “freedom” and “thought” and “truth” and “beauty.”

Most of our “source code” is the same, which might explain the miracle in part. My DNA and your DNA produce similar foundations (our bodies) that encode common basic ideas—like those that underly the experience that we call “pain” and “pleasure.”

My DNA may make it possible for me to have the experiences I call “red” and “green.” Yours does not because your DNA makes you color blind.

Out of these shared priors, we can communicate, develop new ideas, and share rough copies of the ones we have.

Our ideas must all be grounded in our bodily experiences, which are in turn grounded in our shared source code. But ideas can rise through abstraction levels to include ideas like love, truth, miracle, and God.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Knowledge

David Deutsch gives definitions of knowledge and information that I like.

Knowledge is a kind of information. Here’s my gloss on his definition of information.

Knowledge is a kind of information that the environment tends to cause to persist.

It can be used to achieve physical transformations. It is necessary to achieve most physical transformations that are possible. The overwhelming number of things that are possible require knowledge.

Knowledge does not require a knower.

The knowledge that a particular organism requires to make a specific protein is encoded in DNA. It is knowledge, not merely information, because the environment has caused that information to persist.

That sort of knowledge has not had a knower—until very recently. And there may still be aspects of that knowledge that are not known by any knower.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Information

David Deutsch gives definitions of knowledge and information that I like.

He’s developed a mathematically representable theory, called Constructor theory that includes a Constructor Theory of Information.

Here is my rendering of Deutsch’s ideas.

Information is something that is not material but which requires a material substrate for its existence.

Information cannot be created nor destroyed.

The same information can be instantiated in different substrates.

In computer communication, information might be encoded in the memory system of one device, translated into electromagnetic phenomena, transmitted through space or through wires, and ultimately to another device’s memory systems.

In human communication, information embedded in one brain’s substrate is translated into neural firings, then sound vibrations, and then ultimately in the substrate of another brain.

At its most basic level, information requires a material substrate that had attributes that can take on different values.

A piece of information exists when an attribute could be other than it is.

Simple.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Illusions

Everything in consciousness must be an illusion.

If that’s true (and I think it must be), then what is real?

In “Waking Up,” Sam Harris says: When you examine something carefully, and it changes, that’s a sign that it might be an illusion.

He encourages readers to examine “the self” to see if it’s an illusion or not.

I examined my idea of self, and I found it to be an illusion. YMMV.

But if the self is also an illusion, then what is real?

The way to find out—if there is a way—is the same. Examine an illusion carefully, and you may see the reality that lies behind it.

Magic tricks are well-crafted illusions. Magicians are properly called “illusionists.”

Excellent tricks remain illusions even when examined carefully by people who don’t know the trick. But once you know what to look for, the reality behind the illusion is often quickly revealed.

Seeing through an illusion may not make any difference.

Knowing how an illusion is created might take away the fun.

But it might also reveal new ways of interacting with the world.

Carefully examining the illusions present in conscious experience may reveal a useful underlying reality.

Or it may be a waste of time.

My money (and time) is on “useful.”

YMMV

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Consciousness

Here’s a paradox.

Consciousness is the only thing of which we can be certain.

Yet, everything that appears in consciousness is an illusion.

We categorize what arises in consciousness as “ideas” and “reality.”

But what we call “reality” cannot be real.

It must be the product of our nervous systems creating order from sense data.

What we call “reality” must be an illusion.

What we call “ideas” are abstractions based on the illusions that we call “reality.”

Ideas are not real, either.

So consciousness—the only thing we can be sure of—contains only illusions and abstractions of illusions.

That seems paradoxical.

Is there something more to consciousness than that?

I think that there might be.

I think, therefore I am.

I seek, and I might find.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Self-discipline: a mistake

Today realized that I have been making a mistake by trying to solve problems by developing self-discipline.

What was I thinking?

I wrote this post a while back, Jocko Wilnick’s three principles for success

I quoted Wilnick saying this:

You can’t count on motivation to be there when you need to get through truly challenging times. But you can count on discipline.

I thought it made sense.

Now I realize it’s a mistake.

YMMV, but for me, it’s a mistake.

What is discipline?

Here’s the definition:

discipline: the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience.

Really, Mike?

You want to make yourself follow fucking rules? Since when?

You want obedience? Since when?

You want to use punishment to get obedience? Since when?

This is so utterly wrong for me I can’t believe I thought it.

I can’t believe I bought it.

What is inspiration?

Here’s the canonical definition of inspiration:

inspiration: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.

Here’s my definition:

inspiration: to be filled with the spirit

What spirit?

The spirit of creativity. The spirit of love. Maybe some Holy Spirit.

I don’t know. Whatever spirit comes, I’ll let it fill me up. I’ll let the spirit call me. Then I will do what I am called to do.

Like writing this.

What if there’s no inspiration?

There have been times when I’ve felt no inspiration.

I thought that discipline was the answer.

Really?

Rule following with punishment for disobedience?

Really?

Now I have a better idea.

No inspiration? Ask for it. Not there? Ask again. Wait and ask. Keep asking.

Does this sounds familiar:
“Ask and it shall be given you.”

I think that’s the answer for me.

Not fucking discipline.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​

Prospective retrospective

Tomorrow is my birthday, assuming that I publish this today–and I predict that I will.

I spent the morning catching up with my friend Elsa. This post is dedicated to her because I needed a better reason to post than it’s the day before my birthday. So I said I would, and now I won’t disappoint. Anyone else want a post dedicated to them? Ask, and you shall be given.

Here’s part of the chat:

Do you remember when you were coaching me and we made a plan and you checked in with me and I said that the plan had failed and that I was not surprised?

And I realized that I made lots of plans that (if I had been asked) I would have predicted would have failed. But I never had asked

So we came up with a new process. Make a plan. Predict the outcome. If the prediction was failure, then predict reasons for failure, take them into account in the plan.

The goal was a plan that would either succeed or if it failed would fail in an unexpected way

Quoting from a blog post:

“I remembered an earlier time, working with Elsa, my personal coach. I’d made a plan and didn’t do what I had planned to do. When we talked about it, I said that I wasn’t surprised that my plan had failed. I’d made plans that had failed hundreds of times before. My failure was unsurprising. We then worked to make a plan that might fail—but whose failure would at least be surprising.”

Haha I could have saved all that typing just by quoting Past Me

Fucking brilliant guy, Past Me.

Indeed!

Moving backward: I started chatting with her because last night, as I was drafting a post, I asked myself whether or not I’d end up finishing and posting it.

What did I predict I would do?

I predicted that I would not.

And I was right.

But before I was right, I thought: if I’m intending to publish a blog post and predict that I will not do it, then there’s something wrong.

And that reminded me of Elsa.

Something was wrong.

I set out to discover what was wrong and correct it.

This post provides some evidence that I’m on the right track.

Meanwhile, I’m going to post this one and make my prediction accurate.

Click here to subscribe to 70 Years Old. WTF! by Email

​