[FRIAM] the arc of ai (was Re: Whew!)

Frank Wimberly wimberly3 at gmail.com
Fri May 5 16:28:50 EDT 2017


I have 30+ years experience reading and, rarely, posting to bboards,
forums, etc.  Use of irony can cause problems.  Even if most people know
what you mean, there will often be people who think you mean what you say.
I admit that I have occasionally used irony, such as when I mentioned that
Ted Kaczinski is an alum of my alma mater.  In that case I was using
reductio ad absurdum to argue the irrelevancy  of which celebrity went to
what school.

Frank

Frank Wimberly
Phone (505) 670-9918

On May 5, 2017 2:05 PM, "gepr" <gepropella at gmail.com> wrote:

> And as always I'm tremendously grateful for all my friends, who are
> immeasurably smarter than me, for their tolerance of my nonsensical
> attempts to navigate reality.
>
>
> On May 5, 2017 12:02:15 PM PDT, Marcus Daniels <marcus at snoutfarm.com>
> wrote:
> >Glen writes:
> >
> >< If a listener abstracts their self, they are just as evil as a
> >speaker abstracting their self. >
> >
> >Steve writes:
> >
> >< Firstly, my own throwdown of "rhetoric" was intended to be very
> >specific.  I believe that you both took it to be a bit more broad than
> >intended.  I specifically meant rhetoric as "language intended to
> >persuade".  I hold this specifically distinct from "language intended
> >to inform" and "language used to think or contemplate".  Unfortunately
> >I discovered that in fact the formal definition of rhetoric includes
> >"to inform" as well as "to persuade" >
> >
> >In PROLOG, free variables are upper case, meaning that the reader
> >should expect some effort in establishing their values.   If Glen were
> >forced to write down his arguments and propositions in PROLOG he'd have
> >to say "Evil" and not "evil" because the latter would be something
> >constrained by a dictionary.  I tend to use single quotes to highlight
> >terms where I am encouraging the reader to find a grounding or tolerate
> >my loose or arbitrary set of constraints in the definition.
> >
> >Sure, Glen's crypto-obsfucation is a sort of rhetoric.  He forces you
> >to both consume and actively doubt every single one of his words.
> >Advertisements have a similar effect over time.   I can appreciate Flo
> >and the Gecko, but then I don't purchase Progressive or Geico insurance
> >either.  I become immune to many of their tricks!     For many years
> >I've believed the purpose of this is to make arguments robust to
> >perturbation.   You can reject all the parts of his argument but still
> >be forced to accept the conclusion.  :-)
>
> --
> ⛧glen⛧
>
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