[FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 190, Issue 1

Tue Apr 2 12:03:24 EDT 2019

Why wouldn't the adjacent possible of the cigarettes being on a high shelf
the state in which the cigarettes are on that shelf but 1 mm to the right.
What resolution is involved.  Almost every physical variable is analog.

Aside:  Hywel once said to me that the number one doesn't exist because if
you measure the platinum rod that defines the meter carefully enough it
will be something like 1.0000000334... meters in terms of the definition of
the meter.  Or something like that.  I asked him how many biological
mothers he had.

Frank

On Tue, Apr 2, 2019 at 12:10 AM Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> Thanks, Glen.  Very helpful.  Still, I get the impression that we are
> talking about social or political state-spaces here, and that is why I
> thought we might be talking about "nudge."  Here is an example of "nudge"
> in action:  we desire for some economic reason (so people will buy more
> icecream in the evenings?) that everybody get up an hour earlier in the
> summer.  To mandate that by law would be politically impossible.  So,
> instead we mandate that everybody change their clocks.  Not a big deal to
> change your clock an hour on a Saturday night, and everything else
> follows.  Even more subtle nudges consist of putting a small tax on
> something, or putting cigarettes on a high shelf where they are a bit more
> difficult to reach, etc.   Would these be social examples of the principle
> you are talking about?  One of the ways in which I "nudge" myself (being a
> diabetic) is to get me to stop eating icecream I mandate that this is the
> last bite, I scoop it out with a spoon, as LARGE as the spoon can hold, but
> then I put the icecream back in the freezer, and, carrying the spoon with
> me, go into another room before I eat it.
>
> This is a classic nudge.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Nick
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
> Clark University
> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of u?l? ?
> Sent: Monday, April 01, 2019 4:18 PM
> To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Friam Digest, Vol 190, Issue 1
>
> I can only try.  And the people who actually know what they're talking
> about can correct my mangle.
>
> Adjacent possible means something like one point mutation away from where
> we are now.  Like, it would be possible I wouldn't be bald if I could just
> tweak this one gene.  Iteration is applying a function to the output of a
> previous application.  E.g. "+"... +·+ (or +²) means (x+y)+z so that (x+y)
> is the input to the 2nd application of +.  In this sense, 2 is adjacent to
> 1 and 3.  So, if we're "at" the universe where x=2, then we can move to the
> adjacent universe with x+1 (or x-1).
>
> A cellular automaton does this, applies a function over and over again to
> whatever the last state was.  The idea of exploring the possibilities that
> are only one point mutation away from where we are is like a cellular
> automaton.  If we change reality by point mutations, then we can slowly
> chunk along from where we are now to some *other* universe that looks kinda
> like ours but different in whatever ways that iterative function produced.
>
> To take your example, if "everyone has the same annual income" is a
> reality that we could achieve by making a tiny change to our current
> reality (like maybe passing a law), then that's an adjacent possiblity.  We
> could move from this reality to that reality by making that change.  Then
> we could move from that new reality to some other reality by making a
> similarly small change.  Etc.
>
> If all these possible universes already exist, then the mutation from
> where we are to a different reality is like a lens focusing on only one
> part of the whole.  Movement to the next universe over is just moving the
> lens a tiny bit.
>
> My question is are the people who care about this stuff thinking the lens
> grows or shrinks as it moves?
>
> But there are many other questions, like where does the function that's
> being iterated come from?  What are the requirements for that function?
> (E.g. for any non-trivial universe, it would be super complicated... Is it
> invertible?  Using "comonads" helps answer some of those.)  Is the space of
> possible universes being explored smooth? ... convex? (can't get there from
> here), etc.
>
> On 4/1/19 2:50 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
> > Nothing spooks me so much as when people I know and respect are using
> words I know and respect in combinations that make no sense to me.  You
> have often taken mercy on me in the past.  Can you provide a rough, English
> major's guide to what you-guys are talking about?
>
> --
> ☣ uǝlƃ
>
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-- 
Frank Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz
Santa Fe, NM 87505
505 670-9918
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