[FRIAM] PM-2017-MethodologicalBehaviorismCausalChainsandCausalForks(1).pdf

Wed Feb 10 14:24:31 EST 2021

AT first I thought you were teasing me, and I wrote:

Even if I haven’t put curry on the ham and eggs?

But then, I thought I had better check, so feeling foolish, I asked Google, “what is a curried function?”

Ohmigosh.  

So let’s say we have three input variables, I, J, and K and out output variable, O.  What is the joint effect of I, J, and K upon O?  Well, if we assume additivity it’s simply the sum of the three effects, right. And in that case we could simply calculate the three effects and add them up, right?  If there is no additivity, we have emergence, and O is screened off from I, by J and K, etc.  Now Sober seems to think that non-additivity is clarified by  introducing yet another variable, a hypothetical mediating variable, M,  “between”) the input variables and the output variable.    It wont be any surprise to the rest of you that I think that move is stupid. Since M is constituted of the relations amongst the input and the output variables it cannot in any sense be a cause in the system, no matter how complex those relations might be.  At best, it’s a convenience in calculation.  

But I still don’t have a firm grip on “currying”.   I am beginning to think of it as analogous to partitioning variance in a complex ANOVA such that one achieves additivity in the end.  I did learn that the Curry in question is a person not a condiment 

N.  

Nick Thompson

 <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

 <https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of David Eric Smith
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 12:52 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] PM-2017-MethodologicalBehaviorismCausalChainsandCausalForks(1).pdf

Aha, Nick!  You have Curried the function!

Having Ham and Eggs is a function.

Having Ham and Eggs given Having Eggs is a Curried function, which now turns on whether you have ham or not as its one argument.

Just to cause trouble,

Eric

On Feb 10, 2021, at 1:41 PM, <thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> > <thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> > wrote:

Frank, 

Is my ham sandwich example apt, or not?

N

Nick Thompson

 <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com

 <https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fwordpress.clarku.edu%2fnthompson%2f&c=E,1,WSUPnF7Jhi76RqhC7BQyRt3UVaWfTN_l4mkoMi5l2QObh_1AFwjmDtjmqqjaGGwPP97nsORZJ8KfDzA-XM0NOHK4eyaBLYwFIQfGWN97shYwgi0,&typo=1> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com <mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com> > On Behalf Of Frank Wimberly
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 11:38 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com <mailto:friam at redfish.com> >
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] PM-2017-MethodologicalBehaviorismCausalChainsandCausalForks(1).pdf

"Screening off" is an informal term of art in causal reasoning.  If A,B, and C are random variables, the Causal Markov Condition asserts that if A causes B and B causes C then knowing the value of A provides no information about the probability density of C over knowing the value of B.

It is also said that B screens off the causal effect of A on C.

I hope that helps,

Frank

---
Frank C. Wimberly
140 Calle Ojo Feliz, 
Santa Fe, NM 87505

505 670-9918
Santa Fe, NM

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021, 10:07 AM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com <mailto:thompnickson2 at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi, All, 

If any of you had any spare brain time, I am interested in  the attached VERY SHORT <https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a6e9c10b-06dc-4ea1-8ffa-d450df62489a>  article:

I am struggling here with the idea of "screening off".  Does it mean more or less than the following:  Granted that, If I had ham, and I had eggs, I would have ham and eggs, having eggs screens off having ham from having ham and eggs?   Screening off seems a very odd metaphor.  Is it a term of art in logic?

Also, a general problem I have with causality:  My understanding of causality is that event A can cause event B  if and only if A is independently known from B (an event cannot cause itself) AND occurs prior to B  Now imagine  two perfectly meshed gears, such that motion in one is instantly conveyed to the other.  I turn gear A and gear B turns.  Has the motion in A caused the turning of B or has my turning of A caused the motion of B?  With the gears, this may just seem like a fussy “in the limit” sort of question, but there seem to be other phenomena where it’s worth asking.  Does the discharge of potential along the ionized (?) path CAUSE the lightning?

I realize that the rest of you have spouses, dogs, cats, hobbies, and day jobs, but any off hand thoughts you have on these matters would be greatly appreciated. 

Nick 

You can view "PM-2017-MethodologicalBehaviorismCausalChainsandCausalForks(1).pdf" at: 

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:a6e9c10b-06dc-4ea1-8ffa-d450df62489a

________________

Sent with Adobe Document Cloud. Click on the link above to access the file online. No sign up or installation of Acrobat is required to access.

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