[FRIAM] nice quote

steve smith sasmyth at swcp.com
Sat Oct 5 18:40:46 EDT 2024


Nick -

I don't mind offering my sense of what the aphorism is all about, I just 
want to give others a chance to chime in before I start defending myself 
in my overly-voluminous manner.

Can you meet me half-way with *any* sense of signal in what you are 
suggesting might be pure noise (or misdirection or a just-so type 
story)?   A rusty pot-metal man argument perhaps? (duck here comes 
another SG/DALL-E rendering!)

- Steve

> I am trying not to be a jerk here, but maybe jerkiness  Is so 
> centralto my being that I cannot avoid it.
>
> I promise you, the question was not meant to be (entirely)rhetorical. 
> Glen has long since taught me that nobody uses words for absolutely 
> nothing and if you folks see some meaning in that aphorism, there must 
> be something to it. what is that something?
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
> Clark University
> nthompson at clarku.edu
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
>
>
> On Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 5:49 PM steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>
>     Nick -
>
>         And here I thought *I* was being "pithy", then you call me out
>     on my lithp?!  ;^)
>
>         The strawman arguments have started coming out, I wonder if
>     anyone will gen up a steelman?
>
>     - tinman Steve
>
>
>
>     On 10/5/24 11:26 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>>     So in what sense and for what purposes is this pithy aphorism
>>     useful?  What exactly is the pith?
>>
>>     If a metaphor, what is truth in the metaphor, the positive
>>     analog.   Nobody ever said that all metaphors are /entirely/ wrong.
>>
>>     and yes, I am being pissy.
>>
>>     n
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>     On Sat, Oct 5, 2024 at 11:04 AM steve smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>>
>>             All /Pithy Aphorisms/ are wrong, some are useful?
>>
>>         On 10/5/24 9:06 AM, Prof David West wrote:
>>>         my affection for the quote derives from a metaphorical
>>>         reading, not a literal one. Something akin to Steve's
>>>         differential rates of evolution. I also would have eschewed
>>>         'god like' in favor of 'magical' ala Clarke's dictum about
>>>         any sufficiently advanced technology.
>>>
>>>         davew
>>>
>>>
>>>         On Fri, Oct 4, 2024, at 8:46 PM, Nicholas Thompson wrote:
>>>>         I think that this way of talking about emotions precludes
>>>>         careful thought. First of all, neurologizing emotions is
>>>>         just to hide the pea under the wrong thimble. I don't think
>>>>         paleolithologizig helps much more. Glen is correct that,
>>>>         whatever an emotion is, its inputs  and outputs are
>>>>         ontogenetically and culturally determined.  So, fear, for
>>>>         instance, is a relation between something that we take to
>>>>         be threatening and something that we hope will be
>>>>         avoidance. Inputs and outputs are everything. The rest is 
>>>>         just arousal.
>>>>
>>>>         N
>>>>
>>>>         On Fri, Oct 4, 2024 at 7:01 PM steve smith
>>>>         <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>             Emotions/Limbic systems evolve at genetic rates,
>>>>             institutions evolve at
>>>>             social/cultural rates (maybe the fastest significant
>>>>             change can
>>>>             happen/resolve is in multiple lifetimes?) but
>>>>             technology is advancing at
>>>>             must faster rates?
>>>>
>>>>             Or is this wrong(headed) also?
>>>>
>>>>             On 10/4/24 3:43 PM, glen wrote:
>>>>             > None of that is true, however romantic it might
>>>>             sound. Depending on
>>>>             > how one defines "emotion", that smells the most true.
>>>>             But the
>>>>             > mechanisms of emotion are as coupled to current
>>>>             reality as is every
>>>>             > part of our bodies. To suggest that, say, the Space
>>>>             Force or methods
>>>>             > like quantitative easing are medieval is just
>>>>             nonsense. Technology is
>>>>             > more democratized than it has ever been. Granted, it
>>>>             takes (a lot) of
>>>>             > work to familiarize oneself with something like how
>>>>             GPS works or how
>>>>             > to NOT click on that phishing email. But to suggest
>>>>             that it's
>>>>             > "godlike" says more about the person than it does
>>>>             about the state of
>>>>             > technology.
>>>>             >
>>>>             > On 10/4/24 11:16, Prof David West wrote:
>>>>             >> /"The real problem of humanity is the following: we
>>>>             have Paleolithic
>>>>             >> emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike
>>>>             technology. And it is
>>>>             >> terrifically dangerous."/ Edward O. Wilson.
>>>>             >>
>>>>             >
>>>>             >
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>>         --
>>>>         Nicholas S. Thompson
>>>>         Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>>>>         Clark University
>>>>         nthompson at clarku.edu
>>>>         https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
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>>>
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>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Nicholas S. Thompson
>>     Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology
>>     Clark University
>>     nthompson at clarku.edu
>>     https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson
>>
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