On 1/8/25 10:39 AM, glen wrote:
Yeah, this is the problem with narrative. And the source of my
complaint against science communicators like Huberman (and to some
extent Hossenfelder, less so Collier and Farina). Even deeper, the
source of my complaint against narrativity lies in my problem with
visualization, projection, and dimension reduction ... even simulation
writ large.
I have come to (slowly) appreciate some aspects of the position you have
held in this area over time. I appreciate your consistency and
coherence (oops, are those qualities of a narrative? <grin>). Maybe my
own narrative embedding (diachronic nature/style) is too strong to break?
FWIW I've been reading Douglas Hoffstadter's "Surfaces and Essences",
continuing to make accessible/popular his schtick on "understanding by
analogy" and perhaps more relevant to this discussion, how analogy
suffuses language across both syntax and semantics. I can't argue
strongly for or against his position but it does fascinate me and I
think HE may well (in this work and his larger arc) be arguing for and
against your POV. I'm too old/slow/lazy to render all that down right
now, maybe it will emerge if I continue to wander around the topic (in
my reading/thinking/mind, not here) long enough.
- Steve
This paper:
Why language models collapse when trained on recursively generated text
https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.14872
seems to make the point in a hygienic way (even if ideal or
over-simplified). We make inferences based on "our" (un-unified) past
inferences, build upon the built environment, etc. In the humanities,
I guess it's been called hyperreality or somesuch. Notice the infamous
Catwoman died a few days ago.
It all (even the paper Roger just posted) reminds me of a response I
learned from Monty Python: "Oh, come on. Pull the other one." And
FWIW, I think this current outburst on my part spawns from this essay:
Life is Meaningless: What Now?
https://youtu.be/3x4UoAgF9I4?si=7uVDeiDQ8STTJtv7
In particular, "he [Camus] has to introduce the opposing
concept—solidarity. This solidarity is a way of reconstructing mutual
respect and regard between people in the absence of transcendent
values, hence his argument for a natural sense of shared humanity
since we are all forever struggling against the absurd."
On 1/7/25 09:40, steve smith wrote:
Regarding Glen's article "challenging the 'paleo' diet narrative".
I'm sure their reports are generally accurate and in fact
homo-this-n-that have been including significant plant sources into
our diets for much longer than we might have suspected. Our Gorilla
cousins at several times our body mass and with significantly higher
muscle tone live almost entirely on low-grade vegetation. But the
article presents this as if ~1M years of hominid development across a
very wide range of ecosystems was monolithic? There are still near
subsistence cultures whose primary source of nourishment is animal
protein (e.g. Aleuts, Evenki/Ewenki/Sami)?
I'm a fan of the "myth of paleo" even though I'm mostly vegetarian.
I like the *idea* of living a feast/famine cycle and obtaining most
of my nutrition from fairly primary/raw sources. Of course, my modern
industrial embedding has me eating avocados grown on Mexican-Cartel
owned farms and almonds grown in the central valley of California on
river water diverted from the Colorado river basin. <sigh>.
On 1/7/25 06:21, glen wrote:
Archaeological study challenges 'paleo' diet narrative of ancient
hunter–gatherers
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-archaeological-paleo-diet-narrative-ancient.html
Renee' convinced me to eat fried chicken the other night. ... Well,
OK. She just put it in front of me and my omnivorous nature took
over. Fine. It's fine. Everything's fine. But it reminded me of the
fitness influencers and their obsession with chicken and [ahem]
"protein". Then I noticed the notorious non-sequitur science
communicator Andrew Huberman is now platforming notorious
motivated-reasoning through evolutionary psychology guru Jordan
Peterson. Ugh. And Jan 6 is now a holiday celebrating those morons
who broke into the Capitol. Am I just old? Or is the world actually
going to hell in a handbasket? Get off my lawn!
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