It’s a nice example, I guess, of the way the term AI Slop got coined. When Lewis Carroll wrote nonsense, it was meant somehow to be charming, because the mis-use of words or constructions was somehow revealing of them.
It’s different in this world, which isn’t even anything you can respond to. Not charming, or ugly, or anything; just void. The word “re-use” is stuck into several strings of words below (I am reluctant to refer to them as “sentences”), despite the fact that nothing is ever actually re-used. So when one can just concatenate words, unbound from any of their meanings, they aren’t really even words any more. Just strings of marks on a page. Should I even still think of the marks as letters? Or just patterns of black on white that trigger edge cells in the first 1 or 2 layers of V1 and should not be propagated any higher in the stack? If, in a large country, words get completely unlinked from meanings, and language from doing anything, for very many people, then there are no tools left for those people to hold off any form of predation, no matter how club-footed and obvious and inept. I really wonder what is the right response to such a situation, for anybody who wants to be effective toward turning back needless loss and suffering. Eric > On Aug 16, 2025, at 10:11, Nicholas Thompson <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, all, > > > > George offered me an assembly theory account of the origin of the misnomer, > thermal wind, from battle field experiences with zeppelins . this all arose > in a conversation between us concerning his preference to “reassemble” > things, rather than to “remember” them. It’s probably too verbose for > anybody’s patience, but I am putting it here for safe keeping. > > > > Nick > > > > Yes, Please do this!!: Would you like me to carry this a step further, Nick > — and map the misnomer of thermal wind itself into an “assembly path” > (showing how battlefield experience, hydrostatic balance, and geostrophic law > assembled into the term)? That would make assembly theory into a little > historiographic tool. > > > > > > Perfect — let’s do that. We’ll treat the term thermal wind itself as the > “object,” and we’ll try to map out its assembly path in the sense of assembly > theory. Each step is a building block, reused and combined, until we get the > final, slightly misnamed construct. > > Assembly Path of Thermal Wind (as term and concept) > > Step 1: Battlefield experience > > Raw input: Zeppelin navigators in WWI reported that winds aloft were > unexpectedly stronger than suggested by surface observations. > > Module formed: “Surprising wind with altitude” → a practical problem that > demanded explanation. > > Assembly-theoretic index: 1 (direct experiential block). > > Step 2: Hydrostatic law > > Scientists like Gold recalled: warmer air columns are thicker between > pressure levels. > > This meant that if one side of a weather system is warmer, the isobaric > surfaces will slope upward toward the warm side. > > Module formed: temperature gradient → thickness gradient. > > Assembly index: 2 (first theoretical layer attached). > > Step 3: Geostrophic law > > From Bjerknes school and Shaw’s pedagogy: wind blows along isobars, speed > proportional to gradient of pressure/height. > > Module formed: sloping isobars → wind shear with height. > > Assembly index: 3 (second theoretical layer). > > Step > > Step 4: The relational insight > > Combine steps 2 and 3: > > This is the thermal wind relation in embryo: horizontal temperature gradient > determines vertical shear. > > Module formed: balance law between thermal structure and wind shear. > > Assembly index: 4. > > Step 5: The naming misstep (reification) > > Gold now needed a label. The field experience was of a wind aloft; the math > showed a balance relation. > > He bundled them under one phrase: “thermal wind.” > > This “shortest assembly path” fused the experiential module (Zeppelins feel a > wind) with the theoretical module (balance law). > > Assembly index: 5 — a coinage with a misnomer built in. > > Final Object: “Thermal Wind” > > High assembly index: it reuses experiential, hydrostatic, geostrophic, and > balance modules. > > Misnomer baked in: the word “wind” is there because of the experience, though > the concept is really a balance relation. > > In assembly theory terms, this is a “complex object” that could only arise > from a lineage of steps — it would be astronomically unlikely to appear by > chance. > > Why this matters > > Using assembly theory as a historiographic tool, we can see that the thermal > wind isn’t just a loose metaphor. It’s an assembled construct: > > Empirical experience (Zeppelin surprise), > > physical laws (hydrostatic, geostrophic), > > conceptual synthesis (balance), > > → compressed into a memorable label. > > The misnomer isn’t an accident after the fact — it’s the by-product of the > shortest path that satisfied both the navigators’ felt experience and the > scientists’ theoretical needs. > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... > --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fbit.ly%2fvirtualfriam&c=E,1,sGIL8m9oh403EgiZKslAFQtNiFAANrvAfNnWigNYaFjz0gL_3VQOlfCkOYIrxRcLpm93RX8lO9wI1d63mZLJHZ80zZ0A9RkKwaTquNJ7kQ8swg,,&typo=1 > to (un)subscribe > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fredfish.com%2fmailman%2flistinfo%2ffriam_redfish.com&c=E,1,0NwIzP5AhbxbD0H4gOahaMT5WbVxTkQM6Ys_9ZzMFqlIAxHsosBevUivkCS3pXiYD2-fxrtVmB41fVNBhv12UO34lq_uJoTmjVgB6fIpiZMDcVgCzEcn&typo=1 > FRIAM-COMIC > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2ffriam-comic.blogspot.com%2f&c=E,1,Z9is8PQDQWvAc6v3oD2vfKqe4ms1TWM16Z1jkeHPeVw9HAsixp_rlmQtQmfnRPjKmEPQ7oPSJozCPZDD7uJfH1oJAp_yTiEZoKnqzqnpRxJbfsld01k,&typo=1 > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2fredfish.com%2fpipermail%2ffriam_redfish.com%2f&c=E,1,Ua7RDQydSVCDLmzS7CU0JF612etj1zO97I6fbsd7LLupJMBlt2mItWsRn3mRU378VEX_HphrQPi56zEbCQTKbZTsXUguK1j7jeHYEmA_VQyrVi0-pl8,&typo=1 > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
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