About Wyrd Smythe
The canonical fool on the hill watching the sunset and the rotation of the planet and thinking what he imagines are large thoughts.
There’s a discussion that’s long lurked in a dusty corner of my thinking about computationalism. It involves the definition and role of algorithms. The definition isn’t particularly tricky, but the question of what fits that definition can be. Their role in our modern life is undeniably huge — algorithms control vast swaths of human experience.
Yet some might say even the ancient lowly thermostat implements an algorithm. In a real sense, any recipe is an algorithm, and any process has some algorithm that describes that process.
But the ultimate question involves algorithms and the human mind.
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8 Comments | tags: algorithm, computation, computationalism, digital | posted in Computers
This TV Tuesday post was originally going to be another rant about WTF is going on with NCIS (I held off on because I didn’t want to kvetch on Christmas). But then I had a really interesting thought about my other favorite (broadcast) TV show, The Good Place.
There’s an old joke about the philosophy professor who says, “Every time I think I’ve had an original though, it turns out some damned ancient Greek thought of it first.” There’s a more serious version in Ecclesiastes: “There is nothing new under the sun.”
It turns out I’m not the first, by a long stretch, to notice how The Good Place echos and references The Wizard of Oz.
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10 Comments | tags: Cote de Pablo, Gibbs, Jack Ryan (TV series), Jethro Gibbs, NCIS, The Good Place, The Wizard of Oz, Ziva David | posted in TV, TV Tuesday
As a result of lurking on various online discussions, I’ve been thinking about computationalism in the context of structure versus function. It’s another way to frame the Yin-Yang tension between a simulation of a system’s functionality and that system’s physical structure.
In the end, I think it does boil down the two opposing propositions I discussed in my Real vs Simulated post: [1] An arbitrarily precise numerical simulation of a system’s function; [2] Simulated X isn’t Y.
It all depends on exactly what consciousness is. What can structure provide that could not be functionally simulated?
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7 Comments | tags: Alan Turing, algorithm, computationalism, consciousness, human brain, human consciousness, human mind, John Searle, semantic vectors, Theory of Consciousness, Turing Test | posted in Science
So. 2020. The start of a new decade. That’s just a bit surreal for me. I can remember wondering if 1984 would turn out anything like the novel. The future did turn out a bit like Orwell’s vision — it just took until 2016 or so to get there. It isn’t so much that Big Brother is watching (although, that too), but how our government corrupts and perverts facts and truth.
Good fiction is insightful about the human condition; good science fiction is insightful about our future. Over time, as advertised, the prescient film Idiocracy goes from SF comedy to anthropological documentary. Many others went from fiction to fact. (Fortunately, at least so far, The Terminator has not.)
Suffice to say, this year will seem surreal in more ways than one.
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5 Comments | tags: 1984, 2001, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 2020, blog, blogging, George Orwell, Janus, Mandelbrot, Nineteen Eighty-Four, WordPress | posted in Life
So. 2019. Another crazy year. I’ve set this post to publish at 6:00 PM my time, which is 00:00 Universal time. By the time you read this, the new year has begun, at least at one spot on Earth. Within 24 hours of posting, it’ll be 2020 for everyone (on the Gregorian calendar, anyway).
It’s not just the end of the year — most see it as the end of a decade, the twenty-teens. The more pedantic say that decades actually run from 1 to 10, so 2001–2010 was the previous decade, and, sorry to rain, but we’re still in the 2011–2020 decade.
But what the hell, odometer parties are a lot more fun!
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7 Comments | tags: 2019, 2020, New Year's Eve, skydiving | posted in Life
How real is Sherlock Holmes, and what is the nature of his reality? On the one hand, Holmes is a fictional character from writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but on the other there is a Canon of 56 short stories and four novels defining that character. It’s hard to deny at least some reality to something so well defined.
Others have extended the concept of Holmes far beyond the original in books, movies, TV shows, and more. The original texts are in the public domain, so there is considerable freedom to explore the idea of a crime-solving duo comprised of a brainy detective plus a faithful sidekick.
As a result, Holmes has a well-defined center and very fuzzy boundaries!
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21 Comments | tags: A Christmas Carol, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dr. Greg House, House M.D., John Watson, Lord Peter Wimsey, ontological anti-realism, ontology, reality, Rex Stout, Sherlock Holmes | posted in Books, Mystery Monday
Venus emerging from the sea.
I’ve been thinking about emergence. That things emerge seems clear, but a question involves the precise nature of exactly what emerges. The more I think about it, the more I think it may amount to word slicing. Things do emerge. Whether or not we call them truly “new” seems definitional.
There is a common distinction made between weak and strong emergence (alternately epistemological and ontological emergence, respectively). Some reject the distinction, and I find myself leaning that way. I think — at least under physicalism — there really is only weak (epistemological) emergence.
But I also think it amounts to strong (ontological) emergence.
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107 Comments | tags: determinism, emergence, ontological anti-realism, ontology, pi, real numbers, reductionism | posted in Philosophy
The Solstice has passed, but Christmas Day is tomorrow, and New Year’s Eve lies just ahead. Another year behind, and 2020 awaits. May it be a good one for you and yours!
My small annual gift, here’s a little Christmas Music for you:
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8 Comments | tags: Alison Krauss, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Steve Martin, The Piano Guys, The Wexford Carol, Yo-Yo Ma | posted in Life
The Winter Solstice was at 04:19 GMT on December 22. For me, in Minnesota, it happened at 10:19 PM CST last night. And today, the first official day of winter, it’s sunny and currently 41° (F) out.
At least we got snow for Christmas. We don’t always.
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5 Comments | tags: Constance Wu, Dimension 404, Hulu, Megan Mullally, science fiction TV, Solstice, Will & Grace, winter, Winter Solstice | posted in Life
I finished Fall: or, Dodge in Hell, the latest novel from Neal Stephenson, and I’m conflicted between parts I found fascinating and thoughtful and parts I found tedious and unsatisfying. This division almost exactly follows the division of the story itself into real and virtual worlds. I liked the former, but the latter not so much.
Unfortunately, at least the last third of the book involves a Medieval fantasy quest that takes place in the virtual reality. The early parts of the story in the VR are fairly interesting, but the quest really left me cold, and I found myself skimming pages.
I give it a positive rating, but it’s my least-liked Stephenson novel.
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17 Comments | tags: Fall; or Dodge in Hell, fantasy, hard SF, Neal Stephenson, science fiction, science fiction books, SF, SF Books, soft SF | posted in Books, Sci-Fi Saturday
Logos con carne 