 by Flemming Funch
Richard Caetano is thinking about how we structure our thinking, and about how we represent truth. He believes that "Truth is Localized". Several apparently contradictory truths can exist because they apply to different branches of a logical tree. I might be opposed to using fossil fuel, but I might love my sports car. Those truths can co-exist if they're sort of attached in different places. Interesting discussion, but I wouldn't necessarily look at it like that. It is more a matter of how we abstract a more primal reality into symbolic form. If we forget that we're over-simplifying the process oriented reality into objects and then further into abstract labels and ideas, and further into our reactions to these, then we might run into logical problems at some point. It can sometimes be a philosophical trap to try to solve a problem logically at an abstract level, when the components don't really exist at that level. I can say "I like red!" when I'm shopping for Ferraris, and I can say "I hate red!" when I'm trying to drive it through stoplights in downtown L.A. If I just look at the words, and treat them as reality, it seems like I'm contradicting myself. It is simply two similar sentences that are being used about very different realities. They're abstracting very different things. Simply put: the context is different, and I'm not contradicting myself, because I'm talking about different things. The words don't tell you that.
Then Cass at ThoughtsOnThinking suggests that maybe perceptions, viewpoints, and opinions are "localized". Hm, I wouldn't say that either. It all depends on how far you abstract. Everything can be abstracted endlessly. I might make a very specific observation, expressed in a set of perceptions, checking my watch, writing down what I see and hear, and that might be very localized. Or, my mind might have some wires crossed and I have generalized certain perceptions, so they exist separately from anything to perceive. E.g. I might go around and see clearly that people are being mean to me, and they're whispering to each other about me, and they're getting ready to finish me off.
But all that does indeed throw some wrenches into a project of trying to invent universal data structures - ways of storing any kind of information in an ordered fashion. We can't just say that colors belong over here, and feelings belong over there. Because the meaning of any information depends ... on a lot of factors in the people who will use them, including their context, their intention, their modus operandi, and the level of abstraction involved.
Building Online Communities. Some good learnings from techie communities.
Oblivion awaits. Hilarious writeup of what the record industry's actions would sound like if discussed as strategies. "Their combined efforts have gone beyond killing their e-businesses and are close to destroying an entire industry."
Tomorrow morning I travel to Utah for a retreat with a small group of futurists. A couple of days of hiking and deep dialogue about big things. I might or might not get online.
"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." --Jane Wagner
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