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I'm personally struggling to find a way of answering this that doesn't sound ridiculous on account of the fact that I've been obsessing over this stuff for seve

by Retra 10y ago

I'm personally struggling to find a way of answering this that doesn't sound ridiculous on account of the fact that I've been obsessing over this stuff for several decades. These subjects address the heart of what it means to be able to make decisions and use language effectively. This subject matter is essentially a continuation of a broad attempt at a modern conceptualization of meaning, and as such it's value is immediately obvious to me... You should value this material because it is this kind of material that describes what 'value' is, why it is important, and what limitations it has. But this is all absurd when I try to apply it to a specific book. It's a low rung on a ladder so tall nobody has seen the top.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>I'm personally struggling to find a way of answering this that doesn't sound ridiculous on account of the fact that I've been obsessing over this stuff for several decades. Then go ahead and sound ridiculous! You've marinated your mind in the material, so I can only benefit from knowing what connections you see. >These subjects address the heart of what it means to be able to make decisions and use language effectively. This subject matter is essentially a continuation of a broad attempt at a modern conceptualization of meaning, and as such it's value is immediately obvious to me... You should value this material because it is this kind of material that describes what 'value' is, why it is important, and what limitations it has. Really? I might have used similar descriptions for certain applications of probabilistic modelling and information theory to neuroscience and cognitive science, but why for this particular conjunction of graphical models, randomized forms of NP-complete computational problems, and statistical physics? >But this is all absurd when I try to apply it to a specific book. Oh. Well, can you just spout off in general for me, then? >It's a low rung on a ladder so tall nobody has seen the top. Well, nobody would call it research if they knew exactly what they were doing.

by Retra 10y ago

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

>I'm personally struggling to find a way of answering this that doesn't sound ridiculous on account of the fact that I've been obsessing over this stuff for several decades. Then go ahead and sound ridiculous! You've marinated your mind in the material, so I can only benefit from knowing what connections you see. >These subjects address the heart of what it means to be able to make decisions and use language effectively. This subject matter is essentially a continuation of a broad attempt at a modern conceptualization of meaning, and as such it's value is immediately obvious to me... You should value this material because it is this kind of material that describes what 'value' is, why it is important, and what limitations it has. Really? I might have used similar descriptions for certain applications of probabilistic modelling and information theory to neuroscience and cognitive science, but why for this particular conjunction of graphical models, randomized forms of NP-complete computational problems, and statistical physics? >But this is all absurd when I try to apply it to a specific book. Oh. Well, can you just spout off in general for me, then? >It's a low rung on a ladder so tall nobody has seen the top. Well, nobody would call it research if they knew exactly what they were doing.