3 ms·
>Consider that the unpredictability of a message is a measure of it's information content, eh? Yes, in the "information as irreducible data" sense. No in the "
by perpetualpatzer 5y ago
>Consider that the unpredictability of a message is a measure of it's information content, eh?
Yes, in the "information as irreducible data" sense. No in the "information as non-obvious truths about the world" sense. A message's unpredictability seems independent, or possibly anti-correlated with its truthiness (as the recipient may already have the true information, or be able to predict it from other knowledge).
The rudeness is an interesting point. It is rude, or would be a at a party. At the same time, if the goal of internet forums is to exchange information (as in truths), honest efforts to distill information from noise could be accepted as good faith effort at public service in the way that identifying shill reviews is. It will be interesting to see how internet culture evolves as the ubiquity and awareness of widespread GPT-3 noise grow (or if forums are just doomed).
- carapace 5y agoHonestly, I was just trying to point out without being rude myself that, if something someone says here on HN seems difficult to understand, it might be because one is just too stupid, not that the poster is a robot. In any event, the point about the unpredictability of a message comes from Shannon's Information Theory. Although, see also Robert Anton Wilson's writing about W. Burroughs' "cut ups". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
- stingraycharles 5y agoI think the criticism is more that the way things are being articulated is the same kind of language that’s being used by people to make things sound more interesting than they actually are. At least, that’s how I interpret it. I don’t think at all it has anything to do with being stupid. On the contrary, it’s usually the smarter people that can see through the smoke screen and realize “oh he’s just talking about 3D printed wood”.
- carapace 5y agoIt's a fair criticism IMO just done in a rude way (again, IMO.) - - - - To me "just" in that sentence would be (IMO) a signal that the speaker hadn't thought things through deeply enough. The jargon word "circular" is the clue. It's not just about the 3D printing of wood, or biodegradable glue, it's about a sea change in our economy and technology to be in harmony with (for lack of a better word) Nature (and therefore durable on large (10K to 1M years) timescales.)
- glial 5y agoOK, I’ll bite: what’s a “circular technosphere”?
- carapace 5y agoCheck out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_economy The "technosphere" is the thing with the lights that you see from orbit when the Sun is on the other side of the Earth.