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> The app, which is in beta testing, appears in the Apple App Store and is described as “a non-bias social network for people all over the world.” Reminds me o

by qntty 5y ago

> The app, which is in beta testing, appears in the Apple App Store and is described as “a non-bias social network for people all over the world.” Reminds me of this koan: In the days when Sussman was a novice, Minsky once came to him as he sat hacking at the PDP-6. “What are you doing?”, asked Minsky. “I am training a randomly wired neural net to play Tic-Tac-Toe” Sussman replied. “Why is the net wired randomly?”, asked Minsky. “I do not want it to have any preconceptions of how to play”, Sussman said. Minsky then shut his eyes. “Why do you close your eyes?”, Sussman asked his teacher. “So that the room will be empty.” At that moment, Sussman was enlightened.

deleted 5y ago
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meowface 5y ago
Side note, but what's with the trend of people saying/spelling "biased" as "bias"? Is it just because the "-sed" in "biased" kind of blends together when pronounced / is awkward to clearly separate, so eventually some people just think that's what the word is? (I know a lot of words across many/all languages develop that way, so not really complaining, but when you're in the midst of it it feels a bit weird.)
- jimmygrapes 5y ago
  It's exactly that. Lack of understanding the structure of the language. Same as "should of" - it is learning language by ear rather than by reading (or by underlying principle).
- lioeters 5y ago
  The use of the word "bias" as an adjective there is technically incorrect. I've only seen it just now in the phrase "non-bias social network" - but I hope it does not catch on. > Bias vs. Biased > In recent years, we have seen more evidence of the adjectival bias in constructions like “a bias news program” instead of the more usual “a biased news program.” > The reason is likely because of aural confusion: the -ed of biased may be filtered out by hearers, which means that bias and biased can sound similar in the context of normal speech. > They are not interchangeable, however. The adjective that means “exhibited or characterized by an unreasoned judgment” is biased (“a biased news story”). There is an adjective bias, but it means “diagonal” and is used only of fabrics (“a bias cut across the fabric”). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bias#note-1-anchor https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bias#note-1-ancho...
  - meowface 5y ago
    >There is an adjective bias, but it means “diagonal” and is used only of fabrics (“a bias cut across the fabric”). Ah, interesting; didn't know about that particular definition.
  - mc32 5y ago
    Also the old bias ply tires on trucks too... (as in not radial)
  - legerdemain 5y ago
    I mean, the most literal meaning of "a bias" is "a slant," which is where you get terms like "bias tape" and "bias cut." From this literal sense of "slant," you get the figurative sense of "inclination" or "preferential treatment." This meaning appears in quotations hundreds of years old. Finally, as "biased" stops being a fancy newspaper word and enters the popular lexicon, it gets subjected to regular pronunciation tendencies. And one of those tendencies is the simplification and elimination of -d at the ends of words. A lot of people in the US pronounce "hand me that" as "hammy that," "send me an email" as "simmy an email," and so on. So it's not surprising that saying and writing "bias" instead of "biased" is popular.
- bshimmin 5y ago
  I concur with your reasoning and I've also observed this phenomenon with "text" and "texted", in the sense of "to send an SMS", eg. "I texted her earlier but she never replied"; most people I know would write this as "I text her earlier", which seems contrary to the way verbs normally work in English. (I always feel faintly ridiculous being pedantic about this since "to text" as a verb was only invented in the nineties!)

by qntty 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

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meowface 5y ago

Side note, but what's with the trend of people saying/spelling "biased" as "bias"? Is it just because the "-sed" in "biased" kind of blends together when pronounced / is awkward to clearly separate, so eventually some people just think that's what the word is? (I know a lot of words across many/all languages develop that way, so not really complaining, but when you're in the midst of it it feels a bit weird.)

jimmygrapes 5y ago
It's exactly that. Lack of understanding the structure of the language. Same as "should of" - it is learning language by ear rather than by reading (or by underlying principle).
lioeters 5y ago
The use of the word "bias" as an adjective there is technically incorrect. I've only seen it just now in the phrase "non-bias social network" - but I hope it does not catch on. > Bias vs. Biased > In recent years, we have seen more evidence of the adjectival bias in constructions like “a bias news program” instead of the more usual “a biased news program.” > The reason is likely because of aural confusion: the -ed of biased may be filtered out by hearers, which means that bias and biased can sound similar in the context of normal speech. > They are not interchangeable, however. The adjective that means “exhibited or characterized by an unreasoned judgment” is biased (“a biased news story”). There is an adjective bias, but it means “diagonal” and is used only of fabrics (“a bias cut across the fabric”). https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bias#note-1-anchor https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bias#note-1-ancho...
- meowface 5y ago
  >There is an adjective bias, but it means “diagonal” and is used only of fabrics (“a bias cut across the fabric”). Ah, interesting; didn't know about that particular definition.
- mc32 5y ago
  Also the old bias ply tires on trucks too... (as in not radial)
- legerdemain 5y ago
  I mean, the most literal meaning of "a bias" is "a slant," which is where you get terms like "bias tape" and "bias cut." From this literal sense of "slant," you get the figurative sense of "inclination" or "preferential treatment." This meaning appears in quotations hundreds of years old. Finally, as "biased" stops being a fancy newspaper word and enters the popular lexicon, it gets subjected to regular pronunciation tendencies. And one of those tendencies is the simplification and elimination of -d at the ends of words. A lot of people in the US pronounce "hand me that" as "hammy that," "send me an email" as "simmy an email," and so on. So it's not surprising that saying and writing "bias" instead of "biased" is popular.
bshimmin 5y ago
I concur with your reasoning and I've also observed this phenomenon with "text" and "texted", in the sense of "to send an SMS", eg. "I texted her earlier but she never replied"; most people I know would write this as "I text her earlier", which seems contrary to the way verbs normally work in English. (I always feel faintly ridiculous being pedantic about this since "to text" as a verb was only invented in the nineties!)