4 ms·
A good reminder that the map is not the territory. Lately I've started to see more and more "categories" in general as a very human construct, probably made to
by Zababa 5y ago
A good reminder that the map is not the territory. Lately I've started to see more and more "categories" in general as a very human construct, probably made to save on processing power when thinking about things. Reality is hard and very complex and you can't be thinking about all the details all the time.
- jacquesm 5y agoCategories are an optimization. It is also a leaky abstraction and there are a large number of errors in our thinking due to this optimization, which is often premature.
- Zababa 5y agoI'm not sure that it's premature. We use categories all the time, the time when they fail us seem to be rare in proportion.
- dsr_ 5y agoRare but often important. We all work with computers all the time, and so we have a tendency to try to represent the universe in the simplest abstractions that capture the necessary detail for the project we are currently contemplating. When those abstractions fail to capture a necessary detail, it can be due to: - a bad abstraction in the first place - a new use for the representation that we hadn't thought about - insufficient understanding of what we are trying to represent I have seen all three of these situations repeatedly. They are all quite common.
- HPsquared 5y ago"The Treachery of Images" "The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying! — René Magritte" https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images