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> The mind of the writer is obsessed by the contrasting positions of two philosophical currents. The first says: The world doesn’t exist; only language exists.

> The mind of the writer is obsessed by the contrasting positions of two philosophical currents. The first says: The world doesn’t exist; only language exists. The second says: Common language has no meaning; the world is ineffable. --- Start at a higher level of abstraction. Everything is information. Some has associated mass. A miniscule amount is transmitted as characters for interpretation in some fashion.

nine_k 4y ago
Yes, let's assume that physical world does not exist "per se", but only as a solution to some equations. In this regard it is not different from any other possible world described by a different sets of equations (hello Mr Eagn!), and is somehow similar to worlds that are described less formally, like fiction. But the second hypothesis is not refuted by that approach. The world as well may be impossible to describe with a language, with any model smaller than the world itself. Any language then is an approximation, guaranteed to be inadequate past certain bounds, possibly pretty narrow. Two perfectly infallible reasoning agents, free of delusions and logical fallacies, may come up with two fundamentally incompatible languages approximating the world, both somehow adequate within certain bounds, like practical living existence, and impossible to ever translate to each other.
deleted 4y ago
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edgyquant 4y ago
This is definitely what I’ve come to believe. We are interpreting information as the material universe and have mapped out how our brains do so very adequately which allows us to predict the flow of information (physics etc.) but that’s just how are brains interpret these things, not objective reality. Then again I also have come to believe whatever one’s obsession is they will see as the true nature of reality. Theologians believe it’s all god, Mathematicians believe it’s all math (not all of them though,) linguists believe it’s all language, psychologists believe it’s all just the mind and I as a computer/information scientist believe (or know even) that’s it’s all just information. All of these things are true; none of them the whole truth of reality
marginalia_nu 4y ago
> Everything is information Truly spoken like a brain, an information processing machine. I'm not sure it could arrive at any other conclusion, given sufficient time to ponder the problem. If you ask a pair of eyes, everything is shapes and colors. Query your ears, and you'll be told everything is made of sound.
- smitty1e 4y ago
  Right. Premature partitioning is the source of epistemological confusion.

nine_k 4y ago

Yes, let's assume that physical world does not exist "per se", but only as a solution to some equations. In this regard it is not different from any other possible world described by a different sets of equations (hello Mr Eagn!), and is somehow similar to worlds that are described less formally, like fiction. But the second hypothesis is not refuted by that approach. The world as well may be impossible to describe with a language, with any model smaller than the world itself. Any language then is an approximation, guaranteed to be inadequate past certain bounds, possibly pretty narrow. Two perfectly infallible reasoning agents, free of delusions and logical fallacies, may come up with two fundamentally incompatible languages approximating the world, both somehow adequate within certain bounds, like practical living existence, and impossible to ever translate to each other.

deleted 4y ago

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edgyquant 4y ago

This is definitely what I’ve come to believe. We are interpreting information as the material universe and have mapped out how our brains do so very adequately which allows us to predict the flow of information (physics etc.) but that’s just how are brains interpret these things, not objective reality. Then again I also have come to believe whatever one’s obsession is they will see as the true nature of reality. Theologians believe it’s all god, Mathematicians believe it’s all math (not all of them though,) linguists believe it’s all language, psychologists believe it’s all just the mind and I as a computer/information scientist believe (or know even) that’s it’s all just information. All of these things are true; none of them the whole truth of reality

marginalia_nu 4y ago

> Everything is information Truly spoken like a brain, an information processing machine. I'm not sure it could arrive at any other conclusion, given sufficient time to ponder the problem. If you ask a pair of eyes, everything is shapes and colors. Query your ears, and you'll be told everything is made of sound.

smitty1e 4y ago
Right. Premature partitioning is the source of epistemological confusion.