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How does that level set with scientific discoveries and paradigm shifts? Knowledge is scaffolded upon itself - that doesn't mean it is not reaching new heights.
by sethammons 4y ago
How does that level set with scientific discoveries and paradigm shifts? Knowledge is scaffolded upon itself - that doesn't mean it is not reaching new heights. The author of that quote wouldn't recognize germ theory or understand powered flight and interstellar probes.
- indigoabstract 4y agoKeep in mind that we don't really know who wrote the Bible. It's not impossible they may have known things that we don't.
- amitport 4y agothe quote continues (loose translation): "There will be things that people will look at and say: 'they are new!', but these were here before us. Since forever." So, IMO the author did realize that there will be "new" things, the premise is that these things are already part of our world, and the process and mechanism of discovery is repeated. In the human perception (and LLM's ?) there is only "rehashed" knowledge in a way, nothing is really new.
- kaba0 4y agoThat doesn’t take into account emergent properties, though. I don’t see how “general purpose computers” have always been here before us — many things can compute (one proper, but not too useful definition of a computer is something that represents a computable function by upon giving it an input in a specific format, it will give an output that can be interpreted as a result. E.g. a sundial is a computer), and none of the primitives are unique (logical gates can be made from many things), but their unique composition into a programmable computer is a novel invention.