Recent content by oldlongwalker

So the intelligent fish figure out they are in water, and come up with a word for water. They do this by isolating themselves from it, by getting a standpoint outside of water whereby they can discover it. How does this apply to the question of our perception of reality? We use language to...

That kind of life is far too complicated for me. Juggling all those relationships leaves no time for education, work, or even pleasure beyond that of the most basic sort.

Would you say that about Daniel Ellsberg leaking the Pentagon Papers? Or Mark Felt, aka deep throat, leaking info to Woodward and Bernstein?

Amo, amas, Amat... I took a year of Latin in 9th grade.

Empedocles discovered air by finding that something was preventing a jug from being filled with water when help upside down under water. (It is a bit more complicated, but the point holds.) As for fish, the only way they could have a word for water is if they were able to detect it. The only way...

It may be obvious, but the point is that in order to see it the fish had to get a distance from it. There was no way for the fish to have any awareness of the glass until it had a separate viewpoint. Consider the following: Imagine a species of thinking fish with a language. They have cataloged...

An opinion that does not claim to be objectively true is a matter of taste or preference. My opinion about broccoli is it tastes awful. For me alone, it is true that broccoli tastes bad. I am not claiing it tastes bad in itself, or for everyone. So I don't need to defend my opinion and you are...

My general rule is to use Occam's Razor in most situations. Conspiracy theories nearly always require far too much to work to explain something that can be more easily explained by other means.

I have always wanted to learn calculus. I never took it in school, but it has always intrigued me. I read this article about a guy my age who decided to do this for a book project and decided to give it a go for myself. I've started doing the courses at Khan Academy. They are free and very well...

The key is that the fish had attained the viewpoint required of being separate from, or outside of, the bowl which has been filtering perception. This is similar to the way air was first discovered by Empedocles. A little later I'll give another example of how the analysis of language relates...

Have you been inside? I lived in Rogers Park years ago and used to walk to the Baha'i. Beautiful gardens.

I'm an atheist, but walking into St. Peter's in Rome was quite spectacular.

Just got the audio version and started listening today on my morning walk. Regarding the goldfish scenario: imagine the goldfish jumps out of the water and perches on the ledge of the bowl. What would it see?

I once had an employee I trained to be able to do my job. I was a manager and he was an hourly, entry level clerk. When I left that position I encouraged him to apply for my job. He was promoted directly from clerk to Dept. Manager. That was 12 years ago and he is still at that company. He told...

I thought perhaps you were referring to the Skinner box. https://boingboing.net/2013/09/26/in-which-b-f-skinner-totally.html