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Dave Pollard having an interesting dialogue with himself.

When you find the answer Dave, let me know, count me in.

The whole world in a grain of salt.
Where to start ?
You maybe don’t need me to point out
that these are anagrams of each other?

Table-Top
Battle-Op
Ob-Platte
Potel-Bat
Bel-Patto
Plato-Bet

But what are they ? It might help if you knew that they are the title of Chapter 8 of Douglas Hofstadter’s book “Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies” (Computer models of the fundamentals of thought.) The book is a collection of papers in collaboration with Daniel Defays, David Chalmers, Robert French, Melanie Mitchell and Gary McGraw with prologues by Douglas Hofstadter, all compiled in the mid-nineties, 15 years after his GEB (Gödel Esher Bach). [And post-note, amazing fact, it was the first book ever to be ordered on Amazon!]

If I was to sum up the book / collection I’d say that whilst it seems at first to be a study of thought processes – strategies to find answers to problems – it is really an analysis of “the concept of concept”, which proceeds through abstractions, analogy and “slipping”.  At a simple level an analogy has some self-evident or metaphorical sameness to an original subject. But, how self-evident or more-subtly-creative that analogy is, turns out to be a matter of looking for that sameness at different levels of abstraction – lateral thinking, hunting for the “essence” – the Platonic form. But in typical Hofstadter style, the whole book is actually one long number, letter, word game. So much so that if you don’t share his enthusiasm for searching for patterns in near-cyclical sequences (of numbers, letters, words, etc … fonts even) the near-repetition is a long slog.

The whole book is a million
different ways of expressing

A:B :: X:Y
(As is to B as X is to Y)

“Get a life” you might think.
Chapter 8 is worth the slog.

At the simplest level A is to B, as B is to C, as C is to D, etc … is the definition of a series. Given a starting situation (the known history of the series so far) find the next term, given what you can infer about the “is to” relationship. The point is the “best” next may not be an obvious value, but involves a sense of “elegance” or “creativity”. The archetypal example for me (my paraphrase)  …

What is the next number in the series 0, 1, 2, … ?

Obviously it’s 3, right ?

Well no. How about 720! (*1)
(You’re missing that the shared relation
between A and B, is [n(!n)]
ie the series is 0, 1!, 2!!, 3!!!, 4!!!!, etc …)

Think about it.

If someone actually asked you the question “What is the next number in the series 0, 1, 2, … ?” surely the very first thing you would know for sure would be, well presumably, since you’re not a two-year old, the answer you’re looking for is not 3 or you wouldn’t have asked me, right ?

And in fact your first response would probably be that rhetorical question – to confirm the premise, to check you hadn’t misheard.

Chapter 8 takes this by analogy – given the history of the world up to this point – what should I do next. Shall I have a donut for breakfast? or what decision / action should my government take next in the current situation? It’s about decision-making strategies. Occam (or Buridan’s Ass) might lead you to say the best answer is the obvious one (the 3, or either bale of hay will do), but the point is the obvious answer is not the only possibility, nor necessarily the best in the overall analysis.

Looking at the strategies for finding the more creative “better” answers what is most striking is that the problem domain may appear closed and bounded as in the Tabletop analogy – all explicit knowledge and choices are laid out in front of you on the table – the “best next thing” reasoning involves thinking which is abstracted above it and slipped more broadly sideways (outside the explicit problem domain).

[Tabletop game described further here.]

Choosing your grain of salt involves its relationships to the whole world of possibilities; evaluating / filtering the most significant relations is the tricky, creative bit.

When I say “do this” and touch my nose – you already knows (by analogy) that I mean touch your own nose, not mine. “This” is the same by analogy. The Tabletop process simply extends this to – if I touch this object from my perspective of the table in front of us which should you touch next from yours. In all but the most trivial tit-for-tat cases (*2) the choice involves analogies – patterns of related essence – well beyond what actually exists on the tabletop – the apparent theatre of operations.

Q. What is the Ob of Nebraska ? A. The Platte. Because the Ob is to Siberia (a large river flowing across its desolate wastes) as the Platte is to Nebraska. If that really was published in 1890 by Belpatto then the whole anagram sequence is truly spooky. Meta-fascinating.

=====

[Post Note (*1) In fact, that fourth term or the next term after the 720, or ANY subsequent term can be almost anything you choose. Scientifically, there are an infinity of hypotheses to fit any given set of data so far, all that is required is creativity and ingenuity. There’s a whole debate to be had – a la Occam’s Razor – if we were talking about truth and beauty in science, which we’re not particularly, but the best or most elegant solution isn’t necessarily the simplest or most obvious. See Sabine Hossenfelder “Lost in Math”.]

[Post Note (*2) for a treatment of “tit-for-tat” and the infinite possibility of other strategies in a real world of incomplete trust, imperfect information and levels of ironic intent, see this later post on Basic Evolutionary Game Theory and the truly excellent Evolution of Trust Simulator created by Nicky Case based on Axelrod’s 1984 work.]

Almost a week overdue this post, since last Friday I travelled early Saturday to a conference and been just too busy and stressed to blog (or even read any private e-mail). Anyway, mentioned Tommy Womack and Will Kimbrough before and several people knowing I was a fan of Tommy suggested I should see another ex-cohort Todd Snider.

Friday he was at the Huntsville Crossroads, doing a solo acoustic set, a little too brief, in front of strangely seated audience. Great stuff, undeniably Dylanesque, witty auto-biographical songs and delivery full of character. Picked-up a CD and will get to know his songs and look out for him again. A gem.

(Being away, I’ve missed Dave Anderson’s set being videoed at The Sports Page last Monday too.)

[Update – listened to Todd’s CD’s “East Nashville Skyline” (2004) and “The Devil You Know” (2006) – and can confirm that the country-rock arrangements do also evoke “the new Tom Petty” comparisons.

Conservative Christian, Right-Wing Republican,
Straight, White, American Males
… haters of  …
Tree-huggin, Peace-lovin, Pot-smokin, Porn-watchin,
Lazy-ass hippies like me.
Diamonds and dogs, boys and girls,
living together in two separate worlds.]

[Post Note: Saw Todd Snider again in Austin. Still regularly have his CD’s on in the car!]

This is something I recall Cringley mentioning years ago. As electronic / computing content of cars (and motor vehicles generally, buses in this case) increases and whilst cars are globally distributed and mobile, it becomes sensible to think of vehicles as the “hubs” of an increasingly peer-to-peer global comms network.

Lame managers (of a University College) using HSE excuse to limit traditional act.

Struck in this story initially by the reference to nursing in contrast to health-care-management. Sometimes people are robbed of any intrinsic “job satisfaction” by their management systems. This medical example is the Dr James Willis “Friends in Low Places” agenda. Engagement with the task skills and their primary objectives is a key factor as Richard Sennett’s “The Craftsman” would suggest in the news story. Of course for some jobs such aspects may be hard to find or value, so perhaps not everyone should expect to find that kind of happiness in their work, but I’m not so sure.

Chris Wilson’s new book “Healing The Unhappy Caveman” would suggest that evolving human minds should not expect to find happiness in daily life anyway. He may be right, but again I’m not so sure after the intro and one chapter so far. I think the key we will find is in understanding where that satisfaction arises, and why it is valuable to pursue it the right way. I shall read on and report back.

Perhaps I’m the eternal optimist as one commenter on the news story suggests.

Cooling effect of Moon’s shadow on the earth’s atmosphere during an eclipse, moving across the earth’s surface at supersonic speeds, may be the source of very-low-frequency “infrasound” (ie inaudible to humans) shock-front that tips off some birds and animals to the approaching eclipse.

Excellent edition of “In Our Time” today, on the subject of the ancient library at Nineveh. Another example of the “enthusiastic scholar” in Karen Radner, but all good contributions.

As well as the general Assyrian / Babylonian cultural history, including Gilgamesh and the even older myth of the Great Flood, it was fascinating to hear the myth of the fish (long-lived human-sized Tigris carp) as wise advisers to the even-longer-lived and disease-free humans in the times before the flood.

After the flood, all had changed for humankind. So many allusions. A fall from grace. Babel-fish, and so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the … Douglas Adams references. [And how could I forget the “Salmon of Wisdom / Knowledge” and DNA’s “Salmon of Doubt” – Comment from Dermot below.]  Also another specific interest for me in Nineveh / Carchemish / Leonard Woolley and T E Lawrence. Libraries destroyed by fire; Nineveh, Alexandria, “Name of the Rose”, oh, and Guisborough my original home town. Must add links to all those referenced allusions …

[Post Note : The recycling of mythology in cultural undestanding of real knowledge is fundamental to the defining moment of “Arrive Without Travelling“.]

[Post Note : Conversation with DMB on MoQ.Discuss – The programme also mentions that ironically, if the library at Nineveh had not been torched, then future archeologists may never have found the Gilgamesh / flood tablets. Here’s a thought; how many of us would have known of the Afgan Buddha’s if they had NOT been parttially destroyed by the Taleban; how many US citizens would have known that Bablyon was the cradle of their civilized world if they had not been plundered in tthe course of their “war on whatever”. Perhaps myth has more lasting value than the contents of libraries and museums, however outrageous their deliberate destruction ? Perhaps they benefit from being converted back into myth ocasionally.]

Interesting that this case was successful. If MySpace can be protected by the law what about every other social network or e-mail service. My WordPress Blog gets 100’s a day, 1000’s a month, and my GMail e-mail accounts get 1000 and 3000 apiece each month.

The (free) spam filters are 99% effective, but it’s a criminal drain on resources. I really believe in the idea of charging for all e-mails, posts and comments – just a very small marginal cost would raise significant money for some worthwhile cause, but would price the malicious timewasters and freeloaders out of business

I relegated my manifesto from the blog header to a subsidiary page just last weekend; it includes that phrase “seemingly irrational”, which this letter also uses ….

Your article (How did no-win, no-fee change things?, 7 May) bears out the fact that the “rise” of no-win, no-fee is more of a perception than a reality. But it’s a powerful perception, and one that is often the root cause of seemingly irrational decisions to require schoolchildren to wear goggles to play conkers, but not to wear them in the swimming pool when the chlorinated water irritates their eyes! My profession, health and safety, then gets saddled with the blame. But the reality is that it’s not a result of advice given by health and safety professionals – rather officials seeking an easy way out of a difficult decision or racked with unrealistic fears that they might be sued should something go wrong. Modern health and safety practice is about striking a sensible balance. Unfortunately, it’s a powerful and believable excuse for some in positions of authority. Health and safety professionals are not interested in preventing people from doing activities that have gone ahead without serious harm for generations. We want people to have good fun – in a safe and healthy way.
Ray Hurst, IOSH President, Wigston, Leicestershire.

Healthy balance being destroyed by “enforced” choices … enforced by the decision-making psychology, not by any reality or necessity to do so.  Perception is the root cause.