Jeoffrey Wortman I’m experimenting with that notion in a simple way. For example, in this system I’m working with, the notion of creating “hybrid” concepts has been very powerful as I’d also had been asking it to look for what is inbetween two concepts. (so both/and and inbetween) It’s still in the end word play but nevertheless, I’m finding it a fascinating tool for thought; a writers tool like a thesaurus is but more fun
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the finger that points to the moon isn’t the moon. The map isn’t the territory, yes I agree. One of my favorite examples of a bad analogy is “the mind is like a computer”. Rather, it’s that a computer is like the human mind, or a pale imitation of it rather. Flipping source and destination can be dangerous thinking, yes.
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What I am doing here is exploring the functionality of this system – and using some of this functionality to help me in some areas that I’m weak in, such as generalization. But again, for me it’s a writers tool, not a magic genie
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Oh it’s also good with web based and other network topologies and can handle different topographies. It’s excellent at linking metaphors together, which is one of the ways humans tend to think of things. For example, I asked for a metaphor of two kinds of lambda calculus that were more complicated than typed or untyped, and it came up with metaphors involving library books which I thought was rather nice:
You don’t need to know anything about the two calculi to understand these metaphors it made for me:
“In this metaphor, the library represents lambda calculus, with its collection of expressions and functions. The books in the library represent the expressions and functions in lambda calculus, and the shelves in the library represent the different types of these expressions and functions.
In the case of polymorphic lambda calculus, the books in the library are like books that can be placed on multiple shelves. For example, a book about history could be placed on the “history” shelf, but it could also be placed on the “non-fiction” shelf, or the “paperback” shelf. This is similar to how polymorphic lambda calculus allows expressions to be assigned to multiple types.
In the case of multi-typed lambda calculus, the books in the library are like books that can change their location on the shelves over time. For example, a book about history could start out on the “history” shelf, but then be moved to the “non-fiction” shelf if it is borrowed and returned later. This is similar to how multi-typed lambda calculus allows the type of an expression to change dynamically during the course of a computation.”
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