I’ve changed my website and blog URL from anyall.org to brenocon.com. The former was supposed to be a reference to first-order logic: the existential and universal quantifiers are fundamental to relational reasoning, and as testament to that, they are enshrined as “any()” and “all()” in wise programming languages like Python and R. Or something like that. It turns out this was obvious only to me :)
I tried to set up everything to automatically redirect, so no links should be broken. Hopefully.
My feedreader notified of me of this post and was taken here so the cross-over went well I think.
Hi Brendan
10 Jul 2011: RT: hello followers, i was wondering why do you follow me and where do you come from? i’m a little intimidated that I i’ll say something dumb
I want to try to have a shot at answering your tweet, even if it does not need answering :-)
Last bit first about “intimidated” – I believe that human vulnerability is very much underestimated, and I think we sometimes draw a subconscious conclusion that machine vulnerability equates with human vulnerability. It does not, the former requires a patch and/or will always be the domain of artificial intelligence, the latter forms a foundation stone of our natural intelligence which can serve to open new doorways to discovery.
The feeling of intimidation therefore can be viewed here as a bridge that connects the two. Vulnerabilities in my computer will weaken the artificial system that can even contribute to our own lack of confidence since I may yet be far from mature in my uncertainty, but vulnerabilities in my heart serve to strengthen me. Intimidation here is the feeling of challenge, and challenge is a pathway to enlighten the increasing dimensions of our emerging capability.
Second part – is about where do we come from. I come from a human being (that is until advances in embryology dictates a new species of lab rats). We therefore all “come from” a common place, and that place is called “home”. Why do we require geographic, cultural, national, marketed etc segmentation to dictate what a great home is? The conception of home is universal and not a specific location. I do come from a great home because it is the nucleus specific to a very small number of people who serve as my closest relatives and friends.
What do the words Canadian, British, Indian or American really mean, until we give it meaning? Human beings are not centered on their tribal affiliation first but how they came to create a home. Human beings therefore have created “homes” in a Siberian wasteland, where other human beings could not think a home could be.
Final, part – why do I follow “Brendan O’Conner”. I don’t follow. I observe because you have created a virtual home on Twitter (and here at brenocon) but more importantly, I am traveler looking in. A traveler is distinguishable from a tourist because a traveler crosses boundaries, but a tourist is bound by their conceptions. I do not profess to understand who Norvig or Perriera, but if I am learner I can appreciate those that have appreciated their capabilities.
So in light of that I find here a road less traveled, an intelligent form of community that is its own Amazon; the rain forest of intelligence of which is too dense and sophisticated for me to know – but appreciation as a traveler is about observing unfolding intelligence, rather than serving the cliche. I don’t come here to gain knowledge but to expand appreciation. There is an infinite bounty of intelligence here and it is worth observing. “Following”? There is only form of following that absolutely matters – “follow your heart”. That is what I follow here, a good heart.
Ultimately it is not about my identity because the connections which formed outwardly are supported by the artificial, the biological, the personal and the social, but it is about thought, because thought is the mother of identity and so @brendan642 is a thoughtspace for me to discover. This is where another vulnerability called humility is ever so important – that we are in effect a connection to over six billion thoughtspaces (and growing) and I for one, know that we can never swallow something that big, so we have to make the most of whatever diversity we can appreciate – and thereby appreciate in our own (and therefore collective) humanity as a consequence (if not a result).
[$M.]
thoughtspaces @rupyyuan
https://twitter.com/#!/RupyYuan/global-5/members