Let’s see if your post has successfully overcome my mental filters (at the very least, I clicked). Here’s my reformulation of your claims, as if I had to explain them to someone else.
You need a special effort to grab the attention of humans
Humans can’t process all the words thrown at them and select “impressive” content
You need several tries to transmit knowledge properly
Beyond being impressive, words need to be “relevant” to transmit knowledge efficiently
Words can’t create a perfectly impressive and relevant content
Being very impressive doesn’t guarantee relevance
Content impressive for you doesn’t make it more relevant for you
This is a toy model, humans also have incentives to shape which content gets thrown or not
Now that I’ve written the points above, I study again the “what if” part at the end and say, “oh, so the idea is that human language may not be the best way to transmit knowledge because what gets your attention often isn’t what lets you learn easily, cool, then what”
Then… you claim that there might be a Better Language to cut through these issues. That would be extremely impressive. But then I scroll back up and I see the titles of the following posts. I’m afraid that you will only describe issues with human communication without suggesting techniques to overcome them (at least in specific contexts).
For instance, you gave an example comparison in impression (asteroid vs. climate change). Could you provide a comparison for relevance? Something that, by your lights, gets processed easily?
Thank you for taking the time to review my post and comment.
Now that I’ve written the points above, I study again the “what if” part at the end and say, “oh, so the idea is that human language may not be the best way to transmit knowledge because what gets your attention often isn’t what lets you learn easily, cool, then what”
So my core issue ( which resulted in the “Words make us Dumb” Series) is that you cannot just provide a document describing the Alien Language and expect people to appreciate its significance. People must be aware of the significant problems Human Languages cause in terms of Knowledge Routing, Politics, Trust, Misinformation, AI, Climate, etc… Once people are aware then they would be more receptive to the Alien Language.
Then… you claim that there might be a Better Language to cut through these issues. That would be extremely impressive. But then I scroll back up and I see the titles of the following posts. I’m afraid that you will only describe issues with human communication without suggesting techniques to overcome them (at least in specific contexts).
The last 3 posts describe the Alien Language and how it would solve all the issues described above. But to appreciate the Alien Language, I was hoping to have a discussion about all these issues.
For instance, you gave an example comparison in impression (asteroid vs. climate change). Could you provide a comparison for relevance? Something that, by your lights, gets processed easily
I am not sure I understand your question. Can you elaborate more?
Asteroids and Climate Change both cause Millions of Deaths, Billions of Displaced and Trillions of damage. But our psychology would result in significant action for Asteroids but not Climate Change since the former would cause a significant impression.
But instead of using Human Languages, if we used a framework to objectively assess the significance of every event(Asteroid, Climate Change, AI, Car Accidents, Diseases, etc...) then the impact of impressions would be nullified.
Let’s see if your post has successfully overcome my mental filters (at the very least, I clicked). Here’s my reformulation of your claims, as if I had to explain them to someone else.
You need a special effort to grab the attention of humans
Humans can’t process all the words thrown at them and select “impressive” content
You need several tries to transmit knowledge properly
Beyond being impressive, words need to be “relevant” to transmit knowledge efficiently
Words can’t create a perfectly impressive and relevant content
Being very impressive doesn’t guarantee relevance
Content impressive for you doesn’t make it more relevant for you
This is a toy model, humans also have incentives to shape which content gets thrown or not
Now that I’ve written the points above, I study again the “what if” part at the end and say, “oh, so the idea is that human language may not be the best way to transmit knowledge because what gets your attention often isn’t what lets you learn easily, cool, then what”
Then… you claim that there might be a Better Language to cut through these issues. That would be extremely impressive. But then I scroll back up and I see the titles of the following posts. I’m afraid that you will only describe issues with human communication without suggesting techniques to overcome them (at least in specific contexts).
For instance, you gave an example comparison in impression (asteroid vs. climate change). Could you provide a comparison for relevance? Something that, by your lights, gets processed easily?
You won the reward for critisizing my article. Please DM me your bitcoin information.
Thank you for taking the time to review my post and comment.
So my core issue ( which resulted in the “Words make us Dumb” Series) is that you cannot just provide a document describing the Alien Language and expect people to appreciate its significance. People must be aware of the significant problems Human Languages cause in terms of Knowledge Routing, Politics, Trust, Misinformation, AI, Climate, etc… Once people are aware then they would be more receptive to the Alien Language.
The last 3 posts describe the Alien Language and how it would solve all the issues described above. But to appreciate the Alien Language, I was hoping to have a discussion about all these issues.
I am not sure I understand your question. Can you elaborate more?
Asteroids and Climate Change both cause Millions of Deaths, Billions of Displaced and Trillions of damage. But our psychology would result in significant action for Asteroids but not Climate Change since the former would cause a significant impression.
But instead of using Human Languages, if we used a framework to objectively assess the significance of every event(Asteroid, Climate Change, AI, Car Accidents, Diseases, etc...) then the impact of impressions would be nullified.