[Editor’s note: The original story was in 16th century Mandarin, and used peculiar and esoteric terms for concepts that are just now being re-discovered. Where possible, I have translated these terms into their modern mathematical and philosophical equivalents. Such terms are denoted with curly braces, {like so}.]
was Watsonian in nature. The Doylist equivalent would have been to say “This is a story set in 16th century China, but pretend that the speaker is a wise Daoist sage who has independently come up with everything we talk about here on LW, and uses the same terms for them that we do.”
You say this is adapted from a 16th century story.
I find this story strange and unusual, for that age, but you have adjusted it to fit Lesswrong. Is there a more direct translation available?
Sorry, this part:
was Watsonian in nature. The Doylist equivalent would have been to say “This is a story set in 16th century China, but pretend that the speaker is a wise Daoist sage who has independently come up with everything we talk about here on LW, and uses the same terms for them that we do.”
From this moment, all my lies will be Watsonian in nature ;)