Theme: Measurement

  • Mathematics vs Cinema As Tools For Explaining The Universe

    ‎”Cinema can still explain the whole world. Mathematicians think it’s math. I believe it’s cinema.” – Jean-Luc Godard

    Mathematics can explain only what we cannot sense. That is why we have mathematics: to compensate for our limited ability to perceive the universe. However, human concepts must at some point be reduced to those stimuli which we can experience. All language is reducible to an analogy to experience. All imagery is by definition experience. Mathematics is, at some degree of abstraction, simply a vehicle for compensating for our terribly weak short term memories by creating categories, applying quantities, and rearranging symbols while preserving ratios. The mind could do this without mathematics if we had the short term memory to do it with. Film is, today, the most informationally rich means by which, that which we *cannot* perceive directly, can be reduced by analogy and narrative, to that which we *can* perceive directly. At first glance, these statements are not terribly romantic. But after we consider that human beings have invented mathematics, the narrative, and visual media so that we can rapidly sense what we could not sense directly, we can certainly wonder at the marvel of what man can accomplish in the service of his mind and his experience. And in that understanding we can appreciate that there is no material difference between mathematics and cinema. They are simply extensions of us. And that is as romantic an experience as any. – Curt Doolittle 😉 (Originally posted under FilmmakerIQ)

  • PRAXEOLOGY DOES NOT LOSE INFORMATION. ALL AGGREGATES IN MATHEMATICS CAUSE LOSS O

    PRAXEOLOGY DOES NOT LOSE INFORMATION. ALL AGGREGATES IN MATHEMATICS CAUSE LOSS OF INFORMATION. PRAXEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS DOES NOT.

    That information loss benefits the state. That is why economics is an aggregate discipline. Aggregates do EXPOSE the effects of informational asymmetry – sticky prices and contracts etc. They do help us find informational asymmetry in the multitudinous places it exists. Aggregates help investors profit from specializing in the pursuit of that asymmetric knowledge. And if you are one of the people that thinks fiat money and credit are more beneficial than the business cycle, then aggregates certainly help determine the amount of money needed by the economy at any given point in time. But aggregates do not contain information about involuntary transfers. And they destroy information as does fiat money and credit, by distorting the information provided by prices.

    The praxeological solution to advancing the economy, is not do dump disinformation in the form of credit, into the pricing system we call the economy. Instead, praxeology would tell us to create institutions that better facilitate the cooperation of groups at those scales that the market has difficulty in facilitating. Particularly those problems that are caused by jurisdictional overlap. Or those where the impact of ‘cheating’ or ‘privatization’ of investment would prevent the risk taking needed for those investments, if they were exposed to the market.

    The only mandatory function of government, as far as I can determine, is to prevent cheating. Now, it may not be obvious that the defense of property rights of all kinds is simply the prevention of cheating. But governments must prevent indirect involuntary transfers by issuing laws in furtherance of preventing privatizations of the commons – cheating.

    Praxeology makes all cheating visible and open to criticism and prevention.

    Praxeology tells us that we should endeavor to create institutions that will assist classes in creating contracts, the terms of which have the force of law under the one law of property, and not leave it to a ruling class – elected or not – to determine laws. The scope of contracts is controllable by all parties. The scope of lawmaking appears not to be controllable, because it is only bounded by the will of those in charge NOT to exercise power if they can.

    All mathematics is predicated upon ratios : balance. Accounting uses double entries to create a balance where none would exist. In human relations VOLUNTARY EXCHANGE determines this balance. Efficiency does not, because it obscures involuntary transfers. And as such, any argument to efficiency is an argument to theft.

    Praxeology: voluntarism, creates the balance, the scale, the ability to render ethical judgments not out of complex arguments to efficiency, but very simply, out of the willingness of individuals to participate in an exchange once they are confident that no involuntary transfers will be produced by this exchange.

    Propertarianism is the solution to the problem of politics in the post-democratic era.


    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 05:52:00 UTC

  • “Cinema can still explain the whole world. Mathematicians think it’s math. I bel

    “Cinema can still explain the whole world. Mathematicians think it’s math. I believe it’s cinema.” – Jean-Luc Godard

    Mathematics can explain only what we cannot sense. That is why we have mathematics: to compensate for our limited ability to perceive the universe.

    However, human concepts must at some point be reduced to those stimuli which we can experience. All language is reducible to an analogy to experience. All imagery is by definition experience. Mathematics is, at some degree of abstraction, simply a vehicle for compensating for our terribly weak short term memories by creating categories, applying quantities, and rearranging symbols while preserving ratios. The mind could do this without mathematics if we had the short term memory to do it with.

    Film is, today, the most informationally rich means by which, that which we *cannot* perceive directly, can be reduced by analogy and narrative, to that which we *can* perceive directly.

    At first glance, these statements are not terribly romantic.

    But after we consider that human beings have invented mathematics, the narrative, and visual media so that we can rapidly sense what we could not sense directly, we can certainly wonder at the marvel of what man can accomplish in the service of his mind and his experience. And in that understanding we can appreciate that there is no material difference between mathematics and cinema. They are simply extensions of us.

    And that is as romantic an experience as any.

    – Curt Doolittle 😉

    (Originally posted under FilmmakerIQ)


    Source date (UTC): 2013-01-15 04:41:00 UTC

  • ETHICS : PRAXEOLOGY AND THE EQUILIBRIA OF VOLUNTARY TRANSFER COMPENSATE FOR LACK

    ETHICS : PRAXEOLOGY AND THE EQUILIBRIA OF VOLUNTARY TRANSFER COMPENSATE FOR LACK OF CARDINALITY IN SUBJECTIVITY

    The structural problem with the discipline of ethics, and perhaps philosophy in general, which is understandable given its period of origin, is not so much it’s lack of measurement – which given the ordinal nature of preferences is irrelevant – but it’s lack of equilibrial concepts with which to compensate for lack of measurement – even if it does account for externalities, albiet differently in european, asian and magian frameworks. This absence manifests itself in ideal types, general rules, and attempts at statements of perfection. When in fact, the ‘golden mean’, which Aristotle gave us, teaches us to consider ideas on a spectrum. Ideas with optimums can be compared with each other. Furthermore, voluntary and involuntary transfers – which are the source of all human cooperative behavior – can be used to inform us about whether our optimums will be demonstrably true, or ideological falsehoods.

    Ethics without praxeology is idealism, not analysis. Ethics without equilibrial forces of property, voluntarily transferred, is simply deception.


    Source date (UTC): 2012-11-04 06:55:00 UTC

  • EXPERIMENT: MEDIUMS OF ACCOUNT AND EXCHANGE

    http://worthwhile.typepad.com/worthwhile_canadian_initi/2012/10/medium-of-account-vs-medium-of-exchange.htmlTHOUGHT EXPERIMENT: MEDIUMS OF ACCOUNT AND EXCHANGE


    Source date (UTC): 2012-11-01 13:15:00 UTC

  • EMPLOYMENT TO POPULATION RATIO

    EMPLOYMENT TO POPULATION RATIO


    Source date (UTC): 2012-11-01 13:06:00 UTC

  • No, the price of gasoline is not increasing. The value of the dollar is decreasi

    No, the price of gasoline is not increasing.

    The value of the dollar is decreasing.

    There is a difference.

    A really big scary difference.


    Source date (UTC): 2012-10-02 10:00:00 UTC

  • THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER Practical cost of living

    THE NUMBER OF HOURS NEEDED TO PURCHASE A GLASS OF BEER

    Practical cost of living differences between countries.


    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-25 11:33:00 UTC

  • INTELLIGENCE Practicable Intelligence is comprised of four different factors: 1)

    INTELLIGENCE

    Practicable Intelligence is comprised of four different factors:

    1) General intelligence. Which we usually aggregate under the measurement of IQ. This is the ability to identify and make use of abstractions in real time. Given enough time, random trial and error can solve any problem. Intelligence reduces the time necessary to identify a causal relation.

    2) Short Term Memory. As a rule of thumb, a concept of any complexity can be ‘experienced’ and therefore understood, if it can be constructed from a combination of memories and stimuli within a two to three second window. Short term memory. Short term memory facilitates this process so that the association engine (intuition) can be steered toward desired ends, until enough of a construct can be created to facilitate the formation of a new idea. Einstein was being serious when he said that he had just thought about the problem longer than anyone else. (this is my particular weakness)

    3) General knowledge. The more you have, the more likely it is that a pattern that you encounter will exist in your memory rather than require pure association from your brain. General knowledge must be separated into explicit versus tacit forms, and into true (correspondence with reality) and false (failure to correspond to reality) categories. Long term memory, and the ability to access it, is necessary for the accumulation of general knowledge, and the ability to retain that knowledge by forming associations that give access to that knowledge from multiple avenues.

    4) Desires and Beliefs. If you believe or desire something that does not or cannot correspond to reality, then this In my experience intelligence comes from wanting to know the answer to a problem, rather than wanting an outcome and seeking an answer suit it.

    While intelligence can be limited by any one of these factors, most correctable human intellectual failure comes not from general intelligence, a lack of short term memory, or an absence of general knowledge. But from beliefs and desires, usually instinctual, or sentimental, that do not correspond with the reality of life in a division of knowledge and labor, whose information system is the abstraction of prices, where social cues are often contrary to price information.

    The human senses are available to almost all of us. They are easily access without rational criticism. But they tell us very little about which actions we should take. That information comes from the purely abstract information of prices. And we cannot access the content of prices without rational criticism, the institution of property which allows us to plan using prices, and a significant effort expended in planning, forgoing sensory experiences, and expending effort on the promise of reward in the future.

    In our homes, pubs, coffee houses, churches, and jobs we can rely on our senses. In the market we cannot. We can only hope that by submersion in a culture within the market that our senses adapt to the patterns that emerge from the market, expressed in the behavior of others who do understand that market, and by doing so, obtain by imitation and empathy that which we cannot obtain by abstract reason and the information supplied by prices.

    For this reason, one need not be possessed of extraordinary cognitive power, short term memory, general knowledge, or even rational wants and beliefs. One only need experience and imitate the patterns of behavior of others within that market who are successful within it.

    In simple terms, this means, that traditions, morals, ethics, and habits in a homogenous society can compensate for an unequal distribution of intelligence and impulsivity.


    Source date (UTC): 2012-09-19 18:34:00 UTC

  • MOVIE DATA Most obvious thing? Everything really

    http://indexity.net/vis/hw/EXPLORE MOVIE DATA

    Most obvious thing? Everything really.


    Source date (UTC): 2012-06-27 16:57:00 UTC