Men världen själv, varat omkring oss och inom oss, är aldrig ensidig, därom måste man tiga

Läste precis ut Hermann Hesses fantastiska Sidhartha. Sist jag läste den vad jag runt 16, så kändes som det var dags igen. Det är verkligen en fin bok. En insikt som kom till mej var att Sidhartha når samma slutsats som Wittgenstein. Varom man inte kan tala, därom måste man tiga. Vi kan bara säga så mycket om världen - varat omkring oss är aldrig ensidigt. Och därmed kommer vi aldrig kunna säga allt. Vi kommer alltid behöva ett förfinat språk och taget till sin extrem kommer vi aldrig kunna uttrycka det mest fundamentala i vår verklighet. Språket är i varat. Därmed kan språket aldrig komma ut varat, komma bortom och helt förklara det.
Därför behöver vi modeller. Dessa är vad vi kan prata om. Dessa är vad vi kan veta något om. Dessa är vad som kan vara användbart. Resten måste vi tiga om.

Seeing reality as it is is still a possibility. In fact, that is what we do. More or less

Hoffman just published another paper discussing his computer simulations indicating it is better to not experience reality as it is.

The ideas as stated are of course not new. They are present already in Plato's cave myth. But what should be pointed out I think, is that the ideas are actually not very interesting. Or perhaps even scientifically wrong.

First. We describe reality with models that approximate it. Hence, there is nothing new to anyone that we do not experience reality exactly as is. But what is more important is that there is, taking the scientific process to its limit over time, really nothing else to say about reality. Per definition. If there had been, it would be covered by some scientific theory. This is kind of the argument also against a supernatural being which I yet have not met any theist having a reasonable argument against: if an entity can interact with reality, that mechanism of interaction can be probed, and thus modeled. And then it is not supernatural any more. If there is no such interaction mechanism, they the entity has no implication on our reality.
Thus, in a proof by contradiction, there cannot be any supernatural entity.

On another note, of course an organism can be greatly successful and still not perceive reality fully. That's trivial. Take treas or any other plant. Surely their perceptive abilities are very limited and do not cover the whole of reality. They are still very successful as a spices. There is no problem here. However, a tree does also create models of the world. It is about light and temperature and nutrition. And the trees act according to those models. Surely, those models are quite good, they have made trees very successful. They approximate reality and the approximation is in direct relation to what that species needs. Trees cannot move, and hence they do not need models for kinematics.

This actually leads to an interesting thought - is evolution creating model-generating organisms? It looks like it. The genes are really an information processing system and as such, they are operating on some model assumption.

Seriously California, you are not making you best effort!

I recently had the opportunity to visit Silicon Valley. The stay was a pleasure, interesting meetings and great weather. But I must say I got quite upset. It was my first visit there, and it was very clear - California: you are not making your best effort here. I am of course talking about climate. Some examples:

• San Jose is, I don't know how, large. 4-5 lane roads, enormous parking lots and virtually no public transportation. Only 1-store buildings. This is not a building culture that is sustainable.
• On every single trash can I could find, it was printed "land fill". What the heck California? This is something we stopped doing in Sweden 40-50 years ago.
• In my hotel the cleaning lady changed my toilet roll even though it was at least 1/3 of the paper left. Enough to last several days for me! Just because it looks good. I am sure they throw that roll.

These are just some observations of the fact that this "liberal" state does not care. Here, in the richest area in the wold - without competition - nobody really cares about the environment. They care about exits, autonomous cars and apps.
I think California should feel ashamed. You have been the most lucky, yes lucky, in the world and you are not prepared to give anything back. That's BS. Shame on you!