Mechanism quotes

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David_Auerbach

Natural Language Truth

“Few would say natural language is the ideal mechanism for expressing truths about the world.”
  • Source: David Auerbach, in the article “Bitwise: A Life in Code” published in 2019 in Communications of the ACM, Volume 62, Issue 9 (September). DOI: 10.1145/3347864.
Keywords: Few_quotes Say_quotes Natural_quotes Language_quotes Ideal_quotes Mechanism_quotes Express_quotes Truth_quotes World_quotes

Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra

Black Box Correctness

“A convincing demonstration of correctness being impossible as long as the mechanism is regarded as a black box, our only hope lies in not regarding the mechanism as a black box.”
Keywords: Correctness_quotes Demonstration_quotes Impossibility_quotes Mechanism_quotes Black_Bok_quotes Hope_quotes Convincing_quotes Regard_quotes

Yuval_Noah_Harari

Self-Skepticism

“The trademark of science is not merely skepticism but self-skepticism, and at the heart of every scientific institution we find a strong self-correcting mechanism.”
  • Source: Yuval Noah Harari writing in his book ‘Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI’. Published in 2024 by Random House. Kindle edition. Chapter 4 page 104. ISBN 978-0593734247.
Keywords: Trademark_quotes Science_quotes Skepticism_quotes Self-Skepticism_quotes Self_quotes Heart_quotes Scientific_quotes Institution_quotes Find_quotes Strong_quotes Self-Correcting_quotes Correcting_quotes Mechanism_quotes

Bernardo_Kastrup

Global Synchronization

“The possibility of there being a global synchronization mechanism in nature is opened up by quantum mechanics itself.”
  • Source: From “Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe”. Written by Bernardo Kastrup. Published by IFF Books, Washington DC. Kindle Edition. Page 52. Chapter 4.
Keywords: Possibility_quotes Global_quotes Synchronization_quotes Mechanism_quotes Nature_quotes Open_quotes Quantum_quotes Mechanics_quotes

Meaningful Coincidence

“Although I do believe that many — even most — experiences of meaningful coincidence are illusory, being mediated by relatively prosaic psychological mechanisms, my own experiences make it very difficult for me to dismiss Jung’s case. In the course of my life, the archetypal meaning occasionally evoked by events in the world around me — in precise alignment with my own inner state, or that of someone close to me — has been just too compelling to attribute to chance or cognitive bias.”
  • Source: From “Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics of an Experiential Universe”. Written by Bernardo Kastrup. Published by IFF Books, Washington DC. Kindle Edition. Page 55-56. Chapter 4.
Keywords: Believe_quotes Experience_quotes Meaning_quotes Coincidence_quotes Illusion_quotes Mediation_quotes Relative_quotes Prosaic_quotes Psychology_quotes Mechanism_quotes Difficult_quotes Dismiss_quotes Jungian_quotes Course_quotes Life_quotes Archetypal_quotes Occasional_quotes Evoke_quotes Event_quotes World_quotes Around_quotes Precise_quotes Alignment_quotes Inner_quotes State_quotes Someone_quotes Close_quotes Compelling_quotes Attribute_quotes Chance_quotes Cognitive_quotes Bias_quotes Random_quotes

Steven_Pinker

Neurons to Consciousness

“None of us has a brain that can actually put us in touch with reality unaided with truth. I've just shown you a bunch of gadgetry that responds to things that are essential to our survival, things that prevent us from falling off cliffs and bumping into trees. But they don't actually correspond to any clear description of the world as it is. So we have, for example, circuitry that responds to the edges rather than the physical distribution of light, because edges are important, that's where objects leave off and their backgrounds begin. Moreover, they can be fooled, as I did with each one of you. That since our neural circuitry does consist of a mechanism, not a pipeline to the truth or a window onto objective reality. That is naïve realism we know is false because there are illusions. You can't just trust your senses. That means we need some way of augmenting the faculties that nature gave us to make our beliefs as accurate as possible. Which of course is why the early modern philosophers made such a big deal of visual illusions. They said you can't just open your eyes and see the world as it is. Look at all these illusions. So what we do, what gives some of us confidence that our beliefs are objectively true is that they are part of an institutional infrastructure of testing and criticism and logic and determining which hypotheses withstand criticism and attempts at refutation. Devising exotic arrangements of reality to reflect the way reality is put together, namely experiments. Thanks to this huge network of minds, each one of them making up for deficits of all the others, we like to think that we have a collective grasp on truth that none of us individually can have. But of course, it's always fallible. The religious beliefs I think were actually pretty reasonable hypotheses in earlier states of our collective knowledge. Even Richard Dawkins said that before Darwin he probably would have been a creationist because the cosmic engineer was the only available explanation for the obvious adaptive complexity of living things. I would add that prior to the advent of modern neuroscience I probably would have believed in souls because there was no better explanation for phenomena such as that people respond intelligently to their environments. When you dream some part of you is up and about the world while your body is in bed the whole time. That seems like there must be some part of you that can leave your body. When a person suddenly dies some kind of animating force no longer seems to be animating the body that was there just a few minutes ago. So the soul hypothesis is not a stupid or irrational belief, nor is creationism if it's the best that you have. Now, of course, we can do better. But doing better in part depends not just on this cumulative weight of evidence and argument. But because few of us can actually reconstruct the scientific observations that justify the theory of natural selection or the theory of neural networks, all of us, at least a little bit, take it on faith in the following sense; that there is a community that you trust enough because when they have been challenged to defend their beliefs they can connect them to reality. They have shown that it isn't magic. That they have given reason to trust them because they've convinced you that they're the mores of their culture, of their scientific culture, designed so that they will find true things and weed out false things. If you don't have a degree of solidarity or trust, if you think that scientists are all in cahoots with big corporations or are trying to tear down all faith and values and meaning and you simply refuse to follow through the very long chain of deduction that connects the claims to the experiments, then you'll naturally reject it just because it's not your tribe. For you and me scientists are our tribe and we're apt to give them some credibility, indeed some credulousness, knowing that if ever challenged it would be repaid. But unless you trace that through it can be all too easy to reject the conclusions of science, and indeed a number of studies have shown that contrary to the common belief that people believe in falsehoods, such as that vaccines cause autism or that humans were created five thousand years ago or that the burning of fossil fuels has no effect on global temperatures, it turns out that people with those beliefs that we have every reason to believe are false are no more scientifically naïve on average than people that have beliefs that are scientifically justified. You give a test on evolution to a bunch of people who believe in evolution, give it to a bunch of creationists, there's not much difference in how well they score. In fact, often they are equal. Likewise, the typical grasp of climate science among someone who signs on to the scientific consensus is not much better than the adamant deniers. That kind of dashes the hope that simply by increasing the quality of science education you will lead people to more accurate beliefs. There, in addition, has to be a dissociation of who you think are the good guys and who are the bad guys from who has the best claims to truth. That's what it depends on.”
Keywords: Accuracy_quotes Adament_quotes Adaptability_quotes Addition_quotes Advent_quotes Aid_quotes Animate_quotes Argue_quotes Arrangement_quotes Attempt_quotes Augment_quotes Autism_quotes Availability_quotes Background_quotes Bad_quotes Bed_quotes Belief_quotes Best_quotes Big_quotes Body_quotes Brain_quotes Bump_quotes Bunch_quotes Burn_quotes Cahoot_quotes Chain_quotes Challenge_quotes Circuit_quotes Claim_quotes Clear_quotes Cliff_quotes Climate_quotes Collective_quotes Complexity_quotes Common_quotes Community_quotes Conclusion_quotes Confidence_quotes Connection_quotes Consensus_quotes Consist_quotes Contrary_quotes Convince_quotes Cooperation_quotes Corporation_quotes Correspondence_quotes Cosmic_quotes Creationism_quotes Credibility_quotes Criticism_quotes Culture_quotes Cumulative_quotes Dash_quotes Deal_quotes Death_quotes Deception_quotes Deduction_quotes Defence_quotes Deficit_quotes Degree_quotes Deny_quotes Dependence_quotes Description_quotes Design_quotes Determine_quotes Devise_quotes Differences_quotes Dissociation_quotes Distribution_quotes Dreaming_quotes Early_quotes Easy_quotes Edge_quotes Education_quotes Effect_quotes Engineer_quotes Environment_quotes Essential_quotes Evidence_quotes Evolution_quotes Exotic_quotes Experiment_quotes Explanation_quotes Eye_quotes Faculty_quotes Faith_quotes Fall_quotes Fallible_quotes False_quotes Few_quotes Find_quotes Follow_quotes Fool_quotes Force_quotes Fossil_quotes Fuel_quotes Gadget_quotes Global_quotes Good_quotes Grasp_quotes Guy_quotes Huge_quotes Hypothesis_quotes Illusion_quotes Importance_quotes Increasing_quotes Individual_quotes Infrastructure_quotes Institution_quotes Intelligence_quotes Irrational_quotes Justification_quotes Knowledge_quotes Leave_quotes Life_quotes Light_quotes Logic_quotes Long_quotes Magic_quotes Meaning_quotes Mechanism_quotes Mind_quotes Modern_quotes Moral_quotes Naïve_quotes Nature_quotes Natural_Selection_quotes Network_quotes Neural_quotes Neuroscience_quotes Object_quotes Objectivity_quotes Observation_quotes Obvious_quotes Part_quotes People_quotes Perception_quotes Phenomena_quotes Philosophy_quotes Physical_quotes Pipeline_quotes Possibility_quotes Prehistoric_quotes Prevent_quotes Reality_quotes Reason_quotes Reconstruct_quotes Reflection_quotes Refuse_quotes Refutation_quotes Rejection_quotes Religion_quotes Repay_quotes Respond_quotes Science_quotes Scientist_quotes Score_quotes Seem_quotes Selection_quotes Sense_quotes Show_quotes Sight_quotes Solidarity_quotes Soul_quotes State_quotes Study_quotes Stupidity_quotes Survival_quotes Tear_quotes Temperature_quotes Testing_quotes Theory_quotes Thinking_quotes Time_quotes Touch_quotes Trace_quotes Tree_quotes Tribal_quotes Trust_quotes Truth_quotes Try_quotes Typical_quotes Unaided_quotes Vaccine_quotes Value_quotes Visual_quotes Weed_quotes Weight_quotes Whole_quotes Window_quotes Withstand_quotes World_quotes

Herbert_Simon

Psychology of Choice

“Research findings on the psychology of choice, indicate some properties a thermometer of satisfaction should have. First, unlike the utility function, it is not limited to positive values, but has a zero point (of minimal contentment). Above zero, various degrees of satisfaction are experienced, and below zero, various degrees of dissatisfaction. Second, if periodic readings are taken of people in relatively stable life circumstances, we only occasionally find temperatures very far from zero in either direction, and the divergent measurements tend to regress over time back toward the zero mark. Most people consistently register either slightly below zero (mild discontent) or a little above (moderate satisfaction). To deal with these phenomena, psychology employs the concept of aspiration level... Aspiration levels provide a computational mechanism for satisficing.”
Keywords: Research_quotes Find_quotes Psychology_quotes Choice_quotes Indication_quotes Property_quotes Thermometer_quotes Satisfaction_quotes Utility_quotes Limitation_quotes Positive_quotes Value_quotes Zero_quotes Point_quotes Minimum_quotes Content_quotes Degree_quotes Experience_quotes Dissatisfaction_quotes Period_quotes People_quotes Relative_quotes Stable_quotes Life_quotes Circumstance_quotes Occasional_quotes Temperature_quotes Far_quotes Direction_quotes Divergent_quotes Measurement_quotes Regression_quotes Time_quotes Consistency_quotes Register_quotes Discontent_quotes Moderation_quotes Deal_quotes Phenomena_quotes Employment_quotes Conception_quotes Aspiration_quotes Level_quotes Computation_quotes Mechanism_quotes Satisfice_quotes

Markets and Coordination

“Markets aim to coordinate the decisions and behavior of multitudes of economic actors to guarantee that the quantity of brussels sprouts shipped to market bears some reasonable relation to the quantity that consumers will buy and eat, and that the price at which brussels sprouts can be sold bears a reasonable relation to the cost of producing them. Any society that is not a subsistence economy, but has substantial specialization and division of labor, needs mechanisms to perform this coordinative function. Markets are only one, however, among the spectrum of mechanisms of coordination on which any society relies. [central planning, bargaining and negotiation, business, government, education, balloting procedures]”
Keywords: Market_quotes Aim_quotes Coordination_quotes Decision_quotes Behavior_quotes Multitude_quotes Economics_quotes Actor_quotes Guarantee_quotes Quantity_quotes Brussels_Sprount_quotes Market_quotes Reason_quotes Relational_quotes Consumer_quotes Buy_quotes Eat_quotes Price_quotes Sell_quotes Cost_quotes Production_quotes Society_quotes Subsistence_quotes Economy_quotes Substance_quotes Specialization_quotes Division_quotes Labor_quotes Mechanism_quotes Performance_quotes Function_quotes Spectrum_quotes Reliance_quotes Centralization_quotes Plan_quotes Bargin_quotes Negotiation_quotes Business_quotes Government_quotes Education_quotes Ballot_quotes Procedure_quotes

Invisible Hand

“In examining the processes of social coordination, economics has given top billing sometimes almost exclusive billing to the market mechanism. It is indeed a remarkable mechanism... The optimality theorems stretch credibility, so far as real-world markets are concerned, because they require substantive rationality of the kinds we found implausible in our examination of the theory of the firm. Markets populated by consumers and producers who satisfice instead of optimizing do not meet the conditions on which the theorems rest.”
Keywords: Examination_quotes Process_quotes Social_quotes Coordination_quotes Economics_quotes Top_quotes Bill_quotes Exclusive_quotes Market_quotes Mechanism_quotes Optimal_quotes Theory_quotes Stretch_quotes Credible_quotes Reality_quotes World_quotes Substance_quotes Rational_quotes Plausible_quotes Examination_quotes Firm_quotes Population_quotes Consumer_quotes Producer_quotes Satisfice_quotes Optimization_quotes Condition_quotes Invisible_quotes Hand_quotes

Design without Final Goals

“In the discussion of discovery processes. We saw there that search guided by only the most general heuristics of ‘interestingness’ or novelty is a fully realizable activity. This kind of search, which provides the mechanism for scientific discovery, may also provide the most suitable model of the social design process.”
Keywords: Discussion_quotes Discovery_quotes Process_quotes Search_quotes Guide_quotes Generality_quotes Heuristic_quotes Interest_quotes Novelty_quotes Full_quotes Realizable_quotes Activity_quotes Kind_quotes Provide_quotes Mechanism_quotes Science_quotes Suitability_quotes Model_quotes Social_quotes Design_quotes

Gerald_Weinberg

Vending Machines

“When the vending machines had been in the common room, a large crowd always hovered around them — but not particularly for fol-de-rol, as the manager had so quickly assumed... Informal mechanisms always exist and it is dangerous to change things without understanding them.”
  • Source: Chapter 4. Weinberg, G. M. (2011). The Psychology of Computer Programming (Silver anniversary edition) | 1971. Weinberg & Weinberg.
Keywords: Programming_quotes Vending_quotes Machine_quotes Common_quotes Room_quotes Crowd_quotes Group_quotes Manager_quotes Informal_quotes Mechanism_quotes Change_quotes Risk_quotes Understanding_quotes Cooperation_quotes Danger_quotes Fol-de-rol_quotes Quick_quotes Assume_quotes Exist_quotes

Stephen_Wolfram

Simple Purpose

“Whenever there’s computational irreducibility we can think of it as exerting a powerful force towards unpredictability and randomness... So for a system to achieve an overall “computationally simple purpose” this computational irreducibility must in some sense be tamed, or at least contained. And in fact it’s an inevitable feature of computational irreducibility that within it there must be “pockets of computational reducibility” where simpler behavior occurs. And at some level the way computationally simple purposes must be achieved is by tapping into those pockets of reducibility. When there’s computational irreducibility it means that there’s no simple narrative one can expect to give of how a system behaves, and no overall “mechanism” one can expect to identify for it. But one can think of pockets of computational reducibility as corresponding to at least small-scale “identifiable mechanisms”... When there’s a “simple overall purpose” being achieved these mechanisms tend to become more manifest.”
Keywords: Computation_quotes Irreducibility_quotes Think_quotes Exertion_quotes Powerful_quotes Force_quotes Toward_quotes Unpredictability_quotes Predictability_quotes Randomness_quotes System_quotes Achieve_quotes Simple_quotes Purpose_quotes Tame_quotes Contain_quotes Inevitable_quotes Feature_quotes Pocket_quotes Reducible_quotes Behavior_quotes Occur_quotes Level_quotes Way_quotes Tap_quotes Narrative_quotes Expect_quotes Overall_quotes Mechanism_quotes Identify_quotes Correspond_quotes Least_quotes Small_quotes Scale_quotes Tend_quotes Become_quotes Manifest_quotes
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