Re‐Introducing Szabonian Deconstruction - jalToorey/IdealMoney GitHub Wiki
The divine is a brilliant metaphor for the lack of ability of a single mind to rationally understand the functions of traditions. ~ Szabo Objective Versus Intersubjective Truth
A Proposed Useful Construction of Nick Szabo's Synthesis of Algorithmic Information Theory and Usefully Traversing Intersubjective Truths
Some essays on this repo/wiki, especially those enumerated 1 to 15 build up and exemplify a concept we refer to as "Szabonian deconstruction":
Szabonian deconstruction is our construction or re-framing of something Nick Szabo wrote of in his essay Hermeneutics: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Tradition.
Szabo creates a framework traversing inter-generationally formed human institutions and customs etc. that weren't necessarily formed from simple and direct logic and reason. That there is perhaps useful information in these "cultural artifacts" but the useful information isn't necessarily readily reverse extrapolatable. Szabo builds a special framework for perspective, however, by considering the layers implied by "events of applied interpretation" of such artifacts (as an example a legal interpretation event maps perfectly with Szabo's framing which is not so coincidental since he has a degree in law):
Analyzing the deconstruction methodology of hermeneutics in terms of evolutionary epistimology is enlightening. We see that constructions are vaguely like "mutations", but far more sophisticated -- the constructions are introduced by people attempting to solve a problem, usually either of translation or application. An application is the "end use" of a traditional text, such the judge applying the law to a case, or a preacher writing a sermon based on a verse from Scripture. In construction the judge, in the process of resolving a novel case sets a precedent, and the preacher, in the process of applying a religious doctrine to a novel cotemporary moral problem, thereby change the very doctrine they apply.
Szabo's Introduction and Extension of Algorithmic Information Theory
... the problem of learning the whole is formalized as a matter of finding all regularities in the whole, which is equivalent to universal compression, which is equivalent to finding the Kolmogorov complexity of the whole. This formal method of analyzing messages, is, not surprisingly, derived from the general mathematics of messages, namely algorithmic information theory (AIT). ~ Szabo Hermeneutics: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Tradition
From our previous essay An Introduction to Szabonian Deconstruction we noted Szabo's formalization of complexity distance with regard to comparing intersubjective content (Szabo's formalization comes from his introduction to algorithmic information theory):
Distance, as the remoteness of two bodies of knowledge, was first recognized in the field of hermeneutics, the interpretation of traditional texts such as legal codes. To formalize this idea, consider two photographs represented as strings of bits. The Hamming distance is an unsatisfactory measure since a picture and its negative, quite similar to each other and each easily derived from the other, have a maximal Hamming distance. A more satisfactory measure is the information distance of Li and Vitanyi: E(x,y) = max ( K(y|x),K(x|y) )
This distance measure accounts for any kind of similarity between objects. This distance also measures the shortest program that transforms x into y and y into x. The minimal amount of irreversibility required to transform string x into string y is given by KR(x,y) = K(y|x) + K(x|y)
Our Wrapper Syntax as an Experimental Implementation of Szabonian Construction
To represent a construction to be deconstructed by approaching complex intersubjective content from Szabo's framework and considerations we propose the syntax:
wrapper{object}
We introduced the syntax and implementations with purposeful 'looseness' as well as as matched it loosely with computer science concepts/syntax:
Objects, wrappers, wrapping, interfaces are computer science lingo. We are purposefully mixing computer science into the lexicon of this essay and purposefully being loose and informal while doing so as part of our inquiry and experiment. An interface here loosely refers to a filter or translator which allows one to usefully view or interact with an idea, object, subject etc. Another useful metaphor for interface is a skin:
In video games, the term "skin" is similarly used to refer to an in-game character or cosmetic options for a player's character and other in-game items, which can range from different color schemes, to more elaborate designs and costumes.
Synthetic and Biomotivated Constructions
Szabo gives us two categories and their definitions for constructions to be possibly considered to be under:
Thus, the Darwinian process of selection between traditions is accompanied by a Lamarckian process of accumulation and distortion of tradition in the process of solving specific problems. We might expect some constructions to advance a political ideology, or to be biased by the sexist or racist psychology of the translator or applicator, as some of Derrida's followers would have it. However, these kinds of constructions can be subsumed under two additional constructions suggested by the evolutionary methodology: synthesis and biomotivation.
Synthetic construction consists of one or more of:
- the development of a new element that synthesizes traditions
- the synthesis of texts or parts of texts into new texts
- new texts which incorporate such syntheses
Biomotivated constructions derive primarily from biological considerations: epigenetic motivations as studied by behavioral ecology[2, 8] or environmental contingencies of the period, such as plague, drought, etc. ~ Szabo Hermeneutics: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Tradition
Thought Systems As Inputs For Turing Machines‐Our Tool For Framing Metaphors Of Intersubjective Truths
Throughout our enumerated essay's we develop a mapation of our ideas with Szabo's framation of useful constructions. The basic suggestion comes from a softer or social interpretation of Godel's incompleteness theoreums with regard to the idea of a system's inability to assert its own completeness.
We simply note that in regard to cultural constructions it actual make sense for survivorship that a culture would assert the consistency of their axioms in the face of observable inconsistency.
Thus we should practice hermeneutical inquiry of intersubjective truths by expecting layers of 'wrapping' or constructing axioms of consistency to inconsistent constructions (an example could be the resurrection of a fallen hero or a reinterpretation of a smashed idol).
This practice of looking for axioms of consistency is our construction of Szabo's work we call Szabonian Deconstruction.
Re-visiting the Asymmetry/Symmetry of English/Japanese
From an earlier writing we can see an example of our Szabonian deconstruction syntax and how it might simplify our expressions when comparing complexity regarding intersubjective truths:
Chomsky explains English and Japanese, as complexly different as they appear, are actually symmetrical on a principal level:
...for example in some languages like English, it's called a head first language. The verb precedes the object, then the preposition precedes the object to preposition and so on other languages like say Japanese is almost a mirror image the verb follows the object being post positions not prepositions and so on.
The ordering is part of the training set in the environment:
...the languages are virtually mirror images of each other. And you have to set the parameters-the child has to set the parameters to say am I talking English or Am I talking Japanese.
On Chomskian Simplicity and Bohmian Ordination
The idea is that we can relate the mathematical similarity with the APPERENT observable irreversibility as having some form a distance complexity with our syntax.
Our nashLinterSyntax is meant to capture higher order (inter-culture) inter-subjective truths and so we feel it represents Chomsky's distinction about the simplicity and complexity (symmetrical complexity) of language well:
english{japanese} || japanese{english}
(probably only one of the pair is necessary to show Chomskian simplicity/complexity etc.)
Furthermore, the ordering maps well with the concept of Bohmian Order.