Note 112

The world as a game; solipsism as a specific form of coherentism. It just happens to be the self this time round as subject. If there is a question, there must be an answer. If there is truth, there is a questioner. There may be as many truths as there are questioners, but only one truth to one questioner.

The problem is not the problem, it is the solution.

***
Subjectivity and objectivity are akin to structure and content. There can be no structure without content, and no content without structure; the former to concretize, the latter to relate.

Note 111

Why we have not reached the end of history: just as private conflicts can be regulated only by the action of the society in which the individuals live, so inter-societal conflicts can be regulated only by a society which comprises in its scope all others. (Durkheim) World history includes this process of incorporation by a world society which is not yet formed.

Thoughts on AI 2

Human cognitive levels accompany the stages of economic development. A developing country requires one kind of cognitive process; a developed country another to grow.

The main effect of AI would be to reshape the landscape of the kind of cognitive processes required for growth into new forms, both from the supply and on the demand side, and engender new dynamics of evolution; in ways that may evolve quickly and with uncertainty. Permutations, already increased by the proliferation of interfaces, increase through the proliferation of cognitive process only bounded by testing for use. The key question is whether human nature will change. This will depend on the extent of augmentation and augmented interfaces.

Thoughts on AI 1

The real bottlenecks in economic growth are demand side, not supply side. By this, I mean not just meat-stick interface for processes, but meat-based consumption. Economic growth would be much higher if AI consumed what AI produced. It is precisely this paradox: that human consumption is the ultimate good at the macro level, yet counts for so little at the micro one in a Veblen society. This paradox is as necessary as it is inane, and just reminds you that values at the emergent level almost always contradict those that produce them, a weird construction of the world.

Tractatus Notes 1

Initial notes:

Representation is the characterizing of something in relation to its general form. What is the more general form of logic? Knowing this would allow us to represent logical propositions. But there is no "more general form of logic". Logic just are the relations represented by logical axioms.

As for rule following in elucidations of sense, it is more properly termed an identification of the terms by which one structure fits isomorphically with another. This identification is the act of fitting a specific framework of patterns within a more general and fine-grained fabric, and of identifying the patterns within both that represent the other.

***
Russell's paradox is a contradiction between two predicates, one an explicit one, and the other a predicate which defines a subject. It is not a general problem, and has received more attention than it deserves.

***
"As logic defines the limit of what can be thought, and as forms cannot represent themselves, one can only show, not speak logic."

Wittgenstein confuses sense and reference in defining the meaning of propositions. The picture theory of meaning allows him to claim that the limits of logic, which define the limits of reference, define the limits of what can be said. However, propositions point to sense also. Hence we can grasp the sense of "it is raining and not raining" or "purple is three years old" in order to point to its absence of reference.

At the level of sense, logic just is a set of rules for relationships between concepts, and is not a transcendental limit.

Note 110

Relative wages measure the relative marginal social benefit of effort. Inefficient labour markets abound, because wealth distorts the price of utility, because of imperfect information, and because of organisational complexity. Where this happens, economic inequalities worsen and social problems arise, creating adjustments in politics, aimed at correcting this imbalance.

Note 109

The thing about applied social subjects is that context is at least as, if not more important than broad principles per se. Statements are generalisable to a much lesser degree than often assumed. This is because theory is much more accessible than live information required for contextualised understanding.

For instance, our understanding of economics is incomplete because of a lack of understanding of the cultural and historically contingent factors that determine expectations of consumers and producers, the conditions and motivations of innovators and market adopters, and forms of economic organisation. This may not be easily generalised or mathematically tractable.

International relations often operates on an ideological-descriptive plane of broad generalizations, which often confuses debate when it is used to assess practice, and operates on the wrong level.

Note 108

At the meta level, principles and pragmatism become mutually reinforcing. One is principled because one is pragmatic (rule utilitarianism), and one cannot be effectively pragmatic unless one is principled (idealism).

This is a familiar contrast between an external necessity and internal necessity, and paradoxically, both are necessary for effective action. Contrasting the two is a pointless exercise in poor judgement.

Note 107

What is the role of the state? It is to be the center of gravity, the anchoring point, within relationships that are built on social order.

Note 106

The self is a way of reconstructing the structural features of the world within representational contexts that reflect the roles of differentiation and their combinations with each other.

There is not one structural feature that differentiates the self, but multiple, and the primacy of the features will depend on the situation represented.

Again, this is not to say that the self is constitutionally functionalist, as the structural features remain the underlying foundational reference parameters within which the representational construct of the self is built, and which secures its identity.

Of course, the claim is made that these are pragmatic, not essential. But this is a feature of the world, not of thought.

Note 105

One of the tasks in philosophy is to understand the roles of content and structure, to distinguish features within concepts which embody necessary structural forms from that which is contingent.

For example, in the argument over the fact-value distinction, there is a two-level separation: the selection of principles underlying rational acceptability is value-driven, while the notion of fact which is attributed to statements which fulfil the condition of rational acceptability is not, because they are not constituted by an intentional stance. As an example, while it is meaningful to say that what a computer states is true, it is meaningless to say that what a computer did is immoral.

This division is valid because the fact-value distinction is a matter of structural difference in notions, not of the ontological or conceptual content of the statements themselves. Hence, genealogical considerations are not relevant in the case here.

Within public debate, it may be right to note that choice of facts, and the selection of frames within which we relate facts to each other, must rely on pragmatic values. This is not to say that notions of facts themselves are empty without values.

Note 104

Cultures are pluralistic interpretations of the fundamental principles they embody, in determining the content and interactions of myths and symbols. The depth and adaptiveness of the interpretation will determine the flourishing of the individuals and societies that carry them.

The task for the post-colonial societies is to identify these guiding principles for a post-industrial age, so as to better determine the elements within the forms of culture which must align to universal necessity, rather than remain pejoratively neglected by conservatives as manifestations of "the West", and those which remain unique to the cultures that embody them.

Note 103

The pressure of a modern economy on politics is to create a system which enables the incorporation of an array of an expanding scope of interactions.

The push factor is increasing fragility due to rising expectations, which leads to the development of its opposite: incorporative mechanisms.

The pull factor is the idealistic quest for the incorporation of increasing numbers of parameters to generate perfection of form. The macro-dynamic is driven by multiple micro-dynamics (individuals, organizations) with different end products but similar principles of evolution. Note, however, path dependency, and collapse and rejuvenation.

The Paradox of American Power

The paradox of American power: in forgoing its national interest, it builds institutions that strengthen it. To do so, it relies on other countries to finance it. This weakens it. The American system is reciprocal, and creates stability in the short run, but instability over time. To offset this, it needs to maintain an ideological and technological advantage, as the basis for economic advantage. Sacrifice is the keyword to reciprocity, balanced by strength. Increasingly this strength is premised on dominance of key platform technologies within networks (not just technological, but linguistic, ideational, financial, economic, and political). American power is vested in the stable order created by these relationships; it functions as a platform power.

In contrast, the German hegemonic and Chinese hegemonic systems exhibit different core characteristics. The German hegemonic system is fundamentally extractive, as the response to the EU financial crisis has shown. The Chinese system is built on ethnic discretion, not universal ideas. The former forms the foundation of collapse, the latter the problem of incompleteness. The interesting development to watch will the influence of modernity on the Chinese capacity to promote universal forms of power, both pragmatic and ideological.

Note 102

There is path dependency in the taking of political decisions that influence inequality. In particular, the distribution of assets will determine the kind of decisions that economic agencies take that may influence the balance of inflation, growth and wages, and equality, and so on. Hence the distribution of wealth has a tendency to create feedback loops with policies that influence it.

Time 1

History is essentially a way of representing cause in terms of condition, becoming in terms of being.

Our conceptual notion of time is given in terms of the conceptual ordering of the condition stack. Time seems ordered because laws govern the conditions which express the order of time. The experience of time is neither linear or nonlinear, it is the ordering that interprets it, and gives it content. Cause is the coincidence of the forward movement of time and conditional relations.

Ordered time represents the incomplete actualization of condition stacks. If all condition stacks were given, or if the world were fully determined by given conditions, ordered time would be conceptually redundant. That is, it will play no ontological role as a platform for causal relations. It's role is then purely psychological.

Alternatively, time is a way of picking out one among many possible worlds, that is, it functions as existence, the slip between the lip (of becoming) and cup (of conditions).

Note 101

America's core competency is in global public goods, specifically, core platform technologies and the institutions that support them. Geostrategically, hard power issues regarding China will resolve themselves as US can conduct offshore balancing with Japan and India. Core platform technologies (English language, reserve currency services, ideology, pole position in internet and media governance, science and technology) need to be supplemented to offset the OBOR offensive.

China is placing large bets on emerging markets; India is a major foil. Internet and logistics companies are potential game-changers.

Multipolarity will create interesting and pragmatic alliances based on common interests. Institutional governance will become more fluid, along with more varied and syncretic cultural textures.

Note 100

Life is problem solving. How do problems relate to each other and why?

Note 99

What is cultural normalisation? An ideology which cannot incorporate an aspect of human nature de-normalises it, creating an extreme compensating excess. I am thinking of two examples: racism in Western societies, and alcoholism (the compensation to a tyranny of social norms) in Britain. I am contrasting this with normalised, institutionalised racism in East Asian societies, and integrated drinking cultures in the Mediterranean.

Objects 1

Objects are a function (in the functional, not in the input-output sense) relating properties to systems. Objects are collections of properties that function within a system, while properties are elemental facts that are brought together by systemic functioning. Objects are anchors of expression of emergent systems of meaning (by turning some properties into nouns and other properties into verbs), and function in a mutually reciprocating relation to these ways of thinking.