Jul 12, 2023·edited Jul 12, 2023Liked by Brett Andersen
Throughout literature and philosophy, one commonly sees this tension between the mechanistic worldview and the musical one, like you said. They are really two differing archetypes, two modes of thought each producing their own way of interpreting the world.
I’m reminded of what theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote, “for the enlightened eye of the saints, the world is a continuously-enacted miracle but conformity to mechanical law of the world […] conceals divine Providence from us.”
Philosopher Hannah Arendt put it more secularly, “the new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability. The new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.”
I've always been drawn to this view. Grasping life and history mechanically is to not really grasp it at all. Additionally, I think the day history and life moves entirely by mechanical laws and predictive power, is the day humanity ceases to exist - luckily, life has not yet been reduced to inputs and output
The autistic/schizo dichotomy is quite a useful way of understanding people's view of the world, but I've seen scientists analyze music mathematically, and I've seen scientists treat quantum field theory like a musical orchestra (for the latter example, Richard Feynman comes to mind).
Your “autistic/engineering” vs “positive schizotypal” model maps really well to brain hemisphere theory. I think you’ll enjoy this Ted Talk https://youtu.be/UyyjU8fzEYU Insightful and well written thanks for sharing!
Brett, to which extent echoes this dichotomy Nietzsche’s distinction between the Apollonian and Dionysian? And McGilchrist’s work on the two brain hemispheres?
Brett, just as a thought: AI and especially the LLMs have now become much better at pattern recognition (in addition to its original strengths in logic and algebra, LHS of the brain phenomena). Intuition in humans is largely based on recognizing patterns. This is a holistic type of cognition, which resides according to McGilchrist in the RHS of the brain. Language is located in the LHS of the brain, so that intuition cannot easily be put in words. How realistic is it then to expect explainable AI (XAI) around those neural nets that pick up on these complex patterns? Seems unlikely to me but I am curious to know your thoughts.
Throughout literature and philosophy, one commonly sees this tension between the mechanistic worldview and the musical one, like you said. They are really two differing archetypes, two modes of thought each producing their own way of interpreting the world.
I’m reminded of what theologian Sergei Bulgakov wrote, “for the enlightened eye of the saints, the world is a continuously-enacted miracle but conformity to mechanical law of the world […] conceals divine Providence from us.”
Philosopher Hannah Arendt put it more secularly, “the new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability. The new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.”
I've always been drawn to this view. Grasping life and history mechanically is to not really grasp it at all. Additionally, I think the day history and life moves entirely by mechanical laws and predictive power, is the day humanity ceases to exist - luckily, life has not yet been reduced to inputs and output
When is the next installment to the YouTube series!
The autistic/schizo dichotomy is quite a useful way of understanding people's view of the world, but I've seen scientists analyze music mathematically, and I've seen scientists treat quantum field theory like a musical orchestra (for the latter example, Richard Feynman comes to mind).
Your “autistic/engineering” vs “positive schizotypal” model maps really well to brain hemisphere theory. I think you’ll enjoy this Ted Talk https://youtu.be/UyyjU8fzEYU Insightful and well written thanks for sharing!
Brett, to which extent echoes this dichotomy Nietzsche’s distinction between the Apollonian and Dionysian? And McGilchrist’s work on the two brain hemispheres?
Brett, just as a thought: AI and especially the LLMs have now become much better at pattern recognition (in addition to its original strengths in logic and algebra, LHS of the brain phenomena). Intuition in humans is largely based on recognizing patterns. This is a holistic type of cognition, which resides according to McGilchrist in the RHS of the brain. Language is located in the LHS of the brain, so that intuition cannot easily be put in words. How realistic is it then to expect explainable AI (XAI) around those neural nets that pick up on these complex patterns? Seems unlikely to me but I am curious to know your thoughts.