The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce - by Umberto Eco, Thomas Albert Sebeok et al (more)

Jacques Derrida (/dɛrɪˈdə, ˈdɛriːdɑː/;[4] French: [ʒak dɛʁida]; born Jackie Élie Derrida;[5] 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French philosopher born in Algeria. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, and which was developed through close readings of the linguistics of Ferdinand de Saussure and Husserlian and Heideggerian phenomenology.[6][7][8] He is one of the major figures associated with post-structuralism and postmodern philosophy[9][10][11] although he distanced himself from post-structuralism and disavowed the word "postmodernity". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Derrida

Post-structuralism is a philosophical movement that questions the objectivity or stability of the various interpretive structures that are posited by structuralism and considers them to be constituted by broader systems of power.[1] Although different post-structuralists present different critiques of structuralism, common themes include the rejection of the self-sufficiency of structuralism, as well as an interrogation of the binary oppositions that constitute its structures. Accordingly, post-structuralism discards the idea of interpreting media (or the world) within pre-established, socially constructed structures. Structuralism proposes that human culture can be understood by means of a structure that is modeled on language. As a result, there is concrete reality on the one hand, abstract ideas about reality on the other hand, and a "third order" that mediates between the two.[6] A post-structuralist response, then, might suggest that in order to build meaning out of such an interpretation, one must (falsely) assume that the definitions of these signs are both valid and fixed, and that the author employing structuralist theory is somehow above and apart from these structures they are describing so as to be able to wholly appreciate them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-structuralism

Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventions, which include the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb, have had a widespread impact on the modern industrialized world. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of organized science and teamwork to the process of invention, working with many researchers and employees. He established the first industrial research laboratory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison

Nikola Tesla[a] (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American engineer, futurist, and inventor. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system... He worked for a short time at the Thomas Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system, which Westinghouse marketed... Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Electric Car company created by Elon Musk, named for Nikola Tesla

Abductive reasoning (also called abduction,[1] abductive inference,[1] or retroduction[2]) is a form of logical inference that seeks the simplest and most likely conclusion from a set of observations. It was formulated and advanced by American philosopher and logician Charles S Peirce beginning in the latter half of the 19th century. Abductive reasoning, unlike deductive reasoning, yields a plausible conclusion but does not definitively verify it. Abductive conclusions do not eliminate uncertainty or doubt, which is expressed in terms such as "best available" or "most likely". While inductive reasoning draws general conclusions that apply to many situations, abductive conclusions are confined to the particular observations in question (context)... Properly used, abductive reasoning can be a useful source of priors in Bayesian statistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning

The new magnetism of mid-size cities (mid-size city). There are no studies yet measuring the movement by what some call “boomerangs,” those millennials moving back to their hometowns from larger cities, and much of the evidence is anecdotal at best. (more)

Past and present reads. Bolded-titles were faves. See esp. Greatest Books (more)

Ian Bull: Beads - Memory for your Agent and The Best Damn Issue Tracker Your're Not Using. Fifteen years ago, while converting the Eclipse Project from CVS to Git, Chris Aniszczyk mused about a distributed issue tracker. The idea stuck with me. I figured someone smarter than me would eventually build it. Turns out Steve Yegge did, but for a reason none of us anticipated: AI agents need external memory. (more)

Paddo: Beads: Memory for Your Coding Agents. In my previous post on Steve Yegge, I covered his “divers and CNC machines” thesis: current agents burn context like oxygen, and the future is orchestrated swarms. His new project, Beads, is a step toward that future. (more)

Koustubh: Building Apps with AI: How beads Changed My Development Workflow. (more)

UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change http://www.ipcc.ch/ (more)

Exodus: General Idea of the Revolution in the XXI Century by Kevin Carson, 2021 (more)

Real Estate Investing for Dummies by Eric Tyson (Author), Robert S. Griswold (Author) (more)

Humans (Homo sapiens, meaning "thinking man" or "wise man") are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the only extant species of the genus Homo. They are great apes characterized by hairlessness, obligate bipedality, manual dexterity with opposable thumbs, precision grip, and high intelligence.[1] Humans have large brains compared to body size (a high encephalization quotient), enabling more advanced cognitive skills that facilitate successful adaptation to varied environments, development of sophisticated tools, and formation of complex social structures and civilizations.[2] Humans possess a disproportionately larger volume of both cerebral white matter and gray matter present in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) than any other primate species, which facilitated the expansion of higher-order executive functions.[3][4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human

The sapient paradox is a question that can be formulated as "why there was such a long gap between emergence of genetically and anatomically modern humans and the development of complex behaviors?" Homo sapiens emerged as a species somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 (or even 200,000) years ago, but the behaviour that is associated with modern humans began to emerge and accelerate only 10,000 years ago. The question was first formulated by archaeologist Colin Renfrew in 1996. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapient_paradox

Jason Smith on Polycrisis, complex systems and trust. Daniel Drezner mentioned complex systems in his article on “polycrisis” so that makes it relevant for me to talk about — after all, the raison d'être of information equilibrium is to provide tractable ways to take on complex systems. (more)

see Dunbar number

Erik Hoel: Your Book Review: The Dawn Of Everything. ON ROUSSEAU, ESSAY CONTESTS, POLITICAL MOTIVATIONS FOR REVISITING THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION, AND THE BOOK IS INTRODUCED (more)