If you're not familiar with Meow Wolf, you should definitely check out their Origin Story film: https://originstory.mw/
It's just such an inspiring story about a group of humans who absolutely poured every last drop of their souls into their work. Meow Wolf holds a really special place in my brain. I hope before I'm done I can make something 1/10th as cool as what they've created.
>Everyone needs to know how happy Matt was. Not always, but recently. People need to know what demons he held at bay. Real ones.
We live in strange times when we can look into space with incredible resolution, but even artists don't have the tools to express the inner structures of their mind that makes them feel bad.
It's strange that Chemistry could identify the structure of so many molecules without ever seeing them but we can't do the same with the structures of the mind.
What are the obstacles that prevent us from reasoning about our mind structures like we reason about software?
We have built a telescope in space to kind of avoid blind spots. What can we build to avoid the blind spots for ourselves? I would expect some form of collaboration since others are not inhibited by our own blind spots.
Software is made of human ideas molded into grammar, syntax, and abstractions. We know how to work with those at every level.
The mind is made of and affected by proteins, enzymes, small molecules. Those form cells, and larger structures, but at every level it is exceptionally hard for us to work with those building blocks.
There's no nice formulas or method that can tell you what a protein does, or how to design one that does what you want.
It is as if every single token of the source code was encrypted, and it took great effort to translate anything, word by word, slowly and painstakingly.
One thing we can do is take small bits of code, put them in thousands of slightly different live systems, and watch what happens. Clinical trials. That helps a lot, but it is still an uphill battle trying to understand the far future alien technology that is biology.
Do we have to understand the biological level? We don't talk about silicon when we talk about software.
Art shows us the structure of the mind without the need of understanding its physical representation. Another way is spirituality where structures are called demons.
We have some understanding of art, but it feels as limited as medieval alchemy. There must be a better way to approach our mind.
>Those who agree point to LoF as embodying an enigmatic "mathematics of consciousness", its algebraic symbolism capturing an (perhaps even "the") implicit root of cognition
I had not heard of Meow Wolf, or Matt King, before this.
Sounds mega-cool, and I'd like to visit these installations.
I'm familiar with the type of person that Matt King was. Can be incredibly motivating to be around, but also, the intensity level is so high, it seems unsustainable.
It does seem that the world is a slightly darker place, now.
I read the obituary before I realized that I had seen Meow Wolf before. There had been a TikTok video of someone opening up a dryer, crawling through it to this crazy psychedelic room. It blew my mind and I remember thinking, jesus christ whoever built this is on another level.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 48.9 ms ] threadSad to see such a creative person go :(
It's just such an inspiring story about a group of humans who absolutely poured every last drop of their souls into their work. Meow Wolf holds a really special place in my brain. I hope before I'm done I can make something 1/10th as cool as what they've created.
We live in strange times when we can look into space with incredible resolution, but even artists don't have the tools to express the inner structures of their mind that makes them feel bad.
It's strange that Chemistry could identify the structure of so many molecules without ever seeing them but we can't do the same with the structures of the mind.
What are the obstacles that prevent us from reasoning about our mind structures like we reason about software?
The mind is made of and affected by proteins, enzymes, small molecules. Those form cells, and larger structures, but at every level it is exceptionally hard for us to work with those building blocks.
There's no nice formulas or method that can tell you what a protein does, or how to design one that does what you want.
It is as if every single token of the source code was encrypted, and it took great effort to translate anything, word by word, slowly and painstakingly.
One thing we can do is take small bits of code, put them in thousands of slightly different live systems, and watch what happens. Clinical trials. That helps a lot, but it is still an uphill battle trying to understand the far future alien technology that is biology.
Art shows us the structure of the mind without the need of understanding its physical representation. Another way is spirituality where structures are called demons.
We have some understanding of art, but it feels as limited as medieval alchemy. There must be a better way to approach our mind.
It, however, has historically contributed less to the success of medicine than furthering our understanding of biology.
So, I have a pretty narrow, muleheaded interest in evidence-based beliefs that pay their rents in predictions about the world.
Those I like, because they sometimes convert into useful medical interventions.
>Those who agree point to LoF as embodying an enigmatic "mathematics of consciousness", its algebraic symbolism capturing an (perhaps even "the") implicit root of cognition
Sounds mega-cool, and I'd like to visit these installations.
I'm familiar with the type of person that Matt King was. Can be incredibly motivating to be around, but also, the intensity level is so high, it seems unsustainable.
It does seem that the world is a slightly darker place, now.
I feel sad even though I never met the guy.