computer science
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The Mysterious Power of Naming in Human Cognition
Taoism, boundaries, infinity, and computational daemons
Of all the fairy tales I encountered as a child, Rumpelstiltskin always struck me as the most peculiar. The story revolves around a girl who must spin straw into gold or face death at the hands of the king. A dwarf appears out of nowhere, and spins the straw into gold — for a price.…
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The Mysterious Power of Naming in Human Cognition
I’ve written a long-form essay for the blog/aggregator site 3 Quarks Daily: Boundaries and Subtleties: the Mysterious Power of Naming in Human Cognition Here’s a taster: I’ve divided up the essay into four parts. Here’s the plan: We’ll introduce two key motifs — the named and the nameless — with a little help from the Tao Te…