Thursday, April 18, 2013

There is a Universal Language

Over the last century a small group of researchers, working largely independently and in isolation, have discovered and refined an Universal Language.

This is a logic-symbolic notation, not a spoken language (i.e. not like Esperanto), that captures and expresses the essence of logical reasoning in a direct and unmistakable way.

The rules of logical reasoning (and Set Theory, etc.) expressed in the Universal Language admit of a decision procedure that is of unprecedented simplicity and power.

It is the alphabet of thought.

I'm still gathering threads and learning but I've compiled a few links and a bit of history:
  • C. S. Pierce, Existential Graphs, circa 1890
  • Spencer-Brown, "Laws of Form"
  • Bricken, http://iconicmath.com/
  • Shroup, http://www.lawsofform.org/
  • Burnett-Stuart, http://www.markability.net/
For your sake and the sake of the children, go read this, and tell the people.

Friday, April 12, 2013

Everybody Knows

So it turns out everybody knows.  So why doesn't everybody know?


I was reading "Boundary Algebra: A Simple Notation for Boolean Algebra and the Truth Functors" Meguire 2007 last night and he lays it all out, better than I ever could.  He mentions the NOR-gate thing in a footnote.  Everybody knows.


So why doesn't everybody know?


If there is only one utterly simple and direct notation interpreted in a few straightforward ways that opens the door to Logic (all kinds including circuits) Set Theory, mathematics, every kind of structured thought that we've been separately developing, doesn't it make sense to say that there "is only one" notation?


Aren't the others historical artefacts of the journey, the life, of ideas that led us to the place where we could articulate the Laws of Form?


Why not rebuild the edifice on such a foundation?  I double-dog dare you.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

The Egg of Ouroboros - TOC

I should be working, but...

The Egg of Ouroboros
A Notation for Tractable Reasoning

Table of Contents

0. Nonsensical Formalities

I. "Formal Nonsense"

  In the Land of Nomy

    The Guardians

    The Guardians Again

  In the Land of Nor

    Circuits

    More Circuits

    More Names

    Meaning

    Programming

    Cybernetics [is Category Theory]

    Gödel Machines

    Intention

Conclusion

Appendix A: A Universal Circuit?
Appendix B: Curious Musicians

References & Recommended Reading

Saturday, April 6, 2013

What is left to be done?

Really, what is left to be done?

For the prepared mind the LoF formalism is the last thought one needs to have.  It becomes evident that you could regenerate the Universe from any least part of it ("in a grain of sand" and all that.)  And it also becomes obvious that one has access to the entire structure and knowledge of all the Universe, and that this exact moment is itself encoded and necessitated by the structure of structure, one has only to "grok", there is nothing else.

For the unprepared mind all the mystic stuff is just so much annoying woolly-headed crack-pottery.

The only thing in this for such a one is the (secular, temporal) advantages for building computing machinery.  This is fun, but hardly useful.  (I am speaking from the point-of-view of the Mystic now, where all Human experience is always and only for the purpose of transcendence and our temporal motivations are all revealed as mistaken attempts to achieve transcendence.  From this point-of-view all our fancy toys are just more "maya", distracting illusion.)

There are tremendous powers and abilities that we can "unlock" with our machines, but a sort of safety-net seems to operate naturally where people who are emotionally and rationally unprepared for the implications of the work are simply unable to approach it.

How many minds could stare at a page of equations and recognize "the Destroyer of Worlds"?  If the atom bomb were a secret and somebody tried to tell you about it you'd think he was mad, no?  Even with the equations in hand it would be extremely challenging to realistically imagine the in-some-sense-obvious consequences.

I have access to a well-stocked electronics lab and I am sorely tempted to develop some new physical machines with unexpected properties to "force" the issue, but at the same time, my real interest is in helping people transcend, not in developing more distracting technology.

Honestly, I should go find a cave on the top of a mountain somewhere and just consider myself lucky that no-one is trying to nail me to anything.