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FYI...(got the wrong email comment list address last
time)
Ranjeeth Kumar Thunga
I have
personally found we as humans are quite able to hone our mind in various
disciplines. However, in other arenas we don't use precise logic at all,
relying on wordplay and so-called 'common-sense' to describe the truth
instead. This appeal to 'common sense' actually
involves supression--a suppression of our memory of what we know works and
what we know doesn't work. Thus, instead of finding truth based on
experience, we end up appealed by the most parsimonious
conclusion--one that doesn't always account for the subtleties and complexities
of the truth that we've acquired through our own historical
experiences.
As an
introduction to you Marilyn, we are hoping, through our HumanMarkup effort,
to explicitly represent human characteristics through the use of
Internet standards. These characteristics include intention, attitude,
cultural perspective, and belief. Right now, these characteristics are
both implied by the speaker or gleaned by the listener--there is no standard
means of representing these elements as explicit, usable data. This has
caused, and continues to cause, a great deal of misunderstanding between
people.
Thanks
very much Owen, once again, for your help in helping us find contacts to help
build HumanMarkup. We're rebuilding our contacts database at this
point, and sending out inquiry letters for both Board membership and
funding. I'll be in touch with the Elie Foundation as well.
I think we are better prepared to ground our effort
now than a few months ago, especially with Rex and his experience as
ED of the organization. When I come to DC, I hope we can discuss more
approaches we could follow.
I'll
do my best, time permitting, to capture as many points as possible to discuss
during our visit--including an outline of the Diplomatic Communications
requirements for HumanMarkup. I hope to post an introduction on the XML WG
as well before I come down. Talk with you soon.
Ranjeeth Kumar thunga
Rex & Ranjeeth, in the cover
story entitled "How Can We Understand Their Hatred?" in today's edition
of Parade magazine, Elie Wiesel says: "... we cannot
continue to live with fanaticism -- and only we ourselves can stem it... We
must first fight indifference... We fight indifference through education; we
diminish it through compassion. The most efficient remedy?
Memory." He concludes "... memory
may be our most powerful weapon against fanaticism." (April 7, 2002,
pp. 4 & 5. The article does not seem to be available yet
on Parade's Web site at http://www.parade.com/ However,
today's article is graphically featured there, with links to previous articles
by Wiesel.)
The primary purpose of this message is to suggest
that you and your Human Markup Language colleagues may wish to
contact Wiesel and enlist his foundation in support of your effort. See
http://www.eliewieselfoundation.org/
A secondary purpose is to note that his
observations and prescription are at least incomplete, if not somewhat
naive. In the first place, I don't believe that anyone is indifferent to
terrorism and it seems to me that his observations about the need for
"education" and "compassion" are little more than platitudes. (We can
all nod our heads in agreement and be none the better off for it.) In
suggesting that "memory" may be the "most efficient remedy" as well as
our "most powerful weapon," he hints at the "final solution" to terrorism
but fails to recognize the full implications and, thus, to drive home the
essential point. In order to more fully comprehend the logical end
toward which his argument leads, Wiesel would do well to read Daniel
Schacter's book entitled "The Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and
Remembers." Perhaps he would come to understand that the form of
"memory" that is required is not human but, rather, computer based.
More specifically speaking, what is required is a *record* not only of the
life histories of each of us sufficient upon which for us (and our software
agents) to determine whether and to what degree we may wish to enter into
association with each other -- based upon the benefit, cost, and risk
factors involved.
Other references that might serve to heighten the
productivity of Wiesel's discourse include: Lies! Lies! Lies! The
Psychology of Deceit, by Charles Ford; The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and
Avoiding Error in Complex Situations, by Dietrich Dorner; and Everyday
Irrationality: How Pseudo-Scientists, Lunatics, and the Rest of Us
Systematically Fail to Think Rationally, by Robyn Dawes. My paper
relating Schacter's seven "sins" to the need for the effective management of
records is at http://users.erols.com/ambur/MemorySins.htm
When time permits, I plan to draft similar analyses of many of the points made
by Ford, Dorner, and Dawes.
For example,
Dawes points out (on page 9) that "People analyze at length the
situation in which [a problem] occurred, the behavior of the people behind the
occurrence, and so on. But for a problem to be understood in a rational
way, these situations and behaviors must be compared with the situations and
behaviors in which no problem occurred." (Note how this diverges from
the requirement for "probable cause" before law enforcement agencies may
conduct investigations.) Dawes continues: "This type of analysis is
rare, however. No one investigates what happens when no problems
occur ... Disasters are analyzed at great length and depth, but to
understand disasters rationally, we must compare them with the situations in
which no disaster occurs ..." In other words, what is required is a
current and complete *record* of *all* discernable factors, regardless of
whether or not anyone suspects in advance that they may be
causally related to the occurrence of a problem. To the degree
that human behavior is involved, that is a requirements statement for Human
Markup Language.
Finally, a third purpose of this
message is to challenge Marilyn Vos Savant to bring both her intellectual
prowess as well as her celebrity to bear on this important line of
thought. Among the relevant observations she has already made in her
book entitled "The Power of Logical Thinking" is the following: "Without
actively (and sometimes with great difficulty) taking the data carefully
apart, placing it in appropriate context, and drawing laborious conclusions
from scratch, one will end up with a false impression or the wrong answer."
(p. 84) While the cutesy puzzles in her "Ask Marilyn"
column may entertain us, I submit that this is a higher
calling. In the event she may choose to rise to the challenge, I am
providing these references for Human ML:
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