RE: [humanmarkup-comment] Re: Economics Conference Example

psp writes: "(the Whorf Hypothesis) should remind us that knowledge mapping in communities of practice is NOT the same as machine knowing of data invariance and patterns expressed via computer programs."

"Whorf distanced himself from the behaviourist stance that thinking is entirely linguistic (Whorf 1956, p. 66). In its most extreme version 'the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis' can be described as consisting of two associated principles. According to the first, linguistic determinism, our thinking is determined by language. According to the second, linguistic relativity, people who speak different languages perceive and think about the world quite differently...Moderate Whorfianism differs from extreme Whorfianism in these ways:

the emphasis is on the potential for thinking to be 'influenced' rather than unavoidably 'determined' by language;

it is a two-way process, so that 'the kind of language we use' is also influenced by 'the way we see the world';

any influence is ascribed not to 'Language' as such or to one language compared with another, but to the use within a language of one variety rather than another (typically a sociolect - the language used primarily by members of a particular social group);

emphasis is given to the social context of language use rather than to purely linguistic considerations, such as the social pressure in particular contexts to use language in one way rather than another. "

Byte analysis is not the same as analysis of observable gestures, true. Trying to solve that purely mechanically, and probably even with AI, is

likely to be very difficult. However, human translators do a reasonable job and a reasonable job may be all that is required. For Susan's

problem, real-time analysis is not required. A human observer system that enables rapid acquisition and classification to provide near

real-time response formulation is probably adequate. Micro-analysis is best done after game time when one has the luxury to sit back with

a beer and the remote to shuttle back and forth over the tape. What the WTO participants need is a means to sort faster and formulate

a response by the next day. Elimination of miscommunication is not possible and probably not desirable given that it is a tactic to

achieve a strategic objective. Much like radar guns are met with radar detectors, the simply humans work harder to outwit the system. The

best approach is a clear long term policy for goals that remain consistent with the tactics used to achieve it insofar as these goals are achievable.

For this, a means to gather macro level and events and get an analyis of how these amplify or interfere with the current tactics and overall goals

is likely to produce satisfactory results with respect to the latency between the call for service and the dispatch of the right assets.

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