I can accept that different systems have some shared structure expressible with a hypergraph, but not that there is any one entry point node or partition that should be considered especially informative. If knowledge of some of the properties of connectivity isn’t operationally useful, then what is the point? It seems to me the main thing that partial knowledge provides is something to build consensus around – like inventing a religion for the sake of imposing social controls.
From: Friam <[email protected]> on behalf of glen <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2026 at 8:55 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [FRIAM] essentialism (was A bold meteorological theory) No, "metaphor" isn't essential to anything, because the word has so many disparate meanings, it's borderline useless. By contrast, a can opener is empirically/functionally/mappingly well-defined. Either a device opens cans or it doesn't. Well, at first blush, it seems defined. But maybe not. E.g. a sledge hammer opens cans. Would sledge hammers be essential if all your food was in cans? Sure, we all know what you meant. And you shouldn't have to actually *say* what you meant. Right? What set of functions well defines metaphor? There are candidates for such a set {heuristic, catechresis, rhetoric, constitutive, didactic, exploration}, with varying overlap. But those are all perfectly good words. Why not use them? At the very least, prefix such to the "metaphor" token. As usual, I don't ask questions for which I'm not prepared to hear the answers. The reason people don't use their words is because they're lazy and sloppy. They don't want the formality. They want the liberty to say things in sloppy ways and elicit head nods from the choir. Careful language invites criticism and agonism. Echo chambers and filter bubbles abound. Can't we all just get along, gloss over the detail, signal the virtues? Pffft. I don't enjoy being so dismissive. There is a fundamental problem with the super-sub class hierarchy thing implied by lumping the 6 functions above into a category named "metaphor". That's why I got the Quine atom tattoo. But Lilith save me, I get so tired of people expecting agreement with their sloppy language. No wonder AI psychosis is a thing. On 3/17/26 5:19 AM, Prof David West wrote: > I certainly do not disagree with your main point: metaphor is a tool. > However, I might ask, if all your food is stored in metal cans, might a can > opener, a mere tool, be an important, even essential, tool? I think that this > is Quine's point re: the fringe of science. > > davew > > > On Mon, Mar 16, 2026, at 6:57 PM, glen wrote: >> I suppose it depends on the structure of the space. If all roads lead >> to Rome, then it doesn't matter. Any set of lies will do just fine. But >> if it's pathological, then hopping roads is a necessary skill. I make >> no claims to that metaphysical knowledge. I'm only pointing out that >> metaphor is a neutral tool, not something to be ogled in awe. Metaphor >> is no more nor less fascinating than, say, a spatula. If I had a friend >> who constantly yapped about how cool their spatula was ... and every >> conversation wound down to spatula this and spatula that, I'd have to >> push back a bit and say that not everything's about your spatula. >> Please talk about something else. >> >> Whether the spatula is used for ill or good depends on the wielder. >> >> On 3/16/26 12:16 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote: >>> Different canals could be in frustration, so I suppose it isn’t quite as >>> bad as you say? >>> >>> *From: *Friam <[email protected]> on behalf of glen >>> <[email protected]> >>> *Date: *Monday, March 16, 2026 at 11:45 AM >>> *To: *[email protected] <[email protected]> >>> *Subject: *Re: [FRIAM] A bold meteorological theory >>> >>> I don't see how that could be true. At best, metaphor is a means to keep >>> one in a canal *and* a means of escaping a canal. And that it's both means >>> neither usage is a property of metaphor. I think it's better to state that >>> metaphor is a means of escaping *reality* ... to say things that are not >>> true ... lying, falsehood. >>> >>> Of course, some lies/falsehoods can be good. When a science popularizer >>> lies about, say, entanglement in order to provide *some* type of intuition >>> the laity demands ... maybe that's a good thing. The liar may justify their >>> lies in claiming that lie set A is "better" than lie set B. (Or maybe it's >>> a bad thing.) But metaphor is a liar's tool. Attempts to rehabilitate it >>> are the essence of postmodernism (at least as *that* concept is bastardized >>> by the laity). >>> >>> Of course, those of us who are OK with being called a _liar_ have no >>> problem with this. But there are those amongst us who blanch at being >>> called a liar even as they lie, the epitome of Bad Faith, reflective or not. >>> >>> On 3/16/26 11:04 AM, Prof David West wrote: >>>> Metaphorically stated, unfortunately: a metaphor is just a means for >>>> escaping local minima and channelization. >>>> >>>> davew >>>> >>>> >>>> On Mon, Mar 16, 2026, at 8:55 AM, glen wrote: >>>>> That's some good advice, there. Narratives like the naked Emperor are >>>>> crucial tools for posers and con men. Each and every metaphor you >>>>> identify in a missive is evidence of the authors' (plural possessive - >>>>> no such thing as a sole author) Bad Faith. And the number of metaphors >>>>> is directly correlated with the extent of the Bad Faith. >>>>> >>>>> None of us are innocent. None of us are the child in the narrative. >>>>> It's a venomous fiction, injected by the fangs of the storyteller. Even >>>>> literal babies bring along their own "genetic memory", in utero >>>>> accretion, biases, and expertise. The story, that story and all others, >>>>> is there to persuade, to trick you, to canalize you into thinking in >>>>> some particular set of ways. >>>>> >>>>> Now I'd like you to stop thinking about elephants. >>>>> >>>>> On 3/15/26 10:17 AM, Nicholas Thompson wrote: >>>>>> Perhaps I should just drop the metaphor and speak to the beliefs the >>>>>> metaphor represents to me. Expertise both sights and blinds us; great >>>>>> expertise sights and blinds us greatly. >>>>> -- -- ¡sıɹƎ ןıɐH ⊥ ɐןןǝdoɹ ǝ uǝןƃ ὅτε oi μὲν ἄλλοι κύνες τοὺς ἐχϑροὺς δάκνουσιν, ἐγὰ δὲ τοὺς φίλους, ἵνα σώσω.
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