I had an EE graduate degree (systems, dsp, control...) and returned to school for a physical chemistry graduate degree. Initially was nervous about my first QM class but as Hamming noted so much of the math is similar.
And something else for any future intelligent species:
Today, fossils are dug up and flown around the world to museums etc. We publish but if that storage doesn't last or is undecipherable, future civilizations might have an interesting adventure trying to reconstruct the world of 100's of millions of years before our time.
I wonder if there has been any consideration of this or attempts at placing long-lived simple markings to guide?
Apparently those (jazz) guys called the 4ths voicings like in So What 'Ravel chords'. And the (Peace Piece-derived) Flamenco Sketches I can't help but think owes something to the first movement of Mahler's 9th, which even has the 'down a major 3rd' progression. (C -> Ab in F.S., D -> Bb in the Mahler)
..Speaking of which, I didn't learn until recently that James Brown stole the 'booo-dap' riff from So What for (maybe his greatest song), Cold Sweat. Apparently he wanted a song with horns going 'booo-dap' just like So What..it's even in the same key, almost the same voicing.
This might be a stupid question, but, airplanes are computerized, can they be programmed such-that they simply won't fly into buildings, cities, restricted airspace, etc..
I think that would set a dangerous precedent. Systems mess up in all kinds of strange ways. The human pilot needs the final say, especially in an emergency situation.
No. Computers aren't magic in that way, and we leave those types of decisions up to pilot's for a reason.
With any advanced system, we use automation to decrease the complexity of a task by which to act as a throughput modifier by decreasing barrier to entry for safe pperatiom.
If you start throwing in computers which fight the operator at every step, you'll start seeing people (1) move away from the system, (2) subvert the system, (3) start trying to make a buck off of selling systems they claim will fix everything, while not really dealing with the issue.
Plus, computer vision just isn't there yet.you're talking about giving a machine the ability to integrate a whole lotus different streams of data and reliably making a decision to veto the pilot's instructions.
Air plane auto-pilots keep the plane on a specified course; they don't do obstacle avoidance. Planes aren't even programmed to avoid mountains, let alone buildings.
So, you'll put locations of all things that plane is not supposed to fly into on the plane? Also you will program it to automatically fly around? #whatcouldpossiblygowrong?
And given the possibility some interviewers experiencing their own imposter syndrome, around being qualified to assess qualifications, perhaps that could explain some of the questions too.
"naming is the origin of all particular things" - Tao Te Ching.
That quote, first page, stopped me in my tracks for a long time.
I often recall it when I'm tempted by the naming (categorization, abstracting, ...) of some X imagining I understand more about it than I actually do. Similar to as you note, I think.
Oriental philosophy has had a lot to say about names and their vacuity, but at the same time constructed its own extremely elaborate abstractions and conceptual systems. They don't give due credit to abstract and conceptual thinking though. It's not like we can understand the world any other way, we have to use names and abstractions, but apparently that comes in conflict with spiritual practice. I think the practice of stopping abstract thinking during meditation is a way to escape from reality into a self induced stated of peace, but it does nothing to help you solve practical problems, for which you would still have to engage in name based conceptual thinking.
The point of dropping the abstractions during meditation is not to deny the usefulness of them. It's to prevent getting caught up in abstractions to the point of extreme delusion. In this way, it improves the executive function of the mind which can have practical benefits. I view meditation as a way of giving the brain some "fresh air" and keeping abstractions in check.
One view of of thoughts is that there are 2 types of them: one type focused around analysis and problem solving, and a second type focused around the stories the "self" invents and gets absorbed in. This analysis also correlates with different brain activation patterns.
Many people's minds spend most of the time in the second type of thoughts("self"), and it can be very helpful to have less of those, both for peace and other psychological benefits, and for having more mental power and clarity for useful thoughts.
But in the context of ancient India, China, where eastern philosophies came from, people don't need that much thought most of the time, but spiritual qualities can be very useful in small interdependent peasent communities.
I find the phrase "oriental philosophy" to be problematic in addition to being quite vague.
Additionally, your statement that this "oriental philosophy"(?) doesn't give "due credit" to abstractions, which seems like a very wide dismissal of an undefined subset of philosophical groups.
Then you go on to dismiss meditation as a practice as well, as an "escape from reality". I am assuming that you would agree that since abstractions and definitions are important, the term "reality" isn't well-defined within your statement.
I am curious as to what you mean in general, because it seems like you're trying to tear down some sort of philosophy that we aren't privy to without offering any meaningful alternative counterpoint.
>I find the phrase "oriental philosophy" to be problematic in addition to being quite vague. oriental philosophy
And I find your tone to be unnecessarily confrontational. People have been writing about consistent differences between Eastern and Western philosophies for at least a hundred years. Hell, there's an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to Eastern philosophy[1]. I'm curious as to what exactly you find "problematic" about GP's post.
"in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few" - Shunryu Suzuki