focus splocus

 "Focus" in linguistics, refers to subchannel encodings which accompany a primary signal. In writing we do things like "emphasis", EMPHASIS, _emphasis_, and in speech we extend the lengths, tone, and vibrato of pronounced words, or we mangle their pronunciation entirely by mutating the gross phonemic structure of entire words and phrases.

This is all VERY interesting to note, in the encoding of language in machines. Because resulting from the above, the connotations of "focus" must result in a signal receiver performing different semantic interpretations of the parent channel information, based on subchannel information. All said and done, this is not at all mysterious ... but it is a quantum of detail to be noted in the architecture of communications.

This is all groundwork for my study, in designing a new programming language environment for myself.

Perhaps I am over-optimistic about the value of performance

Spending more time on Threads and LinkedIn in 2025, as I work solo at my desk. I realise that a lot of people are anxious about jobs, and career progression.

Maybe I am a horrible interviewee/pitcher because I've never viewed employment as a highly desirable objective. My approach to life has been that minimum wage is good enough, and I am overqualified for minimum wage, so there will always be jobs there. 

Before the AI renaissance, there was also always the option to teach, which I never activated - I think in the future, we should continue to expect that the premium on human interaction is not because of human skill ( which will never be competitive with machine skill in the long run ) but because of sentimental value between humans.

So maybe after all, the world's oldest profession has its place. But even that will be adjusted over time as sex bots become indifferentiable from human sex workers. I have been optimistic about the impact that sex bots and artificial wombs will have on civilisation. But I am not sure that I will see it happen - it is possible within 5-20 years, but politics always slows things down.

Why hire a human? Sheer performance value. That is why we go to cafes etc.

Labour Economics and Subgroup Equality

Creating "perfect comp & ben equality" in any category C gets complicated, in light of total compensation.

Once the differential COST of hiring for subgroups C_g within category C is accounted for, the difference in output productivity per input dollar entire a fuzzy zone where either the employer picks up excess cost as a matter of creating equitable opportunity, or the less productive subgroups pick it up in the form of reduced cash for added benefits. :)

Whose Minimalist program? ( language )

 Chomky's minimalism asks

Q : What is language? Why does it have the properties it has?

My theory of language is too simple

A : Any means of remote control. Because communication is reducible to mechanics.

I am still buried under Wikipedia's linguistic pages for the time being. Ugh.

Education is Cognitive Architecture

Epiphany : education is architecture. Architecture is originally the study of built environments. And the mind is basically a built environment. Ah, so.

comfort with discomfort

 A reflective day. Scary.

• 1. Chat with business folks on a project I spent six years on, resulting in my arrest and criminal proceedings.
• 2. Chat with education folks on volunteering in spaces where my views are controversial.
• 3. Chat with technical folks on my current work that traverses high and low ends of the stack.

All of it is disturbing, not because I find it hard to do in and of itself ... but because there are people who fear these things, and the people who do them.

So much effort to be polite, is needed, in this world.

math words for matchy things

 disambiguation : 

• : mappings : the most ambiguous term for "matching things"
• : morphisms : a formally defined mapping in category theory
• : functions : a morphism that applies to sets

I think 1999 me would be very disappointed with 2025 me, having added trivial detail to my understanding of functions. But 2005 me was rather different than 1999 me in having acquired a paradigm shift in some dimension A, and so an expanded requirement to balance A with more exposure in B, where I spent the next 18 or so years.

The Onery and the Academic Plebs

Being a generalist is not well understood. On one hand we deal with theorists who have no appetite for aggressive reification. On the other we deal with onery folk who have no appetite for abstraction. Both are plebs. And then we have the philosophers who refuse to commit their practicum in either terms ... and they are not plebs, but they remain generally useless to everyone but themselves. Actually, I may concede that this is a pretty decent summary of how the world works.

What do sensory data structures have to do with AI?

• First of all, a data structure is simply a fancy term for "concept". Specifically, it is a mechanically reified concept ... that is to say, it is a concept that is recognised by machines, in a way that humans understand very well. (Things that happen in machines are no good to humans, if humans don't understand how they work.)
• Second, "conscious" concepts in humans are inextricably bound to sensory experience. There is not enough coffee and lecture time in the world to persuade everyone about this, so I will simply state it as a fact.
• Third, humans who try to implement concepts in machines often forget, or are unaware, of the second point. And that is why they fail to build machines that grasp concepts in the same way that humans do : an anthropomorphic machine, MUST think IN TERMS of SENSORY data structures.

And that's pretty much most of what has been missing over the past century. But we will soon see the end of this, and I am glad.

The Governance of Men and Machines

1. 

I know everyone thinks I'm a weirdo but ... the only reason I spent time during my commercial period ( about 25% of 2006-2023 ) in software was ... that I wanted to know "just enough about how software works, in order to effectively manage software operations talent".

2.

This is pretty much the same reason I'm still studying software and math, on sabbatical. ( It's mainly a hobby, but there remains a commerciable alignment. ) Right now I'm stuck at fucking ENGLISH grammar, because it's part of the HCI stack.

3.

This is ALSO the main reason I have no reason to use AI yet ... the problem with governance is never telling someone to do something, and having it reported back as done. The problem is always figuring out how to verify that it got done the way I wanted. There's basically no difference between managing humans, and managing anthropomorphic machines - both are black boxes, both have motivations and emotions, and both are subject to manipulation of civil and uncivil degrees.

4.

The question is always how, not what. But, I get it ... most business people are concerned with short-term results. They want to focus on the what, get paid, and exit before the how breaks down and kicks the asset owner in the ass. Well you see, generally, I decided not to be that sort of business person. But ah, that's a lot of faff, isn't it? :)

Reasons I am a Horrible Malaysian

• - I don't remember the Negaraku ( or left and right either, FWIW ... none of these are useful on a daily basis )
• - I like to remind people that the Rukunegara is a poem not a law ( it's gazetted as a royal decree, but what's the legislative status of a royal decree again ? )
• - all of the following are disposal concepts in my value system : god, food, friends, family
• - my grasp of BM is so poor, I wouldn't know how to address the king without a dictionary 

"bangsa" dan "kebangsaan" dalam perlembagaan Malaysia

Baru saya tau, perlembagaan tiada perkataan "bangsa" - "kebangsaan" ada, iaitu merujuk kepada bahasa kebangsaan dll. Tetapi, "bangsa Melayu" bukan morfologi yg terkandung . Yg tersurat, "orang Melayu dan anak negeri S&S". Jadi ok lah saya rasa pelik setiap kali perkataan "bangsa" dalam BM dikaitkan dengan "bangsa Melayu/Cina/India" dan bukan "bangsa Malaysia".

Sebagai orang Malaysia yang ayahnya dilahir di Cina, saya tak fikirkan bangsa Melayu dalam kegiatan harian saya. Hanya bangsa Malaysia.

Disgust and Humour

It is ok to find something both morally abhorrent and incredibly funny. Awareness of social norms should not decapitate one's ability to take pleasure in learning from others' mistakes. And it is as foolish to be blindly convicted of a point of view, as it is to be mindfully committed to any single way of life.

"Cartesianism" in the Development of Anthropomorphic Machines

Chomsky has this horribly panned book called "Cartesian Linguistics" which captures very little of what Descartes is known for. 

Back to Descartes, away from Chomskian interpretations : the Modern period of European philosophy begins with an epistemology of self-awareness. One tries to anchor the concept of "an algebraic I, the speaker/thinker/doer" to which subsequent ideas are attached.

This concept is particularly important in the modelling of data in anthropomorphic "intelligent" machines. One might say that fuzzyheadedness in building "AI" begins with a poor understanding of human data structures in the first place.

I just posted something on Reddit asking about "examples of frameworks for describing grammar, which have no concept of abstract speakerless/listenerless propositions, and which are instead grounded in the concept of the speaker/listener". I hope to learn something from the good public on this. 

Meanwhile, I will simply bear it in mind as I develop the system which I am working on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartesianism

The Politics of Abuse

In politics, abuse is subjective.

What is lawful, but results in pain and depowerment may be labeled as abuse. Most people agree about this.

Fewer people agree, about the symmetrical difference : many things are illegal, but result in net pleasure and empowerment. This may also be labeled as a abuse.

The label of abuse, is a knife worthy of longstudy.

Presumptions of Desire

 So wrong : 

"the assumption that candidate is already interested in working for their company"

Oh my god. Why do hiring managers start conversations with people like this? OK, I get it ... they are like those folks who go on dates presuming the other party is already interested. It's a bit awkward.

But now that I have identified it as an anti-pattern in conversations I've been in from 2007 to 2025, I shall make a point to deescalate such chats from the get go, "hold on, can you please say a bit about why X-talent should be interested in working at Y-corp?"

Clearly I don't go on many job-dates lol. It took so long to ID this.

The Very First Thing in Building Cognitive Models

This week, an anonymous chap ( bear with me ) posted their theory of cognition on one of my groups. We had a brief exchange, but the main feedback I had for them was this :

"You cannot build a correct model of cognition, without first locking down your underlying sensory data types. You simply can't get started. Sensory data is the underlying data upon which operations are defined, and there are only two things in computation : data, and operations on data."

I post this diatribe, yet again, because it captures so much of how AI has missed the boat repeatedly in the 60s, in the 80s, and so-far ... in the 2020s. The eventual solution will be remarkably straightforward, because the missing parts are so straightforwardly missing. 

We just have to wait for systems to be built utilising such basic typing.

The iteration of imperfect lives

• In friendship ( or therapy ) we iteratively use imperfect thoughts to fix themselves.
• In civilisation ( or government ) we iteratively use imperfect policies to fix themselves.
• In science ( or epistemology ) we iteratively use imperfect concepts to fix themselves.
• In scholarship ( or academia ) we iteratively use imperfect history to fix itself.

Such is our commitment to dogfood.