From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Thu Jul 08 1999 - 18:16:44 MDT
"Eliezer S. Yudkowsky" wrote:
>
> If you think it's difficult, but useful, to write without using the word
> "is", you should try to think without using the word "I". Instead of
> saying "I remember", say "the memory-retrival subsystem reports"...
>
> It's a quantum improvement in quality of thought. Unfortunately, it
> also requires a quantum improvement in knowledge and diligence.
By request, let me amplify on that: You have to reduce your mind to
elements, then attribute properties to the elements instead of to the
monolithic "I". The "Aha!" is similar to, say, realizing how to string
together atomic commands on Unix systems, or realizing that molecules
are built out of atoms. But, like command-line systems or reductive
physics, you need a much greater knowledge of the system and a lot more
attention to detail.
In particular, I haven't made much headway on it. I save I-Prime
thinking for when I'm tackling a particularly difficult self-analysis
problem, but then it's a real lifesaver.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:04:25 MST