Silver Rule

Golden Rule: "One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself " 

Silver Rule: "One should treat others as what they would tolerate from others"

Thoughts on artificial vs natural languages

Computer languages are built primarily to execute algorithms, where as natural are primarily built for communication.

There are certain protocols which computers use for communication. So, it would be more apt to compare  natural languages with computer protocols.

Tools to describe  algorithms (such as pseudocodes) are perhaps the closest natural language analogues of computer languages.

Computer communication protocols don't serve as wide a purpose as natural languages. This would very likely reflect in the complexity of their structure.

Is it possible to construct fuzzy computer communication protocols?

Sometime back, we are discussing the new version of Turing tests, where computers have to decipher the meaning of a sentence in order to correctly parse it. For example, statements like:

"Tara didn't like  Mary because she was annoying",  and
"Mary kept Tara happy because she was generous".

In both sentences, the pronoun "she" can be correctly attributed only if the meaning of the sentence is deciphered. The structure of the sentence itself is not sufficient. Both the syntax and the semantics are needed for accurate attribution.

Perhaps, object orientedness in computer languages comes close to this phenomenon. I am not knowledgeable about communication protocols, but is likely some of them are object oriented. I just googled and there seems to be some interesting work regarding inter-software layer and nework protocols.

Actually, I think "state dependent behavior" of a computer comes more closer to the above natural language phenomenon. That is, what a function returns doesn't just depend no its code and input parameters, but the state of the system as well. 

5th Amendment

Is there any  justification for this amendment other than forced concession? Answering an hypothetical comes to mind. 

Undergraduate Research / Independent studies

Often, you come across problems which seem to require application of well established techniques. I think it would be helpful to maintain a list of these problems as they are perfect candidates for undergrad research and independent studies. It helps the students get a grasp of existing techniques and if a part of the problem cannot be solved by existing techniques, may lead to a paper. :)

Time Perception

I think "time-perception" and consciousness are mutually related phenomenon. From scientific perspective, if consciousness is an emergent property of physical processes, is there a theoretical limit on minimum time-resolution of perception?

System level Conscience

Consider the possibility that consciousness is an emergent property of certain neural activity, and at a much basic level, of certain electro-chemical pattern. Under this hypothesis, we can postulate that interactions amongst individual conscious entities may give rise to a society level consciousness. It is, in principle, not required for the individual entities to be "aware" of this social consciousness or vice-versa. When I think back about this, I think there are many people in the past who had very similar thoughts, but hopefully, as science progresses, we will have a much better grasp at this phenomenon.

Positive compartmentalization

I was watching the Colbert report where Steven Colbert was interviewing the artist M.I.A. What was astonishing to me that was how much her mannerism has changed from the time when she was being interviewed to the time she was performing. What looked like a little girl trying to hold herself together turned into a vibrant, self-confident and impressive performer. Then I realized that we all exhibit such behavior. We are all somewhat awkward and lacking in confidence when it comes to many things in our life, but there is most often one activity which we can take charge of. I have seen many professors who are very awkward socially, but when they get onto the dias to give a lecture, they suddenly become one of this impressive, larger than life and charming people. I have seen some of this in most of my friends.

This takes be back to the discussion we were having about compartmentalization, about how we all hold some superstitions by the means of ignoring our cognitive dissonance. In this aspect, could the above phenomenon be called positive compartmentalization? Could it be that we restrict our source of confidence to a very narrow aspect of our life? Either way, I think we owe most of our civilization to this aspect of our psyche.