{"id":196,"date":"2019-12-25T18:09:11","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T18:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2019-12-27T11:17:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T11:17:59","slug":"automatism-automaticity-lets-do-this-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/25\/automatism-automaticity-lets-do-this-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 Let’s do this right!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the previous episode<\/a>, I raised some concerns about how automatism and automaticity affect us, our technologies and therefore also the world in general. I quoted a line from Malcolm Gladwell’s most recent book, \u201cTalking to strangers\u201d \u2013 but I didn’t mention how he noted that although Holy Fools (people who are foolish enough to criticize the social order when they sense that something is wrong) are necessary<\/em>, they are not sufficient<\/em> (in his words: \u201cwe can’t all be Holy Fools\u201d [19:10] ).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gladwell’s book is mostly about communication between individual humans (this is also known as \u201cinterpersonal communication\u201d). This is a very important technology, but it is not the only technology we need to think about. Automatism is also a crucial technology \u2013 and I think we need to pay more attention to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can hopefully all still recall from our biology classes in school that the process of evolution includes several aspects. One fundamental pillar to the way evolution works is the aspect of variation \u2013 and this does indeed echo Gladwell’s sentiment that a homogeneous population of only Holy Fools would probably not work very well. In the theory of evolution, survival of a species depends on enough variation within the species to ensure that the species does not completely succumb to an attack from one vector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My understanding of computers leads me to believe that this is a significant difference between machines and evolutionary technology (also known as \u201clife\u201d \ud83d\ude09 ). While life thrives on variation, machines thrive on standardization. Half a century ago, the pioneers of the Internet Age made a decision that recognizes this vulnerability inherent in computer technology \u2013 and therefore they built an Internet that was based on a principle of decentralization (and thereby implicitly also a system based on trust in the evolutionary principle of strengthening by variation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nit may be acceptable to dismiss the occasional Bernie Madoff as a\ncost of doing business, a Bernie Madoff every day is a different\nthing. Or even worse: an existential threat. In any case, relying on\none monopolistic technology is not a recipe for success \u2013 or even\nsurvival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have years, decades, even centuries long legacies of technologies based on \u201cone right way\u201d of thinking \u2013 and it’s easy to see why. Against a medieval backdrop of unenlightened quackery, witchcraft and whatnot, the Enlightenment delivered astoundingly reliable results. Newton and the like delivered mathematical formulas, scientific methods, accuracy and precision. True and false became undeniable facts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Folk psychology is the kind of crude psychology we glean from cultural sources such as sitcoms — but that is not the way things happen in real life.<\/p>Malcolm Gladwell, \u201cTalking to Strangers\u201d, chapter 6, audio version 26:20 <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In\nreal life, true and false are very far from being undeniable facts.\nOne might even argue that undeniable facts are not undeniable facts.\nToday the widespread fanatical devotion to data is no longer tempered\nwith a reasonable understanding of how data collection actually\nworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexpression \u201cit’s complicated\u201d is perhaps the quintessential\nembodiment of the kind of insight we need more of now \u2013 more than\never. We need to say goodbye to \u201cone right way\u201d and we need to\nsay hello to diversity, variations from norms and differentiation in\nalgorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Differentiating\nin algorithms means becoming aware of context, realizing that\ndifferent perspectives require different qualifications,\nunderstanding that variation in nature requires variation in (and in\nparticular: qualitative) measurement. Otherwise, all those numbers\nwill only glaze over and we won’t be able to distinguish apples from\noranges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing this right requires many<\/em> right ways, not one<\/em> right way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This also means that an essential requirement for doing this right is that we need to accept and embrace complexity. This is something that has traditionally become ever more marginalized in the modern scientific method \u2013 modern science has traditionally preferred simplicity to complexity. Is that because of our own way of thinking? Is human automatism at odds with the automatism of natural evolution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[thank u, next<\/a>] <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the previous episode, I raised some concerns about how automatism and automaticity affect us, our technologies and therefore also the world in general. I quoted a line from Malcolm Gladwell’s most recent book, \u201cTalking to strangers\u201d \u2013 but I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[313],"tags":[14,16,15,575,574,675,674,189,652,171,664,665,84,655,653,654,660,659,661,662,658,200,165,166,151,671,673,543,197,663,666,667,466,670,669,668,87,86,300,301,389,657,656,676,677,150,651],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9w79D-3a","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":191,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/23\/automatism-automaticity-20th-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":0},"title":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 20th Century","author":"nmw","date":"December 23, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"If you thought my previous introduction was dark, then if you use your imagination a little to color in the details of what comes next, then you may actually begin to lose your faith in humanity \u2013 but I choose to spare you such sketches, because I myself don't even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "remediary"","block_context":{"text":"remediary","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/com\/com-remediary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":185,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2019\/12\/21\/automatism-automaticity-first-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":1},"title":"Automatism + Automaticity \u2013 First Thoughts","author":"nmw","date":"December 21, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Automatism and automaticity are \u201creal concepts\u201d, but they are not widely used \u2026 or at least not widely used everywhere in the same way. 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There are in fact other phenomena which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "impost"","block_context":{"text":"impost","link":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/topicat\/org\/org-impost\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95,"url":"http:\/\/pro.freezine.org\/remediary0com\/2017\/06\/20\/wordpress-search-engine-optimization\/","url_meta":{"origin":196,"position":4},"title":"WordPress Search Engine Optimization","author":"nmw","date":"June 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I asked MA.TT a question \u2013 of course it's complicated, but it definitely has something to do with the three-letter-acronym (TLA) called SEO: http:\/\/wordpress.tv\/2017\/06\/19\/interview-and-qanda-with-matt-mullenweg As I indicated in my question, this has nothing to do with Google and\/or similar proprietary (\u201csecret\u201d) algorithms. 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