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The Cube Rule (2017)

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Re: The Cube Rule (2017)

#4
The idea that we should classify food by shape is clearly erroneous. Our food classifications should be based on method of eating, not by shape! A sandwich is any food that uses a carbohydrate to protect your hands from a messier food, so that you can eat it at a card table without getting your hands dirty (a la the origin myth). Let's go through the things here:

Pizza: Yes

Sushi: Mostly no (the carbs don't protect you from the insides, the seaweed does)

Pumpkin pie: No (unless eaten with hands, without falling apart)

Quesadilla: Yes

Toast sandwich: No (inside is not messier)

Victoria sponge: No (eaten with fork)

Hot dog: Yes

Sub sandwich: Yes

Slice of pie: No (unless eaten with hands)

Falafel wrap: Yes

Pigs in a blanket: Yes

Enchilada: No (the one pictured has cheese and sauce on the outside)

Quiche: No (unless eaten with hands)

Cheesecake: No (unless eaten with hands)

Soup bowl: No (I'd love to see you try)

Falafel pita: Yes

Deep dish pizza: If eaten with hands

Salad in a bread bowl: No

Key lime pie: No (unless eaten with hands)

Calzone: Yes

Corn dog: No (if held with stick)

Pie (whole): No (good luck)

Dumplings: Yes (unless they have sauce on them)

Pop tarts: Yes

Uncrustables: Yes

This is the best and most accurate method that actually provides a strict definition that lines up with my intuitions—the cube rule is fun, but you're really gonna claim that a subway sandwich isn't a sandwich?

Re: The Cube Rule (2017)

#5
We must somehow account for the feeling of food. Hot dogs don't feel like sandwhiches, they feel different. Why is that? The cube rule gives us an answer to "are hot dogs sandwhiches", but it doesn't give us an answer to "why does it seem so wrong to call hot dogs sandwhiches?"

I think we intuitively know the following:

* Subs are sandwhiches * Ice cream sandwhiches are sandwhiches, kind of (but they're not lunch). * Burritos, hot dogs, and tacos are not sandwhiches.

But can we generate a list of rules based on the qualities of the things themselves that explain this? Maybe, I don't know.

But maybe this condition isn't a consequence of the things themselves, so much as it is of our collective associations and connotations to sandwhich. Picnics, lunch, cafeterias, Subway. Mom packing our lunch box. Maybe 'sandwhich' isn't located out there, in the world, but at the intersection of many places in our minds.

Re: The Cube Rule (2017)

#7

We must somehow account for the feeling of food. Hot dogs don't feel like sandwhiches, they feel different. Why is that? The cube rule gives us an answer to "are hot dogs sandwhiches", but it doesn't give us an answer to "why does it seem so wrong to call hot dogs sandwhiches?" I think we intuitively know the following: * Subs are sandwhiches * Ice cream sandwhiches are sandwhiches, kind of (but they're not lunch). *…

Check out Prototype Theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototype_theory which gives a better way to reason about these types of questions than trying to list properties. And also helps you recognize that words don't match up to classic sets—the answer to "is X a sandwich" may be yes, or no, or almost anything in between.

Re: The Cube Rule (2017)

#8
post #2

Hold up now, potatoes are starch, mashed potatoes should be (1) Toast.

I guess my "poor man's" lasagna (pour some boiled pasta/penne/fusili in the bowl, slap some grated cheese on the top, repeat until run out of pasta or cheese) is a (7) Cake then.

Re: The Cube Rule (2017)

#9

The idea that we should classify food by shape is clearly erroneous. Our food classifications should be based on method of eating , not by shape! A sandwich is any food that uses a carbohydrate to protect your hands from a messier food, so that you can eat it at a card table without getting your hands dirty (a la the origin myth). Let's go through the things here: Pizza: Yes Sushi: Mostly no (the carbs don't protect…

Big fan of this, if only because it supports the claim that a taco and a hotdog are sandwiches.

The cube rule also tells us that makizushi (probably the most popular kind of sushi here in Aus) is not sushi, which seems like a pretty big weakness.

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