Scaling Knowledge

Scaling Knowledge
scalingknowledge.substack.com

This is very much like the law of excluded middle, (there is a solution) ∨ (there is no solution). The point here I think is that there is no reason to not try to solve problems because either the problem is solvable and we make progress or it isn't and we figure out why which is again a kind of progress. This is certainly a reasonable perspective but Hamming and Heisenberg have quotes that provide more nuanced perspectives.

Hamming: Just as there are odors that dogs can smell and we cannot, as well as sounds that dogs can hear and we cannot, so too there are wavelengths of light we cannot see and flavors we cannot taste. Why then, given our brains wired the way they are, does the remark, “Perhaps there are thoughts we cannot think,” surprise you? Evolution, so far, may possibly have blocked us from being able to think in some directions; there could be unthinkable thoughts.

Heisenberg: What we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.

> Scaling Knowledge

> about epistemology, AI, start-ups, and progress.

IMO the first step before any clear discourse about knowledge, is to clarify our knowledge about what this [discourse about knowledge] is about.

The twisted phraseology is just to show it "meta" nature. I could as easily use "clarify".

So, could you please clarify what "Scaling Knowledge” is? (Maybe using the above 4 words)

This is comparing ourselves with dogs lol. We are much more than that. We can build scientific instruments to smell what dogs smell or hear what they hear etc. See: https://publicism.info/science/infinity/7.html

I will try my luck on the "definition part" myself: According to Wiktionary, To Scale =

1. To climb to the top of : This upper movement looks like scaling toward "Wisdom/enlightenment" to me. (not very "Poppers")

2. To tolerate significant increases in throughput or other potentially limiting factors : The one is more like "Management" (as in KM)

3.To weigh, measure or grade according to a scale or system : here it is the "Value" aspect. what is valuable knowledge?

4. To change the size of something whilst maintaining proportion: The size is the easiest angle. I don't know how "maintaining proportion" would translate here.

At the personal level, that is one the biggest problem of "scaling knowledge" right there ! We just can't help "growing" it in article after article, because those ideas just keep coming to us. We need sometimes to step back and communicate the "meta". Not just the assumptions but also the definitions.

PS : Remnote rocks !