Terry Pratchett "The Importance of Being Amazed about Absolutely Everything"

Professor Sir Terry Pratchett Inaugural Lecture "The Importance of Being Amazed about Absolutely Everything". 4 November 2010, Trinity College Dublin

Also see video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnDAzHA3WM&feature=channel_video_title

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[Naglefar1988]

@99minerkc he is still writing even with a disease eating away at his brain, he has written books that have touched me and very possibly gordy in a deep way that changed my understanding of humanity and the world. He IS a Hero with a pen.

[gordyclarke]

@99minerkc well that's certainly a definition of a hero but not necessarily the definition. A person can be a hero for saving lives and don't you think his fight against PCA, self motivated as it may well be, is courageous at all?

[OisintheDrog]

@acakaranovic from what I hear Ponder is being increasingly based on him.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story Psychohistory summarize govt documents"

CLAH=get. IT=pointing. OR=other. IS=this. CLITORIS (this word sound phrase is an ill-built concept).

IDI=excited. CLITTY=get excited (much more logical).

AIRY=light air. KHA=lift-move. KITTY=lift move excited. CARRY=life move light air.

OHL=lay down. LAP=fall hit. CLAP=lift move fall hit. CAROL=lift move lay down.

It's all rather self-obvious. Deducing the right core idea/emotion words is the tricky part.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story Psychohistory summarize govt documents"

Word sounds have this capacity. It is also why many Linguists are dumb in that they see not even the most basic aspects of language for function. Babies learn so slowly because they are not shown the quantitative aspects of the sounds they are trying to imitate. Instinct reactions are built in. Finer qualities of sounds are not.

Sound bits are more deductive logic interpretation later. CLAH=get. EEN=shiny. CLEAN.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story Psychohistory summarize govt documents"

Word sounds have this capacity. See this if you are clever enough.

GR=anger. EEN=shiny. GREEN. ATE=release. GREAT (angry release). EEF=away. GRIEF (anger away). IDI=excite. IT=pointing. IDIOT (excite pointing). OHL=lay down. IDOL (excite then lay down). And so on. It is all plainly obvious why some words "sound right" and others don't. Plain as day to all but the morons.

Each sound a primitive idea/emotion fragment

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story they had some mathematics that filtered out meaningless bits from government reports....7 page papers were reduced to 3 sentences"

You'll notice that you can SUMMARIZE papers to the meanings you desire or require, but another human may SUMMARIZE these outcomes differently (weather report can be distilled into "Tomorrow, comfortable warm, chilly night" or "HARVEST ORANGES NOW"). Word sounds have this capacity. SH=quiet. UG=disgust. ER=confusion. SUGAR.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story they had some mathematics that filtered out meaningless bits from government reports....7 page papers were reduced to 3 sentences"

Humans are driven by basic instinct (Brain Stem) survival motivations at the core, but have useful functions beyond pure instinct. Therein, a predator will face FIGHT or the prey FLEES, but fight can also be DISTRACT or CONFUSE or DELAY or MAKE NOISE. Humans use these tricks in basic communication too. By padding in words.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story they had some mathematics that filtered out meaningless bits from government reports....7 page documents were reduced to 3 sentences"

For example: "I am going to the store."

Distills to: Left Brain = INTENT + INFORM

Example: "You can't stop me going to the store."

Distills to: (Left Brain + INTENT)(Right brain + BOAST)(Brain Stem + INFORM)

Example: "I think it is going to rain."

Distills to: (Frontal Lobe + INFORM)

This applies only to externalized ideas

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story they had some mathematics that filtered out meaningless bits from government reports....7 page documents were reduced to 3 sentences"

You can also distill human communication to numerical functions by dividing it into brain hemisphere short codes (left brain=logic, right brain=emotion, brainstem=instinct, frontal lobe=prediction). This tells you what part of the human is speaking. Further distill words into INTENT, ACTION, BOAST, CONFUSE, INFORM.

[Matrix29bear]

@twdarkflame - "Asimov story they had some mathematics that filtered out meaningless bits from government reports....7 page documents were reduced to 3 sentences"

The basic science was Psychohistory (prediction of population actions by determining the genetic-motivational qualities of humans as a block statistical computation). The book series was "FOUNDATION". Given that genetic motivational qualities are inherited and slightly intermixed in children, the genes predict the future.

[partyandahalf]

Terry Pratchett is such an incredible and ingenious man!