Truth engineering, revisited

Note (11/18/2022) -- FB, now Meta, is following predictable tracks. We'll be observing and commenting more closely, from outside the monolith, of course. See Remarks, below. Also, the posts that get references in this work will be cleaned up (normal little typos, stale pointers, etc.). 

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For the past ten years, or so, I've been struggling with how to describe what I see as the need for "truth engineering" as well as look at the operational aspects. I realized, today, that two recent events add some clarification. Firstly, I've been complaining about what Facebook (saying it's a metaphor, but we'll get into what that means) represents, mostly from the position that it grates on years of experiences and that it is an example of power being in the pusher (God grows His own, people) rather than in the user (not a mis-use of the concept; please consider the growing zombie-hood that we see all around).

Aside: some idiot, even had gray hair, almost hit me, a walker, within my legal rights, by the way (as in, not Jayhawking - er jaywalking), as he was coming out of a parking lot, he then slowly accelerated to the street (now, if I did not know better, I would have thought that he was either timid, a new driver, or impaired), as if driving was not the thing to which he was to pay attention, ..., long story short: the arse had his old nose in a mobile device. As we all know, that type of thing is more commonplace than it out to be.

So, in a sense, the zombie attraction deals with truth, or, at least, a popular notion of it. It? Well, like "what is is?" was prominent on the public's mind for awhile, truth has been our problem forever. And, the computational age has drastically changed the matter. That change and how it unfolds needs attention beyond people lining their pockets (there are all sorts of discussion of that in this blog).

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Now, back to Zuck, he is allowing ideas to be expressed, groups to use his means for their medium, and helping tie disparate milieus. So, thanks, Mr. Zuckerberg. However, sir, you (and your cohorts, to be named) are missing a big piece (which will be explained in time - and greed is not it).

Now, if one looks at all the arguing about truth, we see emotion and dream of Spock (Trek sense, okay) type of people to lead us from ourselves. Science and engineering? Ah, how many ways have those led us to perdition? However, science is now recognizing that emotion is part of rationality (sorry, guys, you have been as emotional as the little women that you berate). Truth's expression to us is about as murky as are our emotions. But, something like a computational platform (don't restrict this to a physical entity, please) can help bring in objectivity (are you listening, NSA?) that can be a boon (gift of God).

But, it is problematic, too. Oh how many ways have we seen this manifest itself of late. Banes galore.

We'll get back to this.

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On another note, a very emotional arena deals with guns (er, weapons as my drill sergeant - Korea vet, POW- pounded into my teenage'd head). Some want them. Others only want them in the hands of power and control. The Forefathers? What did they think?

You know, the Puritans, those (some anyway) who stripped women to the waist and dragged them through the streets (but, then, whose ancestors were saints?), took guns away from people who didn't sign up for the Church (we'll get back to that and those) or the loyalty oath (to the King, of course, and his minions here). You also know that guns were used for obtaining food and for protection. In the latter sense, they were necessary for the Minutemen to get things rolling, so to speak.

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Honor,
reflective rather than
reflexive

Those are only two of many subjects, but I wanted to used this photo (thanks Wendy Yost Elliott - requires FB access) as a basis for a long story. My brother died a couple of years ago. He was buried at a National Cemetery in Kansas. He was one of seven boys, so that left six of us. We were all at the ceremony. Then, for various reasons, we ended up doing our own salute using the weapons (see above - albeit these were of a former time). All six of us were veterans and knew how to handle the things. Too, it seemed appropriated at the time. But, truth engineering might show us different opinions on the matter, all rationally framed. We'll get more into this, but for now, and, for the record, the U.S. Service of each, starting at the left: Marines, Army, Marines, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard. All Vietnam era. The honored had served in the U.S. Navy.

Now, the thing is this: how many families could, or would, be able to, do this? There was a mention of the Puritans (others were there, too) since they were an early group involved in the formation of our great nation. In fact, most New Englanders have this ancestry. These six? From a family that is post Civil War. So, therein we might find a juxtaposition that has some basis for framing truth engineering's need to bridge lines, temporal or otherwise.

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Aside: Written without the usual number of links which will appear within a day or so. In the meantime, there is search (with labels) for browsing.

Aside: In a discussion of the Chromebook (Toshiba's - we'll do a post on this), some one took exception to their using the Pawn guys to talk about the pros and cons. The statement was that an 80-year old wouldn't know. Well, I've been in advanced computing for a long time (longer than the life of the commenter, no doubt). And, I'm only nine years from 80. And, when I look at Chrome (C++) and Linux (Unix as the motivator) and more, I see things that I've dealt with way before they were known to a broader group (namely, those spawning off apps willy-nilly - in the hopes, probably of finding the killer one). So, I expect, given health continues, that I could talk this stuff at 80. The problem, young folk? Try talking to someone like me (who may have some insights that would apply to you - yeah, Zuck, Google), but, you would have to do it in other than the mode of maximizing the monetary aspects (sheesh, I would drag you down to the truth - actually, in some cases, let me lift your sight). Be that as it may, I'll continue to map out what is essentially a core issue to resolve if we are to continue sustainable'ly (yes, we'll make up words as we go along - ain't English grand for that).

Remarks:   Modified: 11/18/2022

01/08/2014 --  This has a GEK III label since George was one mentor (peer to peer) that I encountered along the way. 

01/11/2014 -- We'll close this and get on to some technical preliminaries. For one, the Twit limit of 140 characters seems to have taken over, even in discussions. When you think of it, that's not all bad when applied to the verbiage produced by some. But, on a more positive note, looking at a discussion where these limits apply, one could think of a poetic metaphor. However, in-length exposition is still needed for clarity and depth. The character-reduced is more a Rorschach prompt where we can fill in the spaces as we see fit. Now, in-length, above, ought to be considered to be like we see with a theorem (or a program, in which all logic is exposed and not encapsulated (which was a big step forward) via abstraction).

02/08/2014 -- The event of the photo was a burial rite, military style, for Clement Thomas Switlik, Jr. who died on 02/09/2012, two months after Hitchens.

02/09/2014 -- Two years (02/09/2012), more on Truth Engineering (and, the hombres).

08/03/2015 -- George as inspiration of computing and existentialism.

11/17/2022 -- See Quora, Psychether for a discussion that will use these concepts as point-in-time observations.