How to write (and read) this blog
Early map from the 山海經
There is perhaps one feeling within me that comes as close to unshakeable as it can get for me. It does little good in bringing me peace or happiness but I can't shake it, so I want to disclose it up front. I also want to see how far this feeling within me can take me.
Nothing fascinates me more than imagining and thinking of different ways to represent the same ideas... and how different representations can shed different light on old topics and even new light on unexplored spaces. At the same time, nothing bores and distresses me more than when people insist on fighting over mere `variable` names1, without even actually tackling the *contents* of the variables and the *inter-relationships* amongst them -- i.e. the very *substance* of representations!
In short, I want to talk about ideas, not just the words labeling the ideas. I'm going to try to translate between philosophy, pop-religion, and science, and invariably this will involve using words in new and bastardized ways that none of the sub-fields prefer, though I will borrow heavily and be faithful where possible. I'll try to be as careful as I can, while trying to be open to things. The default mode of response when I come up against foreign words and concepts will be to follow the moral of the parable of the blind men and the elephant: don't reify words or concepts. Give the benefit of the doubt, a kind of provisional "yes and..." or "that's [also] true..." attitude, and then work to understand both overlaps *and* what lies beyond.
To borrow code-speak, I hope you are able to join me in a journey into and quest for coherency within this new `variable [namespace]`, and not stress too much if my use of words doesn't extrapolate 100% to every single other context. And to achieve this, I'll try to be as attentive as we can to the `scoping` and `precision` with which we use our words. To borrow methods from science, I'll also often ask the following questions: "On what scale (time or spatial)? Relative to what?" Implicit in these questions is the idea that ideas acquire meaning and richness in relation to others. (As an aside: perhaps it is also in relation to others and the world that people "acquire meaning and richness".)
Itcho Hanabusa 1888
This is not to belittle the very important issues of power and *appropriation* that society is grappling with right now. Rather, in other spaces I actively think about how we can *enrich* our language's (and mind's) capacity for nuance to *resolve* these conflicts. In short, people are realizing the immense power of language and fighting to carve out ownership of limited language. I want to know, to what extent can we enlarge language to avoid unnecessary conflict? This is precisely what `namespaces` in coding seek to resolve.