Naming Attributes B, A^B

Attribute B

What is common between Know and Sense, and separates them from Predict and Feel? What is common between Predict and Feel?

The starting point, the origin of the signal.

• For Know and Sense, it is the external world, objective reality.
• For Predict and Feel, it is the cell itself, the subject.

So Know and Sense are objective operations, while Predict and Feel are subjective operations, and the categorical distinctions are for objective ideas and subjective ideas.

Attribute A^B

What is common between Know and Predict, and separates them from Sense and Feel? What is common between Sense and Feel?

Sense stays outside the boundary, Feel stays inside the boundary. These operations preserve the immediate, particular nature of the signal, capturing raw, unmediated experience. They just are, and can be grasped directly without comparison.

So, Feel and Sense are absolute operations, complete in themselves.

Some examples of absolute ideas:

• Blue: You perceive blue directly; there is no need to see a different color alongside it.
• Triangle: A recognizable shape existing without comparison.
• Hunger: When you’re hungry, that’s just the absolute experience.
• Pain: The sensation exists in itself, incomparable.
• Wall: Lean against it, and it’s just there.
• Love: The feeling exists whole, not as a comparison to non-love.

Know and Predict cross the boundary in either direction. When signals cross the boundary, they change the information’s context, integrating with the subject or influencing the environment. These signals are now defined relative to either system’s internal state or environments.

Know and Predict are relative operations that exist through a relationship to context.

Some examples of relative ideas:

• Structure: Only exists as a sum of parts. No parts, no structure.
• “Taller than”: Only makes sense when comparing two heights.
• Speed: Relative to the ground? To other cars? Air speed?
• Progress: Only meaningful relative to a starting state.
• Champion: Can’t be champion without others to beat.
• Friendship: You can’t be a friend in isolation.

All Three Attributes

If a distinction counts, it’s in the language. These words existed before. Philosophers have argued about the objective and subjective for millennia, and the distinction between absolute and relative runs through physics and ethics alike. We didn’t name the categories - we found that we already had them named. They were in the language all along.

Next, let’s talk uncertainty. I chose clear-cut examples to make a point, but our language is much more diverse than three binary partitions or a taxonomy with four simple buckets. The same word often has different meanings depending on context, and even within the same context, not every choice is obvious - probabilistic inference to the rescue.