this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
52 points (91.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

29723 readers
699 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. A showerthought should offer a unique perspective on an ordinary part of life.

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. Avoid politics
    1. NEW RULE as of 5 Nov 2024, trying it out
    2. Political posts often end up being circle jerks (not offering unique perspective) or enflaming (too much work for mods).
    3. Try c/politicaldiscussion, volunteer as a mod here, or start your own community.
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct-----

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Like carving a block of stone to leave only the form of a horse.

The stone (or the information space) already contained the horse, and a million other possibilities, the job of the artist is to collapse those possibilities into a single reality.

top 12 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Information has a mathematical definition, if you're interested in that sort of thing.

[–] Xariphon@kbin.social 2 points 9 months ago

I'm interested but I'm not sure I have the brain cells for this right now.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 2 points 9 months ago
[–] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 6 points 9 months ago (1 children)

i think spongebob covered this well in his attempt to teach squidward how to sculpt

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I haven't watched The Simpsons.

my fav bit is when the baby screams 'not the momma'. you should totally check it out.

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 5 points 9 months ago
[–] TheOneCurly@lemmy.theonecurly.page 1 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Except, ideally, a PhD thesis. Which should contain a completely new piece of information for the world.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 3 points 9 months ago

Well no. It's still just a list of text, so that text as well as all other text with minor and major variations exists in the information space. As I said, the hard part is getting rid of all the wrong stuff.

[–] algorithmae@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 9 months ago

A good portion of any paper is citing references

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

If you have a block of stone and cut it in two pieces, the position and angle of the cut is information. By carving down a pool of information, you add information to it.

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

Yes, the position and angle of the cut is information, but there are an infinite, or at least very large number of possible cuts. That's what I mean by the possibility space. By carving it, you collapse the information from lots of possible states to one real state, thus pruning the possibilities to get one reality.