• “Arithmetic is an underrated world-modeling technology” by dynomight

  • Oct 22 2024
  • Length: 12 mins
  • Podcast

“Arithmetic is an underrated world-modeling technology” by dynomight

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  • Summary

  • Of all the cognitive tools our ancestors left us, what's best? Society seems to think pretty highly of arithmetic. It's one of the first things we learn as children. So I think it's weird that only a tiny percentage of people seem to know how to actually use arithmetic. Or maybe even understand what arithmetic is for. Why?

    I think the problem is the idea that arithmetic is about “calculating”. No! Arithmetic is a world-modeling technology. Arguably, it's the best world-modeling technology: It's simple, it's intuitive, and it applies to everything. It allows you to trespass into scientific domains where you don’t belong. It even has an amazing error-catching mechanism built in.

    One hundred years ago, maybe it was important to learn long division. But the point of long division was to enable you to do world-modeling. Computers don’t make arithmetic obsolete. If anything, they do the opposite. Without [...]

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    Outline:

    (01:17) Chimps

    (06:18) Big blocks

    (09:34) More big blocks

    The original text contained 5 images which were described by AI.

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    First published:
    October 17th, 2024

    Source:
    https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/r2LojHBs3kriafZWi/arithmetic-is-an-underrated-world-modeling-technology

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    Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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