#1- each colour has 7 bands, most saturation at left, least at right… the 7th looks white… each bands edge get fuzzier & it seems the horizontal length is less also.
looking at both blocks of colour thr right side seems cloudlike(the only word i can find to describe)
#2- two triangles with 3 pac mans holding up the one on top. when i cover the pac mans there is one triangle with a “3-sided throwing star” (i dunno what you call this shape- like if you cut a pie in 3 equal pcs- the shape of the cuts)
#3- there is one actual chair, one camp stool, one stool, one hassock and two things where the baby hammered wood bits together. all of these could be used to sit on.
#4- there are 2 sets of 4 circles in an ell shape… but they differ in colour.
there are 2 sets of 4 black triangles but the design/placement varies.
there are 2 sets of 2 white objects but what shape they are varies.
there are 2 sets of 3 black objects but what shape they are varies.
18 comments
Skip to comment form
Author
the floor is open……
Author
Kinda looks like one of those “fez” hats to me. Would that disqualify me for a job at a chair factory?
Author
first image……
observe the edges between the bands of color…..
what do you see…..
second image…..
context is everything……
third image……
😉 chairs ?!? right ?!?…..
fourth image…..
what the heck……
the i’ll be back later…
#1- each colour has 7 bands, most saturation at left, least at right… the 7th looks white… each bands edge get fuzzier & it seems the horizontal length is less also.
looking at both blocks of colour thr right side seems cloudlike(the only word i can find to describe)
#2- two triangles with 3 pac mans holding up the one on top. when i cover the pac mans there is one triangle with a “3-sided throwing star” (i dunno what you call this shape- like if you cut a pie in 3 equal pcs- the shape of the cuts)
#3- there is one actual chair, one camp stool, one stool, one hassock and two things where the baby hammered wood bits together. all of these could be used to sit on.
#4- there are 2 sets of 4 circles in an ell shape… but they differ in colour.
there are 2 sets of 4 black triangles but the design/placement varies.
there are 2 sets of 2 white objects but what shape they are varies.
there are 2 sets of 3 black objects but what shape they are varies.
no 2 sets have design, colour & shape the same
Author
Crazy uncle mark: hum
Luke what is that in your hand
Luke: a rock
why
Crazy uncle mark: why is that a rock
Luke: its a rock because its a rock
Crazy uncle mark: now I know where dictionaries came from
hum
lets try it another way
what am I doing when I name something
and what is it that is being named
Luke: well when I name something
I am saying what it is
like a chair or a tree
Crazy uncle mark: I want to give you a new word
using a word to represent something is sometimes called distinguishing that thing
a distinction indicates whether something is a thing or is not a thing
Crazy uncle mark: Luke is that a chair (points to lawn chair)
Luke: yes
Crazy uncle mark: is that a chair (points to a stump)
Luke: it might be to some people
Crazy uncle mark: very good
but maybe not for everybody eh
Crazy uncle mark: pretend for a moment that I have never seen a chair
I don’t even have a word for chair
describe a chair to me
Luke: well
it has legs
it has a flat part
sometimes it has a back or arms
Crazy uncle mark: is a bean bag a chair
Luke: sometimes we call it one don’t we
Crazy uncle mark: I do sometimes
then what about the stump
Luke: well different people have different definitions for a chair
Crazy uncle mark: it’s true
yet there does seem to be something that we are talking about
something that actually exists independent of our awareness of it
would a chair still be a chair if we were unaware of it
say it had been hidden and everybody who knew of it was long since gone
Luke: yes
Crazy uncle mark: why
Luke: because people could still sit on it
Crazy uncle mark: oh
so a chair is a thing that can be sat on
Luke: of course
Crazy uncle mark: well wait a minute
pretend for a moment that there was nothing which could sit on it
would it still be a chair
Luke: maybe
if there was stuff to set on it
Crazy uncle mark: what if nothing else existed in the world
only this chair
I’m not asking if something would be there
I’m asking if what was there would still be a chair
Luke: I don’t know
this is pretty hard
Crazy uncle mark: yea it is isn’t it
Crazy uncle mark: let me repeat back to you what I have gotten so far from our conversation
things are things because we recognize them to be so
things would still be things if we were not present to recognize them
things might not be things if nothing else existed
we’re not sure about that one yet
Luke: yea
Crazy uncle mark: what do you think would happen if I got 100 people together from all over the world
and we put 100 objects in a room
then we asked these people to go in one at a time and pick all of the things which were chairs
Luke: Crazy uncle mark you always ask such hard questions
Crazy uncle mark: Luke I know you and someday you will be glad I did
Luke: I hope so
Crazy uncle mark: what would happen if we did what I have suggested
Luke: well
they would pick some of the same things as chairs
Crazy uncle mark: would they disagree on some things
Luke: sure
of course
Crazy uncle mark: here’s one for you
would all of the things in the room get picked by someone
in other words would there be anything which no one would pick
Luke: I don’t know
it seems like there would have to be
Crazy uncle mark: would there be someone who didn’t pick anything even though everyone else picked at least one thing
Luke: how could that be
that would mean that there isn’t anything which we all agree on as a chair
Crazy uncle mark: what’s wrong with that
Luke: well then it would only be a chair because we said it was
not because it was a chair
Crazy uncle mark: hum what do you think of that
seems crazy when we talk about something for which there is a lot of agreement about like a chair doesn’t it
Luke: it seems really crazy
Crazy uncle mark: here’s one for you
what if we took 100 people and one chair
every second we remove a tiny chunk of the chair from it
would there come a point at which we would all agree that what was left was not still a chair
Luke: I think so
yes
when we could no longer sit on it
Crazy uncle mark: clever
two things emerge for me then
tell me what you think of this
first except in the most unstructured examples
a thing is not a thing because of its material
otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it not a thing
because some albeit a very small amount would be left
second a thing is a thing in someway because we or someone
else sees a relationship between that thing and another
thing
how am I doing here
Luke: ok I guess
Crazy uncle mark: lets explore this a little farther
look at these two illustrations
in one of these we use visual exemplars to suggest thingness
in the other something else is happening
yet these two illustrations are really very similar in the way they work
what do you make of the second one
and don’t worry I didn’t quite see it at first either
the two look at the images above of the circle with chairs and the geometric figures….
Luke: the first one is obvious
but I don’t understand the second one
Crazy uncle mark: remember back at the beginning when I asked you
to describe a chair
Luke: yes
Crazy uncle mark: well describe the collections of objects in the
illustration so that they all fall under the same set of
characteristics or attributes
you know like legs and flat top and so on
Luke: I don’t know how
Crazy uncle mark: here’s a description
the things on the left all have two of three possible properties or
attributes
roundness, solid color, and bilateral symmetry
the things on the right have only one of those properties
this is an example of a polymorphous set
and most of the things we talk about fall into this kind of thing
Luke: ok
if you say so
but I don’t get it
Crazy uncle mark: think about it for awhile ok
get back to me
Crazy uncle mark: another one for you
what if I was in space over our planet
what would I see
Luke: well
the planet of course
Crazy uncle mark: good
and what would I pick out as the parts of the scene
Luke: oceans and continents, mountains and rivers and plants I guess
and snow
you would see snow
Crazy uncle mark: and what would happen if I got closer to the
planet
say so that all I could see was a single continent
Luke: ah
forests and individual mountains and maybe a few rivers
Crazy uncle mark: would I see the oceans
Luke: no
Crazy uncle mark: and if I got closer still
say over a particular area
Luke: trees and lakes
so
Crazy uncle mark: it’s a great experiment to do with your mind
and here is what I notice
what things show up depends on the scale of observation
different scales
different things
curious
things also seem to all be made of other things
they are composite or aggregate
except in the most unstructured examples
a thing is not a thing because of its material
otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it
not a thing because some
albeit a very small amount would be left
Luke: yea like a body
with cells and organs
Crazy uncle mark: yea
Crazy uncle mark: you know what this makes me think
Luke: no
Crazy uncle mark: that a thing is a collection of other things
and what makes it a thing in this sense is its persistence or
duration
Luke: what do you mean
Crazy uncle mark: here’s another word for you
invariance
it means something stays the same even though you change
some other things
Luke: what do you mean something stays the same even though you
change some other things
Crazy uncle mark: I mean that if you change the scale of observation
either with respect to the space or time considered
something about the relationships of the aggregate parts
of the scene remains the same
Luke: hum like a body
Crazy uncle mark: very good
or an ocean
constantly changing yet in some way always an ocean
Luke: ok
Crazy uncle mark: lets see if I can sum up
things are things because we recognize them to be so
things would still be things if we were not present to recognize them
things might not be things if nothing else existed
different things show up depending on the scale of observation
different scales
different things
things also seem to all be made of other things
they are composite or aggregate
except in the most unstructured examples
a thing is not a thing because of its material
otherwise removing material from a thing could not make it
not a thing because some
albeit a very small amount would be left
yet despite the appearance of different things at different scales
something remains invariant often
Luke: ok
it sure is complex for such a simple thing
I don’t think of all of this stuff when I name something
Crazy uncle mark: no you really don’t
it all seems to happen relatively automatically
and relatively unobserved I might add
Luke: things are squigley
Crazy uncle mark: they sure are
it gets even worse when you start to try to find out where one
thing ends off and one starts up
here again it seems to depend a lot on the scale of observation
First impressions..
It’s easier to wash out the blue.
I used to stare at sketches of 3-d boxes to change the perspective. They’re both there anyways.
Chair
Yes No, flip.
Hmm….dialog? I don’t know if that counts. Plus now I’m chronically late…