I really need to get on a regular schedule again.The random posting is not good for me, or for all 5 of my readers. Anyway… I did not quit posting, I am just very irregular about it right now. Bear with me, I am trying to make it better.
This week, I am taking on the topic of “Signals.” I miss the days of crowd sourcing my questions, because I know I would get a greater breadth of random ass signal meanings and inferences. By relying on ChatGPT to generate questions I really do rely on the collective works of the Internet to inform the questions. THe concept of a signal can take many different directions. Jeept did not generate any significantly random questions that just come out of left field (with a through-line based in reality). I ask it to be creative and it asks a question like “Can a cat be a signal?” and then it asks if that was creative enough. No questions about the tertiary Batman character, no questions about any songs called “Signal,” no questions that start going one direction and pivot halfway through… But, I can no longer crowd source questions. My crowd just doesn’t work like that anymore. I miss that crowd of mine.
Anyway… Jeept (GPT… like the GP vehicle {General Purpose Vehicle, or Jeep} with a T on the end) did a good enough, if not kind of predictable service of questions… let’s get into them.
1. What distinguishes a signal from mere noise?
In Calc 3, it was vectors. Magnitude and direction. Signals have more coherent magnitude and direction than statistical noise.
2. Can silence function as a signal?
It is often the strongest signal.
3. Is instinct partly reading signals beneath awareness?
Yes, and no. Instinct is reading "perceived" signals beneath awareness. It might just be noise…
4. Why do humans ignore warning signals they recognize?
Hope. We don’t want bad things to happen, so we downplay the ominous warning signals indicating the unwanted outcome.
5. What makes a signal honest versus performative?
I think Jeept is referring to “Virtue Signalling” here. What snakes something virtuous vs just being performative? Intent. If the actual intent is helping, it is virtuous. If the intent is to look like one is helping, it is Virtue Signaling (performative.) That being said, good things can occur due to performative virtue signaling, the underlying reason for the action’s existence is so people can see the “good” being done and by whom.
6. Why are romantic signals so often misread?
The opposite of why warning signals are ignored. In this instance people don’t believe the signals that they are getting of a romantic variety. The other thing is that the social ramifications of being wrong about perceived romantic signaling can feel greater than the perceived romantic benefit of reading the signals correctly.
7. Have algorithms become machines for extracting signals from our behavior?
Again, yes and no. Algorithms are also a bit of a chicken/egg thing. Social media algorithms are built by extracting signals from people’s social media consumption, but also tend to shape people’s social media consumption. IT is a bit of a positive feed-back loop.
8. Is information abundance making true signals harder to detect?
I guess, “yes and no” is going to be the mantra of these questions. I think trying to generate definitive questions about the vague notion of signals is an impossible task. The abundance of information is not making the detection of true signals more difficult, it is making determining which true signal is applicable to the question at hand. We are finding more true signals… enough so that it creates another type of noise.
9. Why are humans drawn to secret codes and hidden transmissions?
We are intrinsic problem solvers, but we are also vain. We want to be the ones who break the code and find the secret.
10. If we detected a signal from another civilization, who should answer?
Yes.
11. What life signals have you only understood in hindsight?
Okay, Jeept, I think I need to get some examples of this. I do not quite follow this question…
11.1:
Persistent restlessness in a job you once loved
Dreading Sundays (career signal)
Repeated misunderstandings that are actually incompatibility signals
Several unrelated people point you toward the same idea
Ignoring small compromises that become identity drift
Rationalizing what you know is wrong
Etc…
Okay.. in that case… the one that I consistently miss and tend to understand when it is over is when something enjoyable becomes something obligatory.
12. Is anxiety a false alarm system or an overactive signal detector?
Anxiety is not necessarily a false alarm, it might just be an extremely sensitive alarm.
13. What signals tell us it is time to change course?
This can be interpreted in so many different ways pending on the subject matter at hand. I think the easiest way that I can sum this one up is by saying when the routine becomes unpredictable, and, conversely, when the unpredictable become routine.
14. Can absence be a stronger signal than presence?
Yes. The absence of love in a relationship is a very very strong signal
15. Are dreams transmissions, rehearsals, or static from the psyche?
Yes to all 3.
16. Is humor sometimes a disguised distress signal?
Uh.. yeah. duh?
17. What if consciousness itself is a receiver tuned to certain signals?
Consciousness is the persistence of self while being a receiver tuned to certain signals.
18. What signals are civilization currently ignoring at its peril?
Overall temperature rising. I think we are about to see some big volcanic activity so the ambient temp drops due to ash clouds in the atmosphere… I think that Earth might be a more self-regulating system than we think.
19. If the universe is sending signals, are we listening on the wrong frequency?
The universe is constantly sending signals. It is our perception of signals as we tune to more and more frequencies that creates growth and change. We are not listening to the wrong frequency as much as we are learning how to listen to more frequencies.
20. What is the difference between reading a sign and inventing one?
Who the receiver of that signal is.
To recap:
Shout out to Theo
Pour one out to Margot this week
Margot was a real one
3-legged deaf cat with anger issues
It is rough when a friend loses a pet, because that loss effects them
But also, it is another reminder of the ephemerality of life
So, pour one out for all the homies.. Human or otherwise
The contract work I am working on is going well
I think I am doing good work and should be able to do something significant about all this
Little Man is graduating from in 2 weeks
Where has the time gone?
My youngest is graduating from high school in 4 weeks
Seriously, where has the time gone?
I need to know
Need to be drawing more
Need to be writing more
Need to be sleeping more
I miss eating good bread
I miss good doughnuts more
My doggos snore pretty loudly
Do the thing on Substack
Or the thing on Medium
Have a great week everyone