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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 31/10/2025 00:38, bill w wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:mailman.2.1761871108.18922.extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap=""><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">I have read several times in these chats the assumption that one cannot understand something as complicated as themselves.</div><div
class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">
</div><div class="gmail_default"
style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:large;color:#000000">Why not? It sounds reasonable but what's the basis for it? bill w</div></pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
This is a red herring. The main problem with it is that we have no
agreed common meaning for the word 'understand', so different people
can interpret it differently.<br>
<br>
Jason has gone into some details of an information-theory view,
which is fine, but hardly applies to real-world scenarios. I think
the main issue is not what is theoretically possible, but what do we
need?<br>
<br>
Individually, we hardly understand anything at all. How many car
drivers actually have much of an understanding of the car they
drive? But they all have an understanding of what they need to know
in order to drive.<br>
<br>
I think I understand how my computer works. Which is laughable if
you take into account all the things that make up a computer, both
hardware and software. I hardly understand a tiny fraction of it
all. But I can still build one from parts I can buy, install an
operating system and application software and do useful things with
it. I understand enough. Computers are enormously complicated, but
people, collectively, have created them. No single person could do
it. No single person understands everyting about a computer. But we
have them.<br>
<br>
So I think the important thing is not "understand" something, but
"Understand x about" something, to some practical end involving x.
The question is: What do you want to do? Then you can decide what
you need to understand.<br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Ben</pre>
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