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A Human's Guide to Words

Aug 24, 2017

by Eliezer Yudkowsky

This sequence discusses the basic relationship between cognition and concept formation.

The Parable of the Dagger

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The Parable of Hemlock

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Words as Hidden Inferences

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Extensions and Intensions

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Similarity Clusters

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Typicality and Asymmetrical Similarity

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The Cluster Structure of Thingspace

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Disguised Queries

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105

Neural Categories

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How An Algorithm Feels From Inside

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Disputing Definitions

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Feel the Meaning

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10

The Argument from Common Usage

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Empty Labels

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7

Taboo Your Words

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Replace the Symbol with the Substance

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15

Fallacies of Compression

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Categorizing Has Consequences

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Sneaking in Connotations

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Arguing "By Definition"

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Where to Draw the Boundary?

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Entropy, and Short Codes

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Mutual Information, and Density in Thingspace

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Superexponential Conceptspace, and Simple Words

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Conditional Independence, and Naive Bayes

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Words as Mental Paintbrush Handles

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Variable Question Fallacies

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37 Ways That Words Can Be Wrong

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Interlude

An Intuitive Explanation of Bayes's Theorem

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