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The sheer number of distinct configurations in which matter could be arranged is unimaginably vast, but the superexponential conceptspace of the number of different ways to categorize these possible objects is even vaster.

In order to do inference, we constantly need to make use of categories and concepts: it is neither possible nor desirable to deal with every unique arrangement of quarks and leptons on an individual basis. Fortunately, we don't live in a maximum-entropy universe of absolute chaos, we can do this, and talk about repeatable higher-level regularities in the world: we can distinguish particular configurations of matter as instantiations of object concepts like chair or human, and say that these objects have particular properties, like red or alive.

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