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Among other things, the ant solution to the grain sorting problem given to Psyche by Aphrodite can be modeled as a replacement of an Inert with an Active. The same applies to the Trasnsformer solution of the translation problem, etc.

upd. the Odysseus solution to the Sirens problem also fits the pattern
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As Vincent Wang reminded me, ChatGPT leapfrogged GPT3 in performance by introducing reinforcement learning (RL) to fine-tune its outputs as an interlocutor, and RL is the machine learning approach to “solving agency”. It is a form of agency never seen before, because it is successful and can “learn” and improve its behaviour without having to be intelligent to do so. It is a form of agency that is alien to any culture in any past, because humanity has always and everywhere seen this kind of agency — which is not that of a sea wave, which makes the difference, but can make nothing but that difference, without being able to “learn” to make a different or better difference —as a natural or even supernatural form of agency.
...

We have decoupled the ability to act successfully from the need to be intelligent, understand, reflect, consider or grasp anything. We have liberated agency from intelligence.

Luciano Floridi, 2023.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13347-023-00621-y
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It cannot be overemphasized that System A had no analogous precursor, and thus that – unlike virtually all succeeding scientific theories – its invention was a radical departure from anything which preceded it. Consequently, we can say almost nothing with confidence about its motivation, which cannot have been directed at the shortcomings of a (non-existent) prevailing theory, nor seemingly at any urgent practical need, since we have still no evidence of how it was employed. Indeed, how little we know of the circumstances of its origin is reflected in the fact that we do not even know for certain its author’s name.
...
The crucial step – apart from conceiving the desirability and imagining the feasibility of constructing a comprehensive mathematical model of this complex set of variable phenomena – was the separation and successful modeling of the effects of lunar and solar anomaly on the intervals between syzygies. The crux of this development was the initial construction of a model depicting the variations due to lunar anomaly of the intervals between syzygies.
...
One of the fundamental tools of Babylonian astronomy was the concept of period relation which equated Π phenomena of one sort with Z of another.
...
In each case the period relation implied that variations associated with the second phenomenon recurred after Π instances of the first phenomenon, and thus that Π phenomena = Z cycles of variation.
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* the Substitute King ritual, practiced extensively during the reigns of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal, in which a substitute “king” (and queen) would be appointed to absorb the unfavorable effects of an adverse eclipse, which would be expunged from the kingdom by their subsequent deaths.


Source: John P. Britton. Studies in Babylonian Lunar Theory: Part I. Empirical Elements for Modeling Lunar and Solar Anomalies.

Arch. Hist. Exact Sci. 61 (2007) 83–145. Digital Object Identifier (DOI) 10.1007/s00407-006-0121-9
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What good is there for me in knowing how to divide a piece of land into shares, if I know not how to share it with my brother? - Seneca.
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Even Kálacakra’s yogic practices are woven into this narrative, the idea being that the future war with the barbarians is an outer manifestation of an inner battle against the barbarians of ignorance.


--- Christopher Hatchell. Naked Seeing. 2014. p. 22
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Lucretius (Book Three, lines 800-2):
It's really quite stupid to suppose
That mortal and immortal can be joined
And feel as one and act upon each other.

Remarkably, this "stupid" idea became a mainstream of Western philosophy thanks to Rene Descartes.
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In one view it was the gold and silver per se that nurtured that capitalism. In fact, it was not the metal but its consequences, and these were not at all mysterious. The high prices and low wages meant high profits. From the high profits came high savings and a strong incentive to their investment.

p. 16


note the relative ease of control for different flows.

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