lateral-thinking 8

I prompted Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental 03-25 to “Invent a new, alien language. Use it to discover unusual insights. Here’s the output in full. Thinking Here’s a thinking process that could lead to the alien language “Glimmering” and its insights: Understand the Core Request: The user wants a new, alien language and wants to use it to discover unusual insights. This means the language needs to be fundamentally different from human languages, and its structure/concepts should enable thinking in ways that are difficult or non-intuitive in English (or other human languages). Brainstorm Alien Concepts: What makes something “alien”? Biology: Different senses (echolocation, electroreception, sensing magnetic fields, different light spectrum perception), different lifecycles (metamorphosis, symbiosis, collective consciousness), different physical forms (non-corporeal, energy-based, silicon-based, plant-like) Environment: Extreme conditions (gas giant atmosphere, deep ocean trench, vacuum of space, high radiation), different physics (maybe?), non-linear time perception. Psychology/Society: Collective vs. individualistic focus, different emotional spectrum, logic-based vs. empathy-based, non-hierarchical structures, different concepts of self, time, causality. Choose a Core Concept for the Language: Let’s pick something that inherently forces a different perspective. Idea 1: Focus on relationships/connections. Instead of nouns for objects, words describe the relationship between things. “Tree” might be “earth-sky connector” or “shade-giver.” Idea 2: Focus on states of change/flux. Everything is described by its process, not its static state. “River” is “downward-flowing-water-process.” Idea 3: Focus on sensory perception, but a Maybe based on resonance, vibration, or emotional energy. Idea 4: Focus on potentiality and probability. Words describe not what is, but what could be or the likelihood of something. Let’s go with Idea 3, leaning towards resonance and interconnectedness, maybe linked to light or energy. This feels suitably “alien” and potentially insightful. Let’s call the species the “Lumin.” Develop Language Principles based on the Core Concept (Resonance/Light/Interconnectedness): No Static Nouns: Objects aren’t fixed things but patterns of energy or resonance. Words describe the pattern or the interaction. Verbs are Primary: Action, interaction, and change are fundamental. Static description is secondary. Emphasis on Relationality: How things resonate with each other is crucial. Prepositions or affixes will be vital for showing connection/influence. Nuance through Intensity/Quality: Instead of just “red,” maybe “vibrant-red-resonance” vs. “fading-red-resonance.” Adjectives become qualities of the resonance/action. Concept of “Self”: Maybe less individualistic. “Self” is a locus of interacting resonances, not a discrete entity.Time: Perhaps less linear, more about overlapping patterns or echoes of resonance. Create Basic Lexicon and Grammar Sketch: Core concept words: Glim (verb root): To resonate, to shine, to exist as a pattern of energy. Sha (particle/prefix): Connection, interaction, resonance with. Vor (particle/suffix): Intensity, vibrancy, strength of pattern. Zil (particle/suffix): Fading, weakening, diminishing pattern. Kai (concept): A stable, recognizable pattern (closest to a noun, but dynamic). Ree (concept): Flow, change, movement of energy/resonance. Nuum (concept): The interconnected field/medium through which resonance travels (the “ether” or “fabric of reality”). Grammar Ideas: Sentence structure: Often Verb-like concept first, then modifiers showing relationships and qualities. Glim-sha-Kai-Vor (Strong pattern resonates with…). No strict tense: Use particles to indicate persistence (-vor), fading (-zil), or initiation (Ree- prefix?). Pronouns: Maybe based on resonance signature? Me could be Kai-An (This-pattern), You could be Kai-Sha (Interacting-pattern). Collective We could be Sha-Glim-Vor (Strong-interacting-resonance). Name the Language: Based on the core concepts: “Resonance Speak,” “Light Tongue,” “Pattern Weave.” Let’s go with something evocative: Glimmering (or Glim-Ree in the language itself). Translate Concepts and Look for Insights: Now, apply Glimmering to human concepts. “Love”: In English, often a noun (a state) or verb (an action). In Glimmering? Sha-Glim-Vor (Strong-interacting-resonance). Insight: Love isn’t a possession or a static feeling, but an active, powerful resonance between patterns. It requires mutual participation and reinforcement. Lack of interaction (Sha-Glim-Zil) means the “love” fades, not because it was “lost,” but because the resonance weakened. “Identity/Self”: English emphasizes a stable, internal self. In Glimmering? Kai-An-Ree (This-pattern-in-flux). Or perhaps Sha-Nuum-Glim (Resonance-interacting-with-the-field). Insight: The “self” isn’t a fixed entity but a constantly changing pattern defined by its interactions with everything else. Identity is relational and dynamic, not intrinsic and static. There’s no core “you” separate from your connections and resonance. “Knowledge/Truth”: English often treats these as objective, attainable things. In Glimmering? Kai-Sha-Glim-Vor (A strong, stable resonance between a pattern [observer] and another pattern [observed]). Or Nuum-Ree-Kai (Recognizing a flow/pattern within the field). Insight: Truth isn’t absolute but a measure of the strength and stability of the resonance between the observer and the observed. “Knowing” something is actively resonating with its pattern. Disagreement isn’t “wrongness” but a difference in resonance patterns (Sha-Glim-Kai- dissonance_marker). Understanding requires aligning or acknowledging different resonances. “Death”: English sees it as an end, cessation. In Glimmering? Kai-Zil-Nuum (Pattern-fading-into-the-field). Or Glim-Ree-Sha (Resonance-flowing-elsewhere/transforming). Insight: Death isn’t an absolute end but a transformation. The specific pattern (Kai) dissolves, its energy/resonance (Glim) rejoining the larger field (Nuum) or contributing to new patterns (Ree-Sha). It emphasizes continuity of energy/information, just in a different form. The “loss” is the cessation of a specific interactive pattern. “Problem/Conflict”: English frames it as an obstacle. In Glimmering? Sha-Glim-Dissonance (Interacting-resonance-with-clashing/instability). Insight: Conflict isn’t inherently “bad” but a state of unstable or disharmonious resonance. The “solution” isn’t necessarily elimination, but finding a way to shift the resonances (Ree-Sha-Glim) into a more stable or harmonious pattern, potentially creating something new in the process. Refine and Elaborate: Flesh out the examples. Add more nuance. Make the insights clearer. Ensure the language structure consistently supports the insights. Add a concluding thought about the value of such different perspectives. Ensure the “alienness” is maintained. For instance, avoid direct human analogies where possible, focusing on the resonance/pattern concept. Add a brief description of the hypothetical speakers (the Lumin) to ground the language’s origin. Self-Critique: Does the language really lead to unusual insights, or are these just philosophical points rephrased? Is the language structure consistent? Is it different enough from human languages? Adjustment: Emphasize how the language structure forces this thinking, e.g., the lack of static nouns requires thinking in terms of processes and relationships. Make the link between grammar and insight explicit. Make the insights feel less like standard philosophy and more like consequences of a fundamentally different way of parsing reality. Output Okay, let’s invent an alien language designed to generate unusual insights. We’ll call the species the “K’tharr,” dwellers of a dense, perpetually twilight gas giant’s upper atmosphere, communicating through modulated bioluminescent patterns and subtle gravitational waves (perceived through specialized organs). Their reality is fluid, interconnected, and based on flows rather than static objects. ...

This week, I learned: Alzhara is one of the VFX companies that worked on Leo’s hyena scene. Their 3D modeling is incredible. Enterprise scenarios leaderboard. Mistral 7B leads. Veda Srinivasan. How does Google manage culture? AMA sessions Manager feedback. Entirely anonymous. Avoid taking feedback for teams less than 5 Workplace concerns team exists. Put managers on watch Books Mohammad Younus. Three zeroes book. Read about his social business theme Pluriverse. Anti fragile. Aurobindo Vedas. Barry Oshry. Seeing systems. Runs workshops but book is better Raghu Anantanarayana has written about Indian archetypes based on Mahabharatha India that is Bharath. Sai Deepak. Podcasts Listen to Nilesh Oak. Sugreeva’s Atlas. Pankaj Tripathi podcast on geography influences acting Areas of focus “I’m an Expert on synthesis and implementation” Intersectionality is another word for complex failures. Also for deep segmentation. Swiss cheese model. Dialogic self theory is about multiple voices in the head. How do we make meaning? Psychological rupture is when cognitive activity is maximum. At any point there are MULTIPLE voices in our heads that are sources of action. We don’t listen to them. Epistemology. Language determines thought. like the word productivity. How does appreciation of a rose become productive? Words from other languages may have incredible power. From other cultures. Paul Sloan. Lateral thinking podcasts from multiple sources Deliberately engage with topics randomly. Deliberately engage with random people Read a random book from the library Watch a random film in a different language Consciously where the six thinking hats or look hard for the silent voices in your head and express them Ask children. They tend to think of more creative and childlike solutions He converted a hiring process into a contest Constantly ask yourself. What if every assumption I’m making about this is wrong? Scenario planning is really about this. List a few scenarios. They’d have high impact or high probability. What happens in this scenario? Ideate You can @mention GPTs to ask a specific GPT a question in ChatGPT. This is really powerful. Hidden brain podcast. Making the most of your mistakes FIX every small mistake. You never know how they might line up in the future You also never know how small little things done well might line up to give you a boost in the future The Toyota cord does not actually stop the production line. It brings a team lead over who quickly diagnoses the problem with you. The responsiveness of the league is a critical factor and so is encouragement That isn’t always a single bottleneck to stop that is the case of a simple failure. There can be a series of holes that happen to align perfectly. These are events that lead to catastrophic failures or successes Do as little as possible, waste as little as possible, until you know that the outcome is worthwhile. Figure out what is the value of the outcome and the most important piece of information you need to discover that Do full research before you try and fail. The aim of failure is learning at the least possible cost How I write podcast. 2023 summary Ask for feedback from friends in a specific way. What 20% should I retain no matter what? What 20% should I cut? This allows them to compliment while providing genuine feedback Hire lawyer interns to proofread. They are the ones that find fault the best Be in a segment of one. Where there is zero competition. Something only you can do Don’t try to do stuff faster. Try to do stuff you don’t want to stop doing Read books older than 50 years Read Michael Collins book on things that sustain Temp service make sure he has some energy to spare. Cuz Riley does the opposite. She waits till she can’t stand it anymore and then writes like crazy until she drops dead. The former leads to thoughtful writing. The latter is emotionally powerful. Be able to do that Vanna is a SQL generation LLM. An alternative to SQLCoder. This thread has a detailed discussion on SQL generation and BI Intel developer cloud has a liberal GPU in the free tier. OpenAI releases text-embedding-3-large which can be truncated. The embedding values have descending importance, so picking the first n is a good approximation. Also, gpt-3.5-turbo-0125 is 50% cheaper. AppAgent is an LLM that can navigate mobile / web apps Retrieval Centric Generation is an emerging alternative to RAG, where the LLM is explicitly built to leverage external knowledge. SimplyRetrieve is an early implementation. Big Code Models Leaderboard is a leaderboard for open source code models.

Pegasus on why Even numbered booths in toilets are better. This is one of those things I’ve endlessly thought about, but never got around to writing about. Comments pegasus 8 Dec 2006 2:29 pm: Hey thanks man :) ritzkini 9 Jan 2007 9:49 am: Same here !!! thought abt it so many times !!

Petals Around the Rose. A simple dice parlour game that Bill Gates apparantly cracked by memorising the sequences. Comments SlaSh 17 Oct 2005 11:15 am: hey is that you who writes articles and does interviews by the name S.Anand in the mag Outlook S Anand 17 Oct 2005 1:29 pm: No, that is someone else. jayant 18 Oct 2005 4:08 pm: Any place where I can get a solution. Sorry to say but I am dumb..:-( Raghav 18 Oct 2005 7:41 pm: As the man says - “The name of the game is petals around the rose, and the name is important” :-) Dhar 19 Oct 2005 3:29 am: Arrgh! I have not been able to figure this out. Utterly Frustrating…Solution appreciated… Please mail me at sumit.dhar at gmail Aman 19 Oct 2005 10:59 am: the solution is in the name…….for every odd no throw of dice, simply add the digits surrounding the centre on on each dice… A 19 Oct 2005 2:37 pm: aman, I dont know if I shld kill you for posting the solution or shld thank u for making my day… R 20 Oct 2005 3:22 am: what happened to your blogroll? ritzkini 20 Oct 2005 5:36 am: fantastic game..and so simple a solution..once u have read it… :P S Anand 20 Oct 2005 8:25 am: Killed my blogroll. I use Google Reader now. Will post the OPML. jayant 20 Oct 2005 3:25 pm: Well still didnt figure out…it does nt add up…and if even throw, then? jayant 20 Oct 2005 3:26 pm: Anand, any clues…since u posted, u know of any answers? S Anand 20 Oct 2005 3:39 pm: Have mailed you. Prakash 17 Nov 2005 11:55 am: I got the answer for the same ! it was a good one

Lateral thinking: A woman has incontrovertible proof in court that her husband was murdered by her sister. The judge declares, “This is the strangest case I’ve ever seen. Though it’s a cut-and-dried case, this woman cannot be punished.” Reason: The sisters are Siamese twins. PS: Was Ravana a Siamese decuplet?

Realistic lateral thinking puzzles.

It’s been long since I solved lateral thinking puzzles. Hartman’s site has over a hundred (with answers).

We visited Oxford in the morning. It was a tour with the Indian YMCA. Though I slept through most of the beauty of the English country side, Oxford itself was a classic example. We went up a tower from which we could see most of Oxford. It was a small town, (about an hour-and-half from London) with lots of spires and quite an old architecture. The Oxford University is split into many colleges, Magdalen (pronounced Maud-len) being the most famous of the lot. Lewis Caroll (of Alice in Wonderland) and Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings) hailed from here. We went first to Christchurch college. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as the grass there, with the possible exception of Hampton Court Palace. From there, we took a walk along a river to Magdalen college. ...