Monday, April 29, 2024

用鼻睇嘢

 From Edwin:


阿仔今日話自己對眼同個鼻都睇到嘢(之前都講過,但我唔明)。佢嗰陣喺度試緊單住眼睇嘢。之後我諗諗吓突然明點解佢會噉講,係因為binocular vision將兩隻眼嘅visual experience結合成一個unified experience,而中間overlap嘅部分正正就好似喺個鼻度「睇出嚟」噉。

[下面開始係無聊嘅延伸諗法]

我好似未曾試過噉諗,但如果單從感覺去諗,阿仔呢個詮釋有一種直接而合理嘅地方。如果單純用視覺作直覺判斷,大概真係好似渣古噉,視覺係由喺頭部由左至右無間斷噉「射出嚟」,而唔係由分隔咗嘅兩隻眼噉射出嚟。

但當然如果我地要測試呢種直覺咪合理,可以試下合埋對眼,就會發覺個鼻唔會「睇出嚟」。

但問題又唔係咁簡單。如果我合埋對眼後,發現自己睇唔到嘢,我點樣conclude到係對眼睇嘢而個鼻真係冇「視覺」?

可以想像幾個情況:

人唔識得單眼睇嘢,亦冇辦法用任何方式去遮住其中一隻眼(當冇手冇腳)。即係話一係就兩隻眼都開,一係就落隻眼都閂。而又假設我地連鏡都冇,睇唔到自己塊面係點,噉嗰個人會點諗自己嘅視覺?大概幾難得出自己有兩隻眼為視覺器官呢個結論。好可能佢會覺得個頭中上方有一大範圍係有睇嘢功能(亦即係類近阿仔嘅「鼻都睇到嘢」結論)。

而就算佢有鏡,佢都未必得出視覺由眼而出嘅結論。佢喺鏡度當然會睇到有兩隻眼,但齋睇到面上有雙眼唔會令人斷言眼係用嚟睇嘢。

如果呢個人想試係咪真係睇眼有視覺功能,佢可以試合埋眼。「合眼睇唔到,開眼睇到」 - 仲唔係眼用嚟睇嘢?但呢個做法都唔得。我地無從判斷自己係咪合緊眼。

點解噉講?可以試想單從感覺去睇,咩叫合眼?你控制頭中上方嘅某啲嘢開合,感覺到有少少肌肉郁動,然後就睇唔到嘢 - 呢三點都唔會令人覺得係specifically合緊雙眼。如果我冇見過塊面,可能就以為係成個範圍嘅開合。

而就算有鏡都好,當你合埋咗眼,你就已經睇唔到嘢,睇唔到「自己合埋眼」呢個事實。

不過噉講,鏡係其中一個工具令我地開始可以明白眼係用嚟睇嘢。如果我可半開半合噉睇嘢,就會睇到半合眼係影響到視覺,所以推斷眼部同視覺有關。而且鏡中睇到轉動眼珠而視覺會改變都係另一原因我地會估眼睛同視覺有關嘅另一原因。

但我覺得就算有呢個test,都不足以證明「鼻」係睇唔到嘢,只係帶出兩種conflicting嘅直覺。「明明我得一個vision experience,點會由兩隻分隔嘅眼而嚟?」而如果你純粹依賴直覺,我覺得visual experience嘅證據係prior to 你之後用嘅test。我地無法否認得一個visual field,但我地可以否定係用對眼嚟睇嘢呢個推斷(可以有other hypotheses)。

又如果嗰個人而家識得單眼,佢會發現閂咗一隻眼會少咗一部份vision,旦另一隻眼又會少另一啲vision,而閂曬兩隻眼就冇曬vision。噉係咪就證明係眼睇嘢呢?我覺得都唔得,原因同上,你總可以有其他hypotheses - 譬如個眼同鼻兩者都可以睇嘢,都唔一定contradict上面嘅觀察(下面會提出)。

噉件事開始變成討論hypotheses testing搵出criteria去判斷咩係啱。但件事都唔係咁簡單。「只用雙眼睇到嘢」合乎我地嘅「實測試」,但有啲違反平日最常嘅直覺(i.e.唔覺得視覺係由兩個sources而出);「用鼻都睇到嘢」嘅結論符合平時日常用視覺時嘅直覺(i.e.成個vision field都睇到嘢),但同實驗似乎有少少唔相符。噉點算?

我地一方面可以話直覺係錯嘅,一方面可以話個實驗結論係錯嘅。但如果視覺本身就係我地需要解釋嘅嘢,你話視覺直覺係錯會令到成個研究miss the point。噉或者再諗,明明合埋眼會睇唔到嘢,係咪都依然支持到合乎直覺嘅「鼻都睇到嘢」諗法?

要加ad hoc hypotheis去解釋唔係好難,譬如話合埋眼時會不自覺「合埋」鼻嘅視覺,又或者鼻嘅視覺係要靠眼嘅視覺為輔助之類。總會可以保住「鼻都睇到嘢」呢個講法。

噉「用鼻都睇到嘢」就會變得合乎直覺之餘,又唔necessarily falsify by 實驗。而相反「只用雙眼睇到嘢」仍然係違反直覺。(係要去到有一大堆唔同嘅研究發現binocular vision,眼有photoreceptive cells,個腦可整合資訊....etc 我地最終先可以make senseof呢啲講法點解唔違反直覺,但呢堆嘢係好後期先發現同埋係好龐大嘅資訊量嚟。即係要兜一個好大嘅圈先返到直覺度。)

講到呢度,好似係講緊如何判斷「解釋」嘅可信性之類嘅講法。但重點唔係喺度。只係想講,我地覺得視覺係由雙眼而出呢種解釋/諗法,大概唔係嚟自視覺或身體直覺而已,亦唔係嚟自簡單嘅身體實驗。

阿仔話「個鼻睇到嘢」其實係一個對自身嘅phenomenon準確嘅形容嚟。

噉點解我地大部份人都會覺得個鼻係睇唔到嘢,而係對眼。我覺得最基本係言語文化所造成。係我「教」阿仔話:係眼先睇到嘢,鼻睇唔到。而係教科書「教」我話,睇有photo receptor、腦可以統合感官..etc 。而呢堆「知識」係教出嚟,唔係淨係自身做試驗、觀察、感受出嚟。

再諗時諗到,當然可以用手去遮住個鼻(aka雙眼中間)睇吓會發生咩事(呢個可能係最有用嘅自身實驗去判斷鼻真係睇唔到嘢)。但有幾多人會用呢種方法先接受「眼係睇嘢鼻睇唔到嘢」?至少阿仔聽完我話「鼻係睇唔到嘢wor」後,似乎就冇再研究落去。

結論係,連最身體嘅直覺嘅解釋可能好多都係從言語從他人而得。

但有個問題係我未諗清楚嘅

「用鼻都睇到」、「淨係雙眼睇到嘢」固然兩個都係對視覺嘅解釋嘅hypothesis。兩個都最終解釋到直覺(當人你知道binocular vision嘅理論,就會知道其實兩隻眼都可以generate到一個vision field。)

問題係我覺得兩者同直覺嘅關係有唔同。

前者係接近直覺(而唔係解釋直覺,雖然佢都有解釋直覺嘅功用),後者係遠離直覺但可以解釋直覺。另一個例子係:地球唔郁係接近直覺,而日心說則係解釋直覺一樣。基本上一切科學結論最終都係做緊「解釋直覺」 - 砌一大堆嘢去解釋直覺但唔可以離開直覺。

如果有分別,我地都可以問,點解要用遠離直覺嘅解法而唔用接近直覺嘅解法?更何況嗰啲遠離直覺嘅解法對絕大部分人(包括我)好多時只係語言傳授而嚟?


「魔鬼誘惑」

 

見到呢啲故仔有少少心噏

明明講多啲穌耶可能可以避免佢跳。

亦都係點解我不斷提呢個聖經故仔。

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Statistical "Laws"

I just realized it's the same fallacy -

To believe a statistical observation codified as "law" applies in every situation.

This is the intellectual cause of discrimination and bias, and it is also the same mistake made by people who don't believe magic is possible.

Interesting huh.

-------

also a comment I wrote around the same time:

*from a subjective perspective*, when all you need is N=1, frequentist probabilities make a lot less sense, and noise from the long tail dominate.

Where is space located?

https://youtu.be/tdv7r2JSokI?si=m0yrIfWIy3RBBTtO&t=4781

The Schrödinger equation doesn't have to be messed with. All you have to do is locate yourself correctly in the wave function. That's many worlds. - The number of worlds is Very, very, very big.

Where do those worlds fit? Where they go? - The short answer is, the worlds don't exist in space. Space exists separately in each world. So, I mean, there's a technical answer to your question, which is Hilbert space, the space of all possible quantum mechanical states. But physically, we want to put these worlds somewhere. That's just a wrong intuition that we have. There is no such thing as the physical spatial location of the worlds 'cause space is inside the worlds.

And I was listening to this one also, almost back-to-back:

https://youtu.be/J_g_duRzWfk?si=p5SIRGw73FsG9C5K&t=2455

Yeah it is all a projection of our Consciousness. We're not we're not in physical reality physical reality is in US.

While it's really easy to confuse the more unintuitive concepts of quantum physics with abstract concepts like consciousness, the analogy here seems to hold pretty well, since the only thing that explains why we subjectively "perceive" one world as opposed to all the world comes down to some version of "consciousness"... And it is this consciousness that holds the world.

In short, the former statement was a somewhat objective interpretation of reality, and the latter is a subjective interpretation. Both seem to be quite true to me.

Relativity

 "The whole point of relativity is to say there's no such thing as right now when you're far away." -- Sean Carroll.


Friday, April 26, 2024

Emergency

It's common for scientists especially physicists to describe a law of nature, and proclaim everything is subject to that law, and the law is capable of explaining everything. They also often add a curious disclaimer, saying that although that is theoretically possible, nobody actually derives (for example) the ideal gas law from the Schrödinger equation, or derive organic chemistry from atomic physics, because it is too complicated to do so.

Despite the fact that nobody actually did it, people still *believe* that those handful of equations are all there is to the laws of nature.

But we really don't know whether that's the case.  Until we have actually derived all physical phenomena from such first principles, we cannot really say with confidence that we know what we think we know. It's more of an assumption as opposed to a well established fact backed by evidence.

What if those laws don't scale like we thought they would? What works for 10 particles might not work for 100 particles, and what works for 100 particles might not work for 1 000 000 000. Why are we so sure that complex organic chemistry only depends on the known atomic physics, and not something new that happens when interactions become much more complex?

This is perhaps the classical argument against reductionism, and it is more of a philosophical objection than a real suggestion that scientists have got it all wrong. But modern physics is indeed oblivious to its over-reliance on reductionistic approaches, to everyone's detriment.

Given my hypothesis that magic could hide and manifest in complexity (so that the smoking gun could not be found, at least not easily), it seems to me that if scientists are really serious, they should actually spend more effort in excising these magical dwellings from the theory, instead of leaving it to assumptions.

Thursday, April 25, 2024

BSides Hong Kong

閒置無事,見個 event 又唔使錢,就走咗去 BSides Hong Kong 聽咗下午幾個 session。

第一個個 session 個標題睇落好勁,咩 LLM injection,原來標題黨,花咗 90% 時間講 2022/23 年嘅 LLM 入門知識,再用咗兩分鐘講 LLM injection,感覺上係大學 present 水平。見講者係個 Deloitte 後生女仔,我走去八卦問下佢哋係咪有嘢用 LLM 所以搵人去做呢啲研究 (或者起碼派人手去學...),原來佢哋都係好初步嘅狀態,整咗堆 GPU server ,但冇咩特別應用。(我估可能係有少部份人內部當 ChatGPT 咁用啦。似係想 sell 客但唔通真係會 sell 到咩⋯ 向 Microsoft 買唔好?)

第二個 session 終於有啲非教科書內容,講 Chrome Extension。聽聽下有啲眼瞓,但感覺上都係講下 manifest v3 嘅 security features。係知多咗啲嘢嘅。理論上我係諗緊整個 Chrome Extension 去 click click 翻譯 H 漫生肉,係應該要知嘅。 Anyway...

第三個 session 勁嘢嚟,條友 Demo 點樣用 RPi Pico 去 intercept 粒 TPM 嘅 BitLocker encryption key。原來 Windows notebook 一般流程係個電腦 boot 起就自動自覺 send 條 key 俾個 OS。我知道呢件事之後覺得好神奇,因為我部 MacBook 冇可能會咁樣出事。諗諗下應該係 Microsoft 冇控制個 BIOS (or equivalent) 搞到佢要先 decrypt 咗個 HDD 之後先問密碼。所以除非 BIOS set 密碼否則冇用。(咁唔可以有個 bootup partition 問咗密碼先咩? well, 部門政治呢家嘢⋯⋯

之後就已經五點,我 skip 埋最後嗰個 talk (講點樣低成本搵 bug bounty,算啦...),搵咗間粉麵舖食咗個麵就返屋企。