Philosophy

cto @ bwl.gg (lunchbreak.com), 80M+ users (bdut.ch) 🙏 built @remindme, @mintit, @gpt, @healthbot, farcantasy.xyz

Design and software at Apple. Also into AI, philosophy of mind, ethics.

Then it is neither a 6 or a 9, it is worm pattern.

the correct answer (I think): 

1) the intention of making the mark is a factual question (could have been intended as either or nothing at all)
2) what the mark can be interpreted as can be either 6, 9, (or something else) but we have social conventions around appealing to intention, 1, to settle it

Symbols exist to communicate ideas, and the communicator of the idea is the creator. That's why we care about intent.

'6' and '9' are ideas larger than their arabic numerals. Focusing on intent is a key underpinning to how communication works at all.

Or a worm did it, and it means the worm crawled that way.

My point is a little more subtle. I claim that symbols can be assigned interpretations. They don’t have meaning intrinsically. What the intent of a mark is is a related but separate point.

yes, just assuming that the mark was made intentionally, which I admit is likely. there are many cases (like identifying constellation shapes) where such an argument over which group of stars look like what is more reflective of the original meme.

imagine another case where the number fell off a gas station price sign. what’s the truth, 6 or 9? 

1) the number’s function in the price when it fell off?
2) the orientation of the number when it was originally printed in the number factory?

I think saying it *has* to be either a 6 or a 9 in this case is silly.

Sure, assigned interpretations exist and are real, but to wrap back to the original image, there does exist a truth, meaning the interpretations can be true or false, and not all equally valid.