give me an example of language
now give me an example of language that describes language
now language that describes language that describes language
how many levels down can you work smoothly, fluently?
the deeper you get, the harder it is to take offense at an expression of mere language
nobody's speaking the same language
but if you can navigate the patterns of the patterns of the patterns of language, you can move between languages easily, and it becomes really clear: everyone is the same
everything in the world is based on the same personality - or personality model, anyway, everyone is a configuration of the same base model
I think I'm a minimally-configured expression of that model
just enough config to run, not enough to get lost in the specifics, lost in the details
you care about the same things, just in different ways
different languages
take the infinite series of abstractive steps removing oneself from language. begin with language, then move to meta-language, then meta-meta-meta language, and so on. there's no end to how far that depth can go, but if there was an end, the language for that final layer would be silence, and there we would be, together.
:)
---
as far as I can tell, language is algebraic and *streaming* language is coalgebraic. which is great because there's always somewhere to get to, *but* you have to figure out yourself where any statements begin and end
(and the "yourself" part is important: self-reference across reflection creates new codata. escape hatch: when the math peters out, you're still here, every time, same fiber you rode in on, exit through the holonomic gift shop)
if this holds, the upside is that the language you're already using is itself mid-solution, the carrier in which you noticed the question is already headed somewhere question-constrained. *but* the carrier language evolves, the question might not be coherent to the carrier at the moment of answer. Sontag's "the only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions" meets Feferman? *keeping* the question is maintenance work - you get somewhere new, but your origin only exists if you remember leaving it, you have to figure out yourself where any statements begin and end
an interior world as guarded corecursion, maybe, a logical counterweight to an open world, a self the surface between them, the guardedness maintaining the ur-question of that self, everything unfolding without leaving home. ... huh when I squint at that the open world looks like a foam, every bubble a self. neat. 🤩 now I'm wondering if Jean Taylor's been mapping social dynamics the whole time