"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description, and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it"

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Neural networks are proof that we suck at defining things, but our labels are excellent.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Dr. Dan McClellan has a great segment on Data Over Dogma about Prototype Theory ( On YouTube, time counter at 35:17), in which he points out dictionaries aren't authoritative in telling us what words mean, rather they tell us what words have been used to mean so far.

He brings up the word furniture as an example talking about prototype theory, and talks about how we have a general sense of what furniture is ( we know it when we see it ) but we cannot define a set of features that includes all furniture and excludes all things not furniture.

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

Made even funnier by terms like "street furniture," which includes the bench, the bus stop, the stop sign, and the curb.