visit to the university's library; Ricke; Abril Pro Rock

This Friday, I went to the university's library. The day when classes start is finally defined: April 22. But they still haven't figured out if I got accepted into the classes I want: AI and ProgLan Paradigms.

I spent a good deal of time browsing through the logic section, with the goal of understanding the concept of expressivity, and in particular why FOL can't express transitive closure. Once I understand that, I will read why that doesn't matter for mathematics, even though it's used to represent arbitrary mathematical statements.
MacAllester: First Order Logic

The goal was not attained, but I am proud to report that I now understand Skolemization!

Books worth looking at more:
Girard - Proofs and Types
Popkorn - First Steps in Modal Logic
Pitts & Dybjer - Semantics and Logics of Computation

and for an "easier", conceptual introduction (euphemism for "less formal")
Barwise & Etchemendy - Language, Proof and Logic, as cited by jmmorton

I noticed that Ed Fredkin is mentioned in Society of Mind, Hameroff's "Ultimate Computing". Besides reading about him in survey paper by Chalmers. It's funny how you only notice something once you know it face to face. Fredkin is the interesting physicist who paid me dinner and gave me a ride in Cambridge when I met Marvin Minsky.

-----------------------------------

Then I left the university, got dinner at Habib's, and had a brief jam with Ricke (the only other Béla Fleck fan I've met here). Then Ana Patrícia called, and we went to Abril Pro Rock, which mostly sucked.

I met two Indians who were selling jewelry, feathers, etc. I spoke to them, and they taught me some things in Aité, which is a Macro-Gê language. It turns out they have a village in Águas Belas, only 4 hours from here. It was the first time I ever spoke to an Indian. They seemed to have a peaceful, wise tone of voice. I knew nothing about their culture before.

Rewards & Intrinsic Motivation

GusLacerda (1:22:22 AM): mechanism design is cool
GusLacerda (1:23:01 AM): how do you build an incentive structure so that your institution will work as long as everybody is selfish.
dirahl (1:23:22 AM): ahh
GusLacerda (1:23:37 AM): most government institutions are a failed attempt at this
dirahl (1:23:42 AM): an incentive structure would kill intrinsic motivation
GusLacerda (1:23:43 AM): actually, they're not an attempt at all
GusLacerda (1:23:53 AM): no
dirahl (1:24:04 AM): lol, yes it does, we just studied it in psychology
GusLacerda (1:24:18 AM): I think I remember that
dirahl (1:24:50 AM): yeah, they gave a bunch of kids markers and told them to draw...one group got a new marker for every picture drawn, and the other group didn't...
GusLacerda (1:24:51 AM): if people expect to get paid, they stop liking the task, right?
dirahl (1:24:57 AM): yep
dirahl (1:25:16 AM): the group that got the marker found that over time they liked drawing less than the other group
GusLacerda (1:25:33 AM): they become uncreative optimizers
dirahl (1:25:37 AM): yep
dirahl (1:25:56 AM): so if you really want people to love their jobs, an incentive structure is that last thing you should do.....
GusLacerda (1:26:35 AM): if you don't reward people, they won't feel appreciated
dirahl (1:26:56 AM): there's a difference between "just compensation" and an incentive structure
ddirahl (1:27:07 AM): I like what I do, but I expect a decent pay for it
dirahl (1:27:26 AM): but I don't expect "incentives"
GusLacerda (1:27:47 AM): interesting
GusLacerda (1:27:52 AM): you just
GusLacerda (1:28:02 AM): want your freedom to work as you please
dirahl (1:28:09 AM): pretty much
GusLacerda (1:28:17 AM): I think Alfie Kohn said something about that
GusLacerda (1:28:42 AM): he's against all kinds of school testing
dirahl (1:28:48 AM): so am I
dirahl (1:28:58 AM): destroys creativity
GusLacerda (1:29:08 AM): where is the conservative I used to know?

What difference should this make?