Wittgenstein showed that just because I say "extended family" doesn't mean I have a precise context-free definition of it.

  • Wittgenstein showed that just because I say "extended family" doesn't mean I have a precise context-free definition of it.
    • There is no context-free definition of "tall".
      • It depends on the context.
      • Tall for a toddler in preschool?
      • Tall for the general adult population?
      • Tall for an NBA player?
    • Words don't function like predicates.
    • They can be useful without being fully formalized in anyone's head.
    • Computers, before LLMs, had to formalize everything to interact with it.
    • That led to the logarithmic-benefit-for-exponential-cost curve.

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