PEN-L message, Re: [Pen-l] Krugman critiques Obama stimulus plan

Greetings Economists,

On Jan 6, 2009, at 1:29 PM, Jim Devine wrote:

Strange and seemingly irrelevant analogies don't fit in clear
thinking. For example, a "clear standard" is NOT a "production
process." It refers to a _standard_, something that one wants. A
"production process," on the other hand, refers to inputs of whatever
sort being transformed into outputs (usually some wanted and some
not).

Doyle;

I beg to differ. Protocols for making web pages and the assorted other rules or standards of the WWW are a control on production so that web pages work.

JD writes;

It's likely that pen-l can't achieve clear thinking, since it involves
more than one person. It's hard enough for one person to pull off. But
issues can at clarified: if nothing else, we can move toward having
clearer differences of opinions. We don't have to appeal to emotion,
preexisting biases, style, etc. In other words, even though purely
clear thinking may be impossible, we can try.

Doyle;

Then I will try to be clear here about what I mean. We are producing knowledge, writing text. And a simple exchange back and forth does not address like you say clarity opinion. We could use the traditional standards of editorial control of journals to up things a notch by passing a document past a panel of 'experts' but why bother? Let's take data mining as an example of trying to use a lot of data to specific needs. Say Google finding text from the vast library for you when you want it. That represents the work of hundreds of thousands or authors taken together in an anonymous way.

Or a bigger interest of mine like face recognition in iPhones where the phone can identify faces in your archive as being the same person. Or the EU initiative to take a cell phone picture and identify information about that location directly to that place. Those automations really render a discussion as we have here as under achieving real clarity of meaning. Here's why, the EU project can claim 80% accuracy in identifying say a building on a street anywhere in Europe. That is real clearness in the sense you mean I think. But it represents a vast increase in information data that individuals can't do well by themselves. I cite the European source -

MOBVIS project: http://www.mobvis.org/

(PhysOrg.com) -- European researchers can now attach hyperlinks to pictures you take using your

mobile phone. It offers the prospect of new ways to discover, engage and navigate your surroundings.

You wake up in a strange city with no recollection of how you got there and no information about

where you are. Demonstrating nerves of steel, you calmly pick up your mobile phone and take a

picture of the streetscape.

thanks,

Doyle Saylor