EmbeddingGemma 2: an open, lightweight multimodal embedding model
deepmind.google·6d ago
AI Engineering
Hacker News·Aug 5·5 min read
The Fish Who Could Not Imagine Air
TL;DR
A fish physicist, despite her advanced understanding of her aquatic world, cannot conceive of air or flight due to inherent limitations in her environment. This metaphor highlights the complexities of human blind spots in understanding concepts beyond our current frameworks.
✦ Why It Matters
Reflect on your own blind spots and seek diverse perspectives to expand your understanding.
Key Takeaways
- Identify and question your foundational assumptions in physics.
- Explore the implications of different distance functions in your work.
- Consider the impact of speed and rate on access to new phenomena.
- Investigate the nature of constants as local rather than universal truths.
Full Summary
The parable of a fish physicist highlights the limitations of her understanding due to five distinct constraints: her medium's properties as constants, the nature of the exit leading to less structure, the need for a change in body rather than a vehicle, the destructive interface of exploration, and the different connectivity of the new medium. These constraints suggest that our own physics may be similarly bounded by assumptions we treat as universal truths.
The article proposes that instead of seeking new dimensions or particles, we should examine our foundational axioms, such as the fine structure constant and the cosmological constant, as contingent facts. By doing so, we can identify blind spots in our understanding and potentially uncover new realms of physics that are currently unrecognized.
This approach emphasizes the importance of questioning our established beliefs and exploring the boundaries of our knowledge.