Calculus is a billion times easier than making friends

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Bashful
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08 Oct 2005, 1:56 am

I find my Calculus and Analytical Geometry course to be a billion times easier than making friends. Lots of times, I tend to foul up a lot in conversations and I wish there was a formula or a logical structured procedure (like the procedure of a certain science experiment) that I can just memorize that can be followed in making or keeping friends.

One thing is Calculus comes very easy to me because there is always a formula or a logical set of rules to follow like the Product Rule, Quotient Rule, Power Rule, Sum and Difference rule, and the Chain rule (rules and formulas for finding derivatives).

Making friends and especially maintaining relationships is much more difficult for me then math and computer science is. I never could understand even if I try to the best to my ability non-verbal signals such as body language and emotions. In result to that, even trying the best I can, I do however declare myself incapable of being successful in making and keeping friends and relationships.

Another thing is if in Calculus if I make a mistake, I can always erase and start over on the same math problem as in friendships and relationships is like writing with a permanent marker in which is I feel if I make a mistake, even one tiny error, it is irreversible and I just blew my chance for life and the relationship has been destroyed.

I just thought about if I wish to take time off to enjoy myself, I be best at spending all of it all alone.



Sean
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08 Oct 2005, 3:08 am

I agree, and I'm not even up to calculus yet. :roll:



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08 Oct 2005, 12:16 pm

agree


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NeantHumain
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08 Oct 2005, 12:57 pm

Wow, I have made this exact same analogy! The only difference is that I don't enjoy calculus, which actually makes the analogy stronger. I can persevere at a calculus problem until I solve it, but persevering on relationships can often make things worse.



Namiko
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08 Oct 2005, 1:00 pm

Precisely, though I prefer to use anything chemistry related for my examples. ;)


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mikibacsi1124
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08 Oct 2005, 1:03 pm

Bashful wrote:
Calculus is a billion times easier than making friends


Gee, thanks for the encouragement. :wink:



mjs82
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09 Oct 2005, 1:07 pm

There's an unshakable truth and comfort in logic that we're all able to hide in when we need it.



dgd1788
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09 Oct 2005, 2:24 pm

I'm in Pre-algebra, and understand calculus. Everyone thinks i'm crazy because of it, and also I can't explain it to my parents how I understand it. I also feel like a computer!



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09 Oct 2005, 4:02 pm

I think we're all a little like that at some point or another. :) Oftentimes, when people ask me how I do certain things, I have to tell them that I can't explain it and that I just know how to do it. It bothers most of them a lot, especially when it comes to math-related stuff. :?


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mikibacsi1124
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09 Oct 2005, 5:45 pm

Well, I failed PRE-calculus the first time and just barely managed to get a C the second time. And now I'm struggling horribly in my computer science class. Then again, it's tough to say how I'd fare if I were graded on friend-making.



Who_Am_I
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09 Oct 2005, 10:15 pm

I've made a similar analogy. When people say
"It's just talking"
I think
"It's just advanced calculus"


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Sean
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09 Oct 2005, 11:52 pm

Personally, I would have chose Chaos Theory as a better analogy for social interaction.



kevv729
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10 Oct 2005, 6:45 pm

I like abstract math and science problems myself. It helps me relax.



Who_Am_I
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11 Oct 2005, 1:54 am

Sean wrote:
Personally, I would have chose Chaos Theory as a better analogy for social interaction.

Chaos theory is cool!


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ghotistix
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11 Oct 2005, 6:33 am

Sean wrote:
Personally, I would have chose Chaos Theory as a better analogy for social interaction.

That's really quite insightful. It seems like a simple system at first glance, but no matter how much studying of the system one does, the behavior can't be accurately predicted. I never thought about it that way.



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15 Oct 2005, 12:32 am

Have a look for stuff about pattern recognition this is a big part of how i deal with the NT world.

This is a case of deminishing returns after getting to the minimum passable emulation. Ie once you find some trick that works for a given area of interaction even if it's simple trying a more complex one will generally make things worse. Remeber the social interaction stuff in humans is mostly in the brain stem and evolved a long time ago when nuerons were still evolutionarily much more expensive than they are today, thus the actual behaviors in NT are likely to be mostly reflex agent based (you can apply this in about 15% of the population to make them fall in love with you, albeit only for a short peroid of time but i'm getting side tracked).

There only a small number of signals you need to be able to pattern match you can genralize pretty much everything else. Basically if you can pattern match body language to just a few cases

initally you train this up by simply observing the person you are talking to.
NTs just copy the other persons body language back to them like a mirror, the actual data
exchange is in the difference between the orriginal and the reflection.

having done comp sci you'll know how binary search works. This is surprisingly a very useful and simple algorithm for
social purposes. It can be adapted to tell you how long to make eye contact, how close to someone to stand / sit. Eg make eye contact with the person break after an arbatary (but initally always sub 1 sec) period of time, allow them to initate eye contact on return if they break after more or less time increase or decrease your time on return accordingly. now you have a constantly increasing or decreasing value.

This is how interested the person is in what you are saying. You need to moving average it out to get any useful data, immediate values aren't any good.

that's just one example. Any change probably encodes some information. The meaning can only be found through statistical analysis (trial an error). Remeber you are only trying to correlate the correct output (according to NTs) with a given input, you don't not even need to know why something occurs or what information it encodes as long as you can generate the correct responce often enough.

Eg if you're a girl and you pass another girl within roughly your own age range she will probably p = 60% make eye contact and smile at you breifly > 0.2s && < 0.8s, in womens toilets p increases to 90% the correct responce is to do the same within a maximum of 0.7s otherwise you'll be treated suspiciously or may even be mistaken for a man. I have no idea what information this exchange encodes, but i do know how to generate the correct responce.

if you can't make it, then fake it. It works for me.

My social AI isn't really artifical intelliegence at all. It's actually artifical stupidity. It doesn't know why it does anything.
it's the classical ai. Situation through rules -> generate action -> did we get it wrong or right -> if wrong adjust some values more or less at random and try again and remeber what you changed and whether that made it better or worse.