Re: [lojban-beginners] cabra and minji

[Stela Selckiku <selckiku@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 2:38 AM, najrut <ruler11post@gmail.com> wrote:
> What's the difference in mening between cabra and minji ?

A cabra needs a push each time it does something.  You can push a
button on it (or whatever) and then it does something once and then
it's done.  A minji has its own agenda and does things on its own.  It
does something once an hour, or when the room gets warm enough, or
whatever.  It's not a bright line.  A wind-up toy is probably a minji.
 A ball rolling down a ramp is a simple cabra-- but wait, is it a
minji once you let go of the ball, since it keeps rolling on its own?
Probably not.  It's too simple.  But the simpleness of that simplicity
that defines a cabra is hard to precisely define.

The behavior of a minji is more autonomous, more responsive, more
complicated.  If the behavior of something gets even more autonomous,
responsive, and complicated we start to call it a prenu.  We all agree
that Watson isn't a prenu even though it can answer a certain kind of
question about the world more accurately than most of us.  But soon
we'll have to carefully debate just where that line is.

The line between a cabra and a minji is similar, if less politically
loaded.  Imagine though a society that outlaws minji and you could
have as intense a debate about that line.  It's not really that hard
to imagine, since there's something eerie about minji, something
subjectively very different in how we experience them.  They come
alive.  Not completely alive, but enough that you have to count them
as an actor in how you imagine the world, expecting that they could
react semi-purposefully at any time to events as they unfold.

If those terms seem insufficiently precise, well that's gismu for you.
 They cover broad spaces and represent many fuzzy concepts that are
important to modern humans.  Over time we'll develop more precise
philosophical terms in the -pre (prenu) and -mi'i (minji) and -ca'a
(cabra) families.  At the moment all I can think of off the top of my
head is {jimpre}, metal person, which is a silly term for the sort of
shiny silver android that goes around saying "Hello!  I Am A Robot And
I Am Glad To Meet You!"  Over time we can develop more terms (like
perhaps "sapmi'i", sampu zei minji, simple+machine, something only
barely complicated enough to be a minji) that could create more
clarity.

mu'o mi'e la stela selckiku

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