Alex Bennett
1 min readOct 11, 2023

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Thank you very much, Muhammed. Very aptly said! Theoretically, all of our beliefs are shaped by internal algorithms. When we see a tree, we believe we see a tree. (If we didn't, we'd be in trouble!) Truth units don't decode pure subjective experience like listening to great music -- theoretically, the truth units in such situations only say "yes, I'm hearing something that is beautiful to me." Why it's beautiful would be explained by truth units about past experience -- what you've listened to in the past and your memories of those experiences -- like maybe you heard it once, and it didn't make an impression, and then on 20th listen, you really like it, and when you hear it again a year later, it's like seeing an old friend.

Truth units are just a way of accounting for or explaining beliefs, like a musical score accounts for or explains what you hear in terms of the notes played -- truth units are not the beliefs themselves, just as a map is not the country in the map. When one person likes rock and another person likes jazz, people say it's a matter of taste, but truth units are map to their past experiences -- what they grew up with, and what they listen for and focus on, etc. (E.g., being attuned to the beat of rock or being attuned to the improvisational construction of jazz.)

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Alex Bennett
Alex Bennett

Written by Alex Bennett

My goal on Medium has been to publish “Truth Units.” It took 1.5 years. I hope you read it. New articles will respond in-depth to your questions and critiques.

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