Logic, Computers, Brains, and Language: The Power to Predict

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Introduction

Logic, computers, brains, and language converge to unlock a profound ability: knowing what to know next. These four domains fuel prediction, although each in a very different way.

Logic lays the timeless rules to predict what combinations are possible and what they entail, computers embody logical rules in hardware to predict data from input to output, brains weave the laws of logic with biology to predict suitable responses and their effects, and language connects the contents and structure of information-flows to signs allowing them to be coded, transmitted and interchanged.
This isn't just about tech or thought - it's the predictive power shaping meaning, possibilities and certainties.
Here's how each contributes, ending with how they align.

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Logic: Knowing Instantly, Anywhere

Logic tells you what's also true if something holds - right now, anywhere, without delay. Let's look at a statement like "When I have a time-transporter, I (also) have a castle.". Two things that aren't intrinsically connected of course. But as long as a time-transporter doesn't exist, it's true, regardless actually having a castle or not.
Or take "When I have a bike, I (also) have a car." Nonsense in general. Now with a small addition: " When I have a car, then, when I have a bike, I (still) have a car.". Here it doesn't matter whether I have a car, a bike or both. This makes sense in all worlds, always, inevitably.
A broader picture: when we have a domain with, say, three possible states-of-affairs that each can have two values (like true or false, a simple binary system of logic). Then with those have 2

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3 =6 possible object states, 2^{^3} =8 possible domain states, 2^{^8} =256 possible logical relations, and 2^{^256} =65536 possible reasonings - each distinct, without any repetition, all instantly at any time.
Logic underpins prediction with a purity unbound by time, space, matter, or energy - independent of any domain other then its own, existing solely in its own realm. Its "if-then " predicting what must be true if valid - in all worlds, over time and space. Prediction here isn't a process - it's an eternal presence, ready to be tapped, timeless and instantaneous.

Moreover, with only a single distinction made - "this, not that" - the entire systematics of logic comes instantly into play, including all its laws, and its inherent combinatory explosion: a vast universe of possible combinations, of values, objects and relations, its variants and derivates - marching into unlimited levels of infinity.. Not even - and by far not - fitting in the known physical universe, let alone the human brains, mind or mental abilities!

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Computers: Logic in Material Machines

Computers bring the abstract machine of logic into the physical world, a stunning feat. Built on bits - 0s and 1s - they instantiate elementary logic, flipping switches to mirror "true" or " false.".
Imagine a machine that turns "if A, then B" into a buzzing circuit, checking a million paths where a librarian once ticked only one.
Precisely because computers function on the basis of the laws of logic, their operations are always perfectly predictable, and their outcomes 100 percent reliable consequences of their input data (physical malfunction aside because the material machine is prone to interferences, defects, 'wear and tear').

The flip side of this is just as true: when computers fail they fail perfectly predictable. Thus, any flaw or bug in the programming, from 'machine language', Assembler etc. on, will perfectly predictably lead to certain erroneous results, or even a 'down state' of the entire system. As my late uncle John quipped in 1975, "Computers never fail, humans do".
Ever wondered why your operating system, popular all over the world, gets stuck or dead again, for the thousandth time or more? It's because its actual 'human friendly' operating is manmade and even after 40 years, still contains the same silly errors based on programmers poor understanding of logic and its unique level of reliability. Also important: actually finding those bugs, and even harder, predicting perfect processing as intended by the human programmer, still is almost impossible due to combinatory explosion.

Mid 2020's, computers remain humanity’s most precise tools, their unique surplus value lying in the absolute perfect predictability of their basic computing processing. Nowadays, computers simulate complex systems - climate shifts, chess endgames - running logic at huge scale.
Machine learning pushes their performances further, training on data to predict sales or trends. Yet, their power stays tethered to hardware's limits - fast, yet finite, still bound to time, space, energy, and matter, always slower than logic's timeless reach and only a shadow of logic's infinity.

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Brains: The Living Network

Brains wield prediction through biology's chaos. With about 100 billion neurons, each acts like a tiny computer, firing action potentials - digital bursts - via ions, not electrons. Picture sodium and potassium dancing across membranes, signaling a near-infinite variety of patterns. These neurons don't just compute - they adapt, their connections shifting through plasticity, rewiring with every thought.
A chef tastes soup, predicts "more salt," blending logic (salt enhances) with memory and instinct - no dataset, just wetware.
Neuroscience reveals this: brains guess a friend's words or a car's turn, merging rules with intuition. Their predictive power thrives in ambiguity, vast but messy, dwarfed by logic's scope yet alive in ways silicon can't match.

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Language: Predicting Meaning

Language ties signs and meanings together, it thus predicts probable meanings of signs, and likewise, suitable signs for meanings.
Words and signs are however entirely distinct from the meanings attached to them: they don't 'package' meanings, or 'hold' content, or 'carry' information, and neither do they just label things. They can only point, like road signs or direction indicators, to a message intended. In this, they rely on a system of conventional rules, cultural to a group or idiosyncratic to a speaker. On basis of this system arises their ability to 'transmit' information: prescribing an expected agreement between message received and message intended. Thus they can forecast meaning like "dog" evokes barks, not cats, because we agree it does.

Language evolves, slippery with nuance, yet its predictive power shines: it's how we interchange and share our experiences, feelings and ideas.
In general, language is required for any meaningful communication, whether verbal or non-verbal, and even when signs and meanings are changed or invented on the spot. A precise language is however essential to sharing reliable knowledge. In some fields in science, like logic, math, physics and chemistry, terms and symbols are so strictly defined that doubts about intended meanings hardly ever rise. In other fields like social sciences, the language is notoriously vague or fluffy, and unambiguous definitions hardly exist. While in a field like philosophy, almost any meaning is open to discussion all the time.

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Comparing the Four: Predictive Power in Focus

How do they line up? Logic reigns supreme - timeless, infinite, predicting with perfect reliability - but abstract, needing a vessel. Computers embody it, turning eternal rules into physical hum - lightning-fast for hurricanes or stocks, yet capped by energy and time, far slower than logic's blink. Brains bring it to life, ions firing in trillions of ways, predicting with flair - soup or swerves - though bias and scale limit them against logic's expanse. Language bridges meanings and forms, predicting via signs and rules versatile but prone to missteps, less precise than logic, less vast than brains.

Consider "sales will rise." Logic deduces: demand up, sales up, airtight if true. Computers crunch: past data says 80% odds. Brains feel: chatter hints yes, gut says maybe. Language frames: " trend looks good."
Each has its limitations for real life, though: Logic's detached, computers lack soul, brains skew, language slips.
Together however, they predict powerfully - logic's clarity, computers' scale, brains' instinct, language's sharing.

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Why It Matters

This quartet's embody our predictive power nowadays. Logic's infinity sets the stage, computers scale it, brains humanize it, language spreads it. Each in its own way, they reveal tomorrow - flawed, yet potent. It's not just tech - it's how we face what's coming. Whoever wants high-quality information better make use of them, taking both their capabilities and limitations into account.