ASARIAN'S BLOG

asarian

I don't see this working any other way.
Friday, March 17, 2006


Just read an interesting thread on trust. Was gonna post in there; but its purpose, I think, was really for people to express their experiences with betrayal of trust. So, short of hijacking the thread, and be all contrary, I will say something about it here.

I good few years back, a highly gifted math friend of mine once told me of this interesting computer experiment they had running at the university. The idea was to write the best software to detect and anticipate false information and lies. Several brilliant engineers entered the contest (a virtual world of trading); and a great many advanced pieces of software were written.

The "easiest" solution, of course, was to tell the computer to trust nobody. But then you cannot win anything, either. So, the contestants had to find some sort of middle ground: trust to a degree, and be careful elsewhere. The field of statistics; probabilities and such; all extremely complex; and all way over my head.

And you know which program won? You guessed correctly: a very simply program that... always trusts! :) Which is to say, unlike the other participants, the programmers of this box had specifically taught it NOT to learn from its "mistakes"; should it burn its fingers, so to speak, it would, in a similar situation, take the exact same route, and trust like it had never been betrayed before. In the end, this astoundingly simple premise won out to all math in the 'verse! Like Simon said: "I don't care what you've done. I don't know what you're planning on doing, but I'm trusting you. I think you should do the same, cause I don't see this working any other way."

I dunno; I've always felt the story has some cosmic significance. You be the judge.

COMMENTS

Sunday, March 19, 2006 11:59 AM

JESHIKAT


That was truly touching, Asarian!

I find it easy to trust... I guess in some circumstances you can call me gullible...
I guess I just haven't been burnt as many times like other people who find it hard. I don't pity them but I do feel sadness - for someone not to be able to put unbelievable trust into something is such a shame...

I just wish some of us tried a little more harder...

Saturday, March 18, 2006 5:38 AM

COWGIRL


It's a good idea to remember that people often rise to your expectations. Studies have shown this in classrooms where teachers have been told their students have tested at gifted levels, etc. If we trust, most of the time it will that trust is justified.

Friday, March 17, 2006 5:26 PM

KAYNA


That's sounds great but it's hard to do. Things would probably be better if more folk tried it though.

Friday, March 17, 2006 4:45 PM

FOLLOWMAL


Asarian,
I liked this story and I have to say I agree with you. Trusting is necessary to all of us and if we get burned... we learn, we cry, we move on.

We can't love or live life fully without trusting. We would miss out on too much if we didn't

Thanks for this.


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