Chaewon (Chase) Huh

Thoughts and Language Through Dimensions

Thoughts contain more information than words. Even with the same language, 7 billion people have unique thoughts, and information loss occurs when converting thoughts to words. Therefore, thoughts are points in high-dimensional space, while words are points in low-dimensional space.

The space where thoughts exist can be equated with the brain, so let's call it brain-space. The space where words exist is language. Every human has a unique brain-space. Therefore, for communication, we must project thoughts from our brain-space to another's brain-space.

To project directly would require clearly defining the brain-space, but here's where the problem arises. Since human thinking occurs within brain-space, we cannot clearly define our own brain-space. Like a 2D ant on a plane cannot imagine 3D structures, defining one's own brain-space is impossible.

To solve this, humans defined a socially agreed-upon low-dimensional space called 'language'. We project thoughts from brain-space to language space, and the recipient projects from language space back to their own brain-space. Information loss is inevitable, but it's the best solution humanity has found.

Note: Even within the same language, there are dimensional differences between words like 'happiness' and 'cola'. Rather than defining it as one space, expressions like 'a network of subspaces' would be more accurate. However, since such expressions aren't intuitive, I'll continue using 'space'.

What is Happiness?

Rational humans design and act in life to maximize their 'life metric'. Happiness is another expression of the 'life metric'.

Finding the answer to 'What is happiness?' means expressing the 'life metric (brain-space)' in lower-dimensional language than the word happiness itself.

The Illusion of a Correct Life - Thinking Outside the Box

Living 20 years in Korean society, I fell into the illusion that a 'correct life' exists. Examples of what I perceived as a 'correct life':

Getting into a good university, joining a major corporation, marrying in early 30s, having children in mid-30s
For POSTECH specifically: Starting research participation after 4th semester, choosing an appropriate lab for graduate school, then joining a corporation based on those achievements

However, not only is there no 'correct life', there is no correct answer to life. We know this fact yet live in the illusion that a correct answer exists.

Where does the error occur? Is there really no correct answer to life?

Saying a correct answer exists means there's a predetermined action plan that maximizes the 'life metric'. This assumes two things:

The life metric is predetermined
There's a correct action plan to maximize that life metric

The latter is hard to call wrong. It's a social conclusion based on millions of samples who lived with similar life metrics.

The error occurs in the first assumption - that the life metric is predetermined.

Redefining 'life metric' or 'happiness': it's the direction our brain-space points toward. We have unique brain-spaces and unique 'life metrics'. Though the word 'happiness' may be the same in language dimension, it becomes unique in brain-space.

Without clearly distinguishing language space from brain-space, it's easy to fall into illusion. Not only are they identical in language space, but the directions themselves are likely similar. Most humans' happiness increases with more money rather than less, with family rather than without.

However, without escaping the illusion that life has a correct answer, we cannot truly enjoy life. From the moment we become adults, our choices approach infinity. But living in this illusion, we feel despair at a reality where we must conform while 99% of choices remain hidden.

We really can:

Drop out of university and start a business
Become a YouTuber traveling the world
Run a shop on the other side of the Earth

To be clearer, this isn't arguing to live against society, but to think independently.

Since Big Brother doesn't exist in reality (I believe it doesn't), social conventions or 'correct lives' are structured to aim for members' happiness. Even thinking independently, the probability of reaching the same conclusion is significant.

However, the difference in independent thinking greatly affects life satisfaction. There's a big difference in acceptance between a life I didn't choose and a life I couldn't choose. Life is precious and we only live once. So let's think independently, outside social frameworks.

What Kind of Life Do You Want?

Once thinking outside the box, we must design our own lives. The universe has infinite scenarios and life is finite. Therefore, choosing the global optimum, the theoretically best choice, is impossible unless you're Doctor Strange. So we must make the best choice each moment - like an MDP.

More experience is better, but at the moment of choice, we cannot add experience. Therefore, we can use two additional variables:

1. Others' Advice

Though each brain-space differs, objective experiences and insights from others with similar directions are likely meaningful to me too. However, remembering that each brain-space is unique, subjective information should be viewed contemplatively.

(This is why there are contradictions when listening to various entrepreneurs' lectures.)

2. 'How Cool Is It?'

This might sound funny, but it's a conclusion I reached after considerable thought.

If we could confirm the correlation between my happiness and choices through others' experiences, that would be best. We could simply choose the option with the highest happiness delta.

However, happiness isn't intuitive enough, and comparison becomes impossible between two similar-level choices. Then we need something intuitive yet high-dimensional that minimizes information loss from my 'life metric' in brain-space.

I think that's 'coolness'.