Container Words
Container Words describe a phenomena of scale, such as content, traffic, art, sex, or weather. They are useful linguistic tools that conceptually capture and contain broad concepts, but they become increasingly less useful when discussing the concept in detail. Not only are they less useful, but they often become disruptive and obstructive. They get in the way of discussions or obscure the necessary details to define and identify key aspects properly. At the same time, they are incredibly important in today's language, and we rely on them to the extent that they frame and template our conceptual models and understanding.
Example: What is traffic exactly? You know it as a concept, but you can’t discuss traffic in and of itself - you have to break it down into the many things it contains – from cars, pedestrians, people movement, flow, signage, signals and infrastructure.
I explored this back in the Federated Wiki days and keep coming back to it, most recently in terms of AI being another container word.
AI is used as a container word - a useful tool in language that captures a broader concept - like traffic. What is traffic exactly? You know it as a concept, but you can’t discuss traffic in and of itself - you have to break it down into the many things it contains – from cars, pedestrians, people movement, flow, signage, signals and infrastructure.
The difference between traffic and AI is that traffic has known components. The things the word contains are properly defined and can be discussed. That’s not the case with AI. What’s inside the container is an absolute mess of concepts and ideas that lack shared understanding and definitions.
What do you mean when you say AI?
Are you referencing Large Language Models? The software? Applications, Intelligence as a process or philosophy? Reasoning? Labour? Algorithms? Copyright? Machine learning? Hardware? Probability? Mathematics? Chat interfaces? Image recognition? All or none of the above? Do the people involved in the reporting, decisions and discussions about AI have any knowledge as to what any of these components are or what they mean?