Can we compare any random concepts? Let’s try doing it with two objects.
| Car | Pencil |
| moves (with human intervention) | doesn’t move |
| fast | slow |
| large | small |
| dangerous in multiple ways | relatively safe object |
| boxy | long |
| large and heavy | skinny |
| sort of portable | portable |
| solid and stable | easily broken |
| mostly metal | non-metals |
How are they similar:
- man made tools
- enhance human life fundamentally ( fast movement and amplifying thought)
- requires precise hand control
- could be used as devices to hurt others
- could be used as devices to help others (as an ambulance or write a recommendation letter)
They seem to have more differences than similarities. They both share a similarity that is of great importance, both have had fundamental changes on human life.
Can I compare an abstract concept with an object? How about a cup vs “courage”
| Cup | Courage |
| hard material | hard to have |
| everyday object | infrequently seen |
| concrete | abstract |
| touch | mental feeling |
| contains liquids | overcome fears |
It was hard to compare a cup with courage, but there are aspects to contrast and compare. Both act as a type of barrier. A cup acts as a physical barrier to contain liquids while courage acts as a barrier to keep fear away.
How about comparing 2 abstract concepts. Lets try “homework” and “enemy”
| homework | enemy |
| sometimes painful | negative feeling |
| org/school | person |
| a process or object | object(usually a person) |
| usually hate, some people like it | always negative |
It was difficult to compare homework with an enemy.
I wrote this up as an exercise to think about how the mind may look at different concepts. I think I learned that while many seemingly unrelated concepts can be compared, many can’t be compared. I wonder how a word2vec or other type of machine learning model would compare these concepts.