What is Horizontal?
I have told this story many times before. However, in a discussion with a friend about the question, “What is AI?” I just relayed the story in writing for the first time, so I am pasting it here.
Before I switched my college major to finance, I spent a semester studying architectural design. There, under the guidance of an excellent teacher named Pia Sarpaneva, I learned for the first time to appreciate the great value of simple questions like this.
I will never forget when Pia said, "I love the architecture studio. When I come in, it is like going back to kindergarten. I sit down and get to ask, 'Horizontal... What is horizontal?'"
At first, I thought that I knew the answer, but the fact that she asked it so seriously interested me. After some surprisingly challenging and interesting contemplation, I realized that "horizontal" is perpendicular to gravity. If you placed a sphere on a horizontal surface, it would not move. In other words, gravity is the point of reference that makes "horizontal" meaningful (i.e. that gives it a nonarbitrary definition).
I asked the basic question and merely through contemplation gained deep knowledge that I previously did not have. It was one of the most amazing and influential experiences of my life.
I now ask similar questions all the time. In fact, the first lesson in the Introduction to Python class that I created for PyFi is the result of a year of asking, "What is Python? What is a programming language? What is a computer?"