Diet calories are an example of anti-reification: an abstraction made real via a non-abstraction. A measure of homeostasis shifts in a complex dissipative system that rhymes enough with a unit of literal energy to be approximated by it. Like using pulse rate to measure time.
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This is actually a common procedure in designing feedback controllers for complex systems. You have a family of tuned simple linear laws that overlap along the nonlinear range of system behavior. Kinda like automatic gears in a car give you a smooth acceleration response.
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There’s lots of other examples of anti-reification. It’s a sort of scale-free mathematical metonymy. If I use notation “ar” for anti-reification: Pulse = ar(clock time) Body temperature =ar(98.4 degrees) CO2 level in atmosphere = ar(400ppm) and rising
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Basically, if you get mad about “calories are fake” you might be... a rationalist

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