>Richard wrote:
>>Pi is a human concept. It's a distinction-meme, a very useful one.
>>But it doesn't exist anywhere outside human culture.
>
>Yes it does, unless we say that nothing exists outside our human
>culture.
Almost...how about "we don't SAY anything outside of human culture"?
>Does the speed of light exist outside of our human culture?
No. It's a meme, and a recently invented one at that.
>Does the E=mc^2 exist outside of our human culture?
Definitely not. The phenomenon it describes (approximately) does, but
this is not the same thing.
>
>If Chimps start building air-planes will they invent their own,
>different pi?
>Will the Bernoulli's laws be the same for them?
They may well invent different formulas and constants. Our particular
set of them is not the only possible such set.
>
>>Likewise, statements of consistency are components (memes)
>>of our current scientific thought, NOT Truthful descriptions of
>>Objective Reality.
>
>What do *you* mean by "Truthful" (with a capital T ?!).
>You don't believe in truth. Richard, when you get to Level-3
>you will see that "truthful" is a distinction meme!
I mean the (fictional) Absolute Truth.
>
>>They are all approximations.
>
>Approximations of WHAT?
>TT maybe? You have just killed it, remember?
Approximations of the zillion-bit stuff out there that cannot be mapped
with exact precision.
>
>>>I believe -- and it all comes down to what each one of us believes --
>>>that the world *is* consistent and predictable.
>>
>>You don't know my ex-wife!
>
>No wonder she couldn't stand a person infected with L3HV.
>Did you call her a chimp too?
I haven't called anybody a chimp except the textbook-eating chimp in my
example. However, NOW I'm going to call YOU a chimp. So there.
>
>I enjoy the joke mode, Richard.
>Is this the only mode you can talk about what we believe in?
When you were born, where will you go?
>
>How can we talk about knowing the world "better" if we don't believe
>in it's consistency?
If it's inconsistent, then NOT believing in its consistency IS knowing
it better.
> How do you define "Absolutely"?
"I agree" in this sense.
>
>>> As one person said (the quiz on who it was is still on):
>>>"Whatever we hold precious, we cannot protect it from our curiosity,
>>>because being who we are, one of the things we deem precious is the
>>>truth.
>>>Our love of truth is surely a central element in the meaning we find in
>>>our lives."
>>
>>Wasn't it Hitler who said that? Actually, it sounds like something Dan
>>Dennett said in Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and one of the few things he
>>got wrong in the whole masterpiece of a book (available at The Memetics
>>Bookstore, http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/books.htm).
>
>Congratulations. You have won the contest.
>
>He was "wrong", eh?
>How do you define "wrong" after murdering TT?
In my experience, most people don't have a love for truth. I think his
perception has been colored by spending his life in academia, where
people with a love for truth congregate. Most people have a love for
booze.
>
Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA, USA
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is?
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>