| (no subject) |
[Oct. 13th, 2008|01:07 am] |
Godel tells us that any sufficiently complex reasoning system, if it is consistent, is incomplete: one can make hypotheses in the language of that system that cannot be shown to be true or false within the language of that system. And the language of human objective reasoning, sufficiently abstracted, appears to be such a system.
But the other side of the theorem is also interesting: any sufficiently complex reasoning system, if is complete, is necessarily inconsistent: it contains hypotheses that are, according to the rules of the reasoning system, true, and just as validly false.
What if the language of human moral reasoning, similarly abstracted, is such a system. Then the fact that reasonable minds may reach differing conclusions is not a demonstration of the subjectivity of the system, but simply a consequence of the fact that many acts are in fact good, and with equal rigor, evil.
Or put another way, there are both pros and cons, but weighing pros and cons is a sham. They cannot be reduced to weighted values and summed. They cannot be distilled from their context into various amounts of abstract good and abstract evil to be compared. There is no addition operation, merely a union operation. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 30th, 2008|06:31 am] |
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Nice things about spring, #423. Letting birdsong be the alarm clock. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 29th, 2008|09:07 pm] |
The ground is clear, and the snow that's left is the curbside piles, especially the ones in the shade.
Today I saw a Christmas tree lying on the curb.
Thought one: This is a little late to take down Christmas.
Thought two: I bet it's been inside a snowbank since January. |
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| Mud is beautiful |
[Mar. 28th, 2008|07:59 pm] |
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Once upon a time, I was informed that one of the Russian words for springtime (rasputiza) translates more or less as, the muddy season. At the time, I thought this was typical Russian fatalism. Now I understand in the days of the spring thaw, mud can be beautiful. |
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| Just a crazy idea.... |
[Mar. 18th, 2008|09:49 pm] |
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If we think of the lifestyle of our pre-sedentary ancestors as one that covered large distances in the annual cycle, and larger ones over a lifetime, with culture-bearing units having a lifespan of only several generations, and meetings with true strangers a regular fact of life, throughout life, then could the language acquisition faculty of young children been at that time a lifelong faculty of our species ... one rapidly lost among sedentary populations due to its high energetic costs? |
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| International news can be good after all ... |
[Mar. 8th, 2008|06:25 pm] |
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For the first time since 1968, Malaysia is not under single-party rule. While the party still rules, they no longer have the 2/3 supermajority needed to amend the constitution. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 4th, 2008|10:10 pm] |
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So Gary Gygax has died. Best obituary headline ... "Failed saving throw". |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 19th, 2008|12:42 pm] |
Brush-choked vacant lot,
Sunrise on ice-glazed brambles:
Acres of diamonds. |
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| Baba Yetu |
[Feb. 17th, 2008|06:24 pm] |
I buy modern video games so rarely that I don't know if quality music is par for the course these days, but I remember about a year ago, being very impressed by the opening score for Civilization 4. Actually, it brought tears to my eyes.
I don't recall exactly how the topic came up today, but someone mentioned that the choral lyrics to it were, very loosely, the Lord's Prayer in Swahili. So I wanted to listen to it again, but had issues reinstalling the game. But then I found that the composer offers it as a sample track on his site. If you have 3:29, enjoy. (Hint: It took me a few minutes to figure out that the green arrows next to the track titles were in fact play buttons.)
http://www.christophertin.com/samples.html |
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shimmin's journal