Date: Tue, 11 Nov 1997 19:36:10 +0100 (MET) From: Eivind Eklund <perhaps@yes.no> To: Nate Williams <nate@mt.sri.com> Cc: tlambert@primenet.com, freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Newest Pentium bug (fatal) Message-ID: <199711111836.TAA22576@bitbox.follo.net> In-Reply-To: Nate Williams's message of Tue, 11 Nov 1997 09:52:02 -0700 (MST) References: <199711110620.XAA15169@rocky.mt.sri.com> <199711110645.XAA02334@usr03.primenet.com> <199711111652.JAA16566@rocky.mt.sri.com>
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> > If you weren't predictive, I might claim you were schitzophernic until > > you became predictive... any factually based model is predictive. > > Hearing from God != foretelling the future. However, if it isn't predictive, it is more-or-less uninteresting. It doesn't give you information - information is predictive. It might give you good feelings and "solutions to your problems", but noting that is relevant to the rest of the world. OTOH, I believe information on India to be predictive - so far, no country I've been told about as personal experience by more than 20 people have failed to be there when I tried to visit it :-) I believe in a common reality. I also believe in measurements of this common reality - let's call it 'the physical world' - being common to people. I believe in some of these measurements being usable to statistically predict later measurements, and being able to use that to define the world. Another belief is in the ability of people (including me) to fool themselves. All of those are religious beliefs - I can't think of anything you could say/demonstrate to make me loose them. I don't feel the need for a god to be able to describe the world, this I don't introduce one. There are obvious changes in brain-chemistry that explain religious ecstasy and other verifiable religious effects. I can't see any need to connect them with anything more than the rituals and ability to self-deceit in the people involved. As soon as something is predictive beyond the physical world, this need changes, and I'll reconsider my opinion. Eivind.
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