Re: virus: Re: Memes and Jello

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Mon, 5 May 1997 18:27:35 -0700 (PDT)


> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
> >If one has a goal, and wishes to accomplish it, one must
> >commit to a model of the world in order to achieve your
> >goals within it.
>
> What if this model shows that models of the world can be
> changed at will?

The question is not whether models can be changed at will: that's
tautologically true. The question is how one can accompish goals
in the world /as it is/ without committing yourself to a model that
represents it, for at least as long as is necessary to interact
with the things the model describes. If the world /itself/ could
be changed at will, then your goal would be accomplished already:
poof, the sky is pink, job over. I don't know about you, but I've
never been able to do that, so I have to settle for using my mind
to determine what the world is actually like, by the best methods
I can find, and then interact with it through my own personal
commitment to my own knowledge. Of course, one of the commitments
I have made is to reason from experience and change my model when
my experience tells me that it is necessary--but only as necessary.
Your present model may be different--but you do still have one, and
you use it to interact with the world, or else you're catatonic.

-- 
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>  <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC