Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00765)

Replying to Tom and Mark

[Tom]
>>I suspect similarity in principle between the approximate sameness with
>>which individuals are known in the span of one lifetime and the
>>approximation, at the macro level, that classical physics is to Quantum
>>Mechanics.

[Mark]
>Is this your way of saying that you agree with me?

[Tom]
As long as calling something by the same name as before only means that it
has relatively greater continuity to what has been called the same name
than to what has been called a different name, but cannot be identical to
what has been called the same name, yes.
...
my still going by the same name is only appropriate to reflect the greater
approximation that I am now to the individual whom she knew as Tom than to
individuals whom she knows by different names, which is due only to how
slowly individuals change compared to how different they are from each
other at any given time. ....
I guess some people just can't handle the truth.


[Murray]
Everything is a fuzzy entity. Zoom in close enough and it disappears into a
cloud of space. Stand back a bit, and it's connected to everything in sight.
Go further back and, by golly, it's an individual thing.

Maybe we need to try some fuzzy logic, but don't ask me what it is; I'm too
hazy about it.

For those who might not know, there really is such a thing as Fuzzy Logic.
Whole PhD theses and university departments are springing up around it. It's
even in some of our consumer electronics, we're told. And it's said to be
just the thing when 2-state, binary, yes-no linear logic doesn't quite cope
with reality.

Murray