Letters to the Editor
PaulBC
Published Letters: 242 Editor's Choice: 24
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or maybe we can live with saying 'i know' in many cases
[Read the article: The certainty epidemic]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's not easy, of course, but somehow we must incorporate what neuroscience is telling us about the limits of knowing into our everyday lives."
I didn't need modern neuroscience to convince me of my own uncertainty. It just requires taking a periodic inventory of beliefs and trying to justify them rigorously. It cannot be done. As a result, I clutter all my writing and speech with "I think" or "I believe" or "it seems" or "to the best of my knowledge."
Given that nearly every statement is contingent on assumptions, perhaps we're all better off accepting that as the default qualification and just get on with normal speech matters.
Or perhaps not. What do I know?
I have reached the conclusion that belief is not about discovering truth in a rigorous sense but purely about survival strategy. Many living things apply algorithms whose analysis exceeds the cognitive capacity of that creature. A plant has no comprehension that differential growth rates will bend its stem towards the sun to get more light. A click beetle (which flips in the air when placed upside down) has no way of calculating the average number of random flips it must perform to right itself or, say, the tail-end probability that it will flip 10 times in a row and still be stuck on its back (somewhere in the world today one beetle out of billions has probably flipped 20 times applying what it "knows" and is still stuck; the law of averages says so, but fortunately for the beetles such circumstances are rare).
Steeped in a traditional of Victorian rationalism, we call these behaviors "tropisms" or "instincts" and suppose that we humans have something far grander. Nonsense, it's all tropisms, and the only arbiter is whether it leads to success. So let's go with our gut sometimes. There's a point where we have to. And let reality determine who really knows.
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no reason i can think of to delete text content
[Read the article: Don't press the Wikipedia delete button]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]People have an amazing ability to fill up any mass storage device you give them, but they don't do it by typing. I doubt many people type 10K worth of text in an average day, which is less than 375M in 100 years, which is less than 1/2000th of what you could fit on a 750G hard-drive, which I can buy for under $200. So that's what, ten cents per lifetime worth of writing under very generous assumptions.
Granted, you would like wikipedia to use a more reliable storage medium than the cheapest hard-drive they can order on-line, but there is still no reason to delete written entries. Storage on backup tape is even cheaper, though it makes access very difficult. You do want to index in such a way that people do not find obscure articles unless they're looking for them. Search engines seem to do a reasonably job at that and keep getting better. As text is edited, you can always keep previous versions. If a falsehood is claimed as a fact, you would want to keep it separate from correct statements, but you don't have to obliterate every record of it.
There are justifications for destroying offensive or sensitive information in some cases, but the justification is not technological.
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Beefy like sirloin or like a Slim Jim?
[Read the article: "Pennsylvania prefers a beefier sort than either of these people"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If I were grasping for adjectives to describe McCain, it would not be beefy.
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someone just made this point but...
[Read the article: Why do conservatives really find the Obama campaign "scary"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Without even hitting the play button on that link, and just looking at one fuzzy image, isn't it sort of obvious what conservatives find scary about that video and about Obama?
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i don't care very much, but it still amazes me
[Read the article: Who cares if Eliot Spitzer hires prostitutes?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...maybe I'm just extraordinarily risk averse, but I think if I were a politician, I'd just worry about getting caught. I.e., I'm the kind of person who holds onto receipts and at least considers how I could document my deductions in the unlikely event of a tax audit. I just cannot imagine being in such a situation and not living in mortal fear of being subject to scrutiny and destroying my career.
I admire much of Spitzer's work, but anyone who has created that many enemies has got to know that he's being watched for the slightest misstep. And yes, my default assumption is that the whole investigation was driven by politics. Clearly if there was a hint of an opportunity to dethrone a prominent politician on either side, someone is going to take it--and control of the executive branch provides plenty of opportunities. That doesn't prove anything. I guess it could just be a lucky coincidence for the GOP.
Wikipedia claims Spitzer scored 1590 on the SAT, so I assume he's intelligent enough to understand the risks involved. I think a lot of prominent politicians really just have a screw loose somewhere. It does anger me that more mud has to be slung at my party just so Spitzer could indulge his hobbies. In a rational world it should not matter, but facts show that it does matter.
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No big surprise
[Read the article: Linux PCs flop on Wal-Mart shelves]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What stereotype? In the infrequent event I go to Walmart it is to buy baby goods or discount items. No shame there, that's what they sell. (I prefer Target, but I won't get into that.) If I were going to buy a computer, I would put a little more thought into it. Somebody who is comfortable using Linux at all may be inclined to put together a high end box themselves from parts ordered online. A typical non-hobbyist end user is more likely to want something running Windows. I don't think there is much of an American market for low-end Linux PCs. There might be one in other countries. I'm not sure.
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I'm still waiting for the part...
[Read the article: New York Gov. Spitzer resigns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...where he rips off the mask and reveals that he is Karl Rove and has the real Eliot Spitzer hidden away in a dungeon.
I know it's a very thin thread to hang on, but I'm bolstered by the thought that I haven't seen the two of them together.
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When banks compete, you win!
[Read the article: Homeowners learn a home equity lesson]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This time, the competition is just a little more direct.