From: Jeff Dee (jeff@illusionmachines.com)
Date: Wed Sep 25 1996 - 10:22:31 MDT
>>>> = Ira Brodsky
>>> = Kathryn Aegis
>> = Sarah Marr
> = Shaun Russell
>>>>Throw out "black and white facts," and you throw out concrete knowledge.
>>>Cling to black and white facts, and cripple your ability to move
>>>beyond the edifice of whatever discipline forms your base of
>>>knowledge.
>>>Cling to black and white facts, and find yourself stranded on a
>>>static bit of earth as the universe moves its processes around and past
>>>you.
>>>Cling to black and white facts, and watch your children take off into
>>>the worlds of knowledge that you now seek.
>>Cling to black and white facts, and annoy an awful lot of very successful
>>scientists working with statistical quantum mechanics.
> Hmmm. I wonder if I could simplify this even more:
> Cling to facts...but also cling to the things other than facts.
>I think it would be a positively boring world if everything was facticious.
But that's the way that the world (er, universe) is. Or are you suggesting
the universe includes 'untrue' or non-existent things?
>Reality (and I hope no-one asks "But what is reality?") is that right now,
>we are human. That is a fact unto itself. Being human allows us to
>see around the facts. In fact <g>, that is one of the only qualities I
>adore in humans:
>the fact that we can see more than facts.
No, we cannot see more than facts. Our perceptions don't pop into
existence out of nowhere. Even hallucinations have some root physical
cause. At most, we can *imagine* (not 'see') non-existent things, and
we can draw erroneous conclusions about things we do see. Imagination
is a wonderfully useful tool, but I have a problem with characterizing it as
'seeing things that aren't facts'. It's nothing more than the ability to
construct hypothetical models - an ability that any thinking being will
need to have, not just us adorable humans.
-Jeff Dee
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