From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!uwvax!myers
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.philosophy
Title: Re: Zen
Article-I.D.: uwvax.846
Posted: Sun Apr 24 18:41:14 1983
Received: Mon Apr 25 08:43:33 1983
References: sdchema.511


Thanx, John; the occasional Zen koan would be a welcome addition to this
newsgroup (in my humble opionion).

A simpler version of the paradox you described is
	"This statement is false"
which is known as the Epimenides (sp?) paradox.  Well known to
connesuers (sp? my ignorance is showing) of Godel's incompleteness theorem.
For a fascinating discussion of this, Zen, AI, ad infinitum, read
Douglas Hofstadter's "Godel, Escher, Bach", a book no self-respecting
computer scientist should be without.

Anybody wanna discuss the implications of Godel's theorem for scientific
thought, AI, etc.?  I personally feel that the theorem offers a great deal
of insight for a characterization of truth as a unity of opposites, of
rational and irrational truth.  Godel's theorem, transfinite counting, etc.,
never fail to instill a feeling of awe in me!

				Not afraid to tout irrationality on the net
				(there's a great deal of it already here),
				Jeff Myers   ...seismo!uwvax!myers