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From: inc@fluke.UUCP (Gary Benson)
Newsgroups: net.books
Subject: Objective Reality
Message-ID: <612@tpvax.fluke.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-May-85 12:22:34 EDT
Article-I.D.: tpvax.612
Posted: Wed May 22 12:22:34 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 24-May-85 22:06:51 EDT
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Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
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> Objective  reality rests on the axiom that existence exists.  Axioms are
> arbitrary  you say?  Let anyone who does not  believe  this axiom try to
> prove a theory  without  using  it--that is, by means of  non-existence.
> The axiom implies two  corollaries:  That something  exists that one can
> perceive.  And  that  a  consciousness   exists  capable  of  perceiving
> something.  Existence is  identity.  A is A.  Yes, there are still a few
> of us who speak of  objective  reality,  and who are  living in the 20th
> century, although  unfortunately, we are a vanishing breed.  One thing I
> can tell you is that it is  damned-near-impossible  to communicate  with
> anyone who has never tried to grasp the full meaning of this fundamental
> axiom.  Those who have  acquiesced  to the point that they are no longer
> believe that it is possible to know something with certainty have become
> the  destroyers  of  science,  and  the  haters  of any  other  rational
> endeavor.   It is my  opinion  that  SUPERFORCE  ignores  the  axiom  of
> existence and proceeds to mutilate the concepts by which we interpret an
> objective   reality.  By  mutilating   these  concepts,  the  author  is
> mutilating man's mind.
> 
> Michael Bishop
> hplabs!hpfcla!mike-b

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================= GB HERE, MB! =======----->

HEAR, HEAR! I am one of those unfortunately few who believe in an objective
reality. I particularly take exception to the notion that merely to observe
something results in changing it. The very simplest example can easily prove
this is a "truth": see that peri^od? How does it change when I turn my eyes
in it's direction, and then look away? I don't think it changed in anyway
whatsoever. It is still a area piece of phosphorescent material that was
excited by electons until it glowed. Only as you read this, it is doing it
on YOUR screen, not mine. It's still the same piece of data, though. Whether
it persists or not is another thing.


	 Whatever is not thought is nil and void; because we can
	 think only in terms of thought, and because all the worlds
	 of which we dispose speak only thoughts; to say that there
	 are things other than thoughts is a statement without meaning.
	 And yet - strange contradiction to those who believe in time - 
	 geological history teaches that life is but a short episode
	 between two eternities of death, and that within this very
	 episode conscious thought did not and will not last but an
	 instant.  Thought: just a flash of lightning in the middle of 
	 a long night.  And this flash is all!

                           -Henri' Poincare
	 

-- 
 Gary Benson  *  John Fluke Mfg. Co.  *  PO Box C9090  *  Everett WA  *  98206
   MS/232-E  = =   {allegra} {uw-beaver} !fluke!inc   = =   (206)356-5367
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