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From: laura@hoptoad.UUCP.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest
Subject: Re: framing problems
Message-ID: <2231@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: Mon, 1-Jun-87 20:39:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: hoptoad.2231
Posted: Mon Jun  1 20:39:52 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 5-Jun-87 04:19:37 EDT
References: <8705280722.AA09419@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: hoptoad!laura@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Laura Creighton)
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In article <8705280722.AA09419@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> DAVIS@EMBL.BITNET writes:
>
>I'd like to briefly say that perhaps an even more astounding problem
>than that proposed by Stevan Harnad is that connected with the means by
>which literate, intelligent and interested persons can totally obscure
>the central core of an idea by the use of unnecessarily obtuse jargon.
>
>If we're going to discuss the more philosphical end of AI (*yes please!*),
>then we don't *have* to throw everyone else off the track by bogging
>down the chat in a maze of terms intended to have *such* a precise meaning
>as to prevent anyone but the author from truly grasping the intended meaning.

Precision is a good thing.  If one can say precisely what one means then
one will not be misunderstood.  This, alas, is a pipe dream.  There
is no way to say precisely what one means -- what one says does not
have precise meaning embedded in the words or the relationships between
the words.  Rather, one shares a linguistic context with one's
audience.  This means that the serach for precision is never ending.

Right now there are a good number of people who want to talk about
``psychic energy'' and ``interpersonal energy'' and the like.
Reguardless of what these people mean by these terms, it is clear that
they do not mean m c-squared.  The search for precision continues.
-- 
(C) Copyright 1987 Laura Creighton - you may redistribute only if your 
    recipients may.

	``One must pay dearly for immortality:  one has to die several
	times while alive.'' -- Nietzsche

Laura Creighton	
ihnp4!hoptoad!laura  utzoo!hoptoad!laura  sun!hoptoad!laura