Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!bu-cs!purdue!decwrl!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!aero!venera.isi.edu!smoliar From: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) Newsgroups: comp.ai Subject: Re: Acting irrationally (was Re: Free Will & Self Awareness) Message-ID: <5561@venera.isi.edu> Date: 23 May 88 00:12:04 GMT References: <770@onion.cs.reading.ac.uk> <1177@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu> <5499@venera.isi.edu> <180@proxftl.UUCP> Sender: news@venera.isi.edu Reply-To: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu.UUCP (Stephen Smoliar) Organization: USC-Information Sciences Institute Lines: 24 In article <180@proxftl.UUCP> tomh@proxftl.UUCP (Tom Holroyd) writes: >In article <5499@venera.isi.edu>, smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) >writes: > >> I think you are overlooking how great an extent we rely on implict >> assumptions in any intercourse. If we had to articulate everything >> explicitly, we would probably never get around to discussing what we >> really wanted to discuss. > >>The problem comes in deciding WHAT needs to be explicitly articulated >>and what can be left in the "implicit background." That is a problem >>which we, as humans, seem to deal with rather poorly, which is why >>there is so much yeeling and hitting in the world. > >Here's a simple rule: explicitly articulate everything, at least once. > >The problem, as I see it, is that there are a lot of people who, for >one reason or another, keep some information secret (perhaps the >information isn't known). > No, the problem is that there is always TOO MUCH information to be explicitly articulated over any real-time channel of human communication. If you don't believe me, try explicitly articulating the entire content of your last message.