Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw From: throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: approaching "C" Message-ID: <3378@xyzzy.UUCP> Date: 13 Feb 89 17:12:56 GMT References: <3316@xyzzy.UUCP> <729@wpi.WPI.EDU> Organization: Data General, RTP NC. Lines: 25 > regnery@wpi.wpi.edu (George Regnery) >> throopw@xyzzy.UUCP (Wayne A. Throop) >> [...] "it is impossible to travel faster than >> 10mph by rail", or other examples. These merely involve things that >> haven't been done yet. > Haven't been done yet? Where do you live? Just in case this was not clear, "done yet" at the time of the pronouncement of "impossibility". > Seriously, the above statements are just a misuse of the word impossible. > Impossiblility, to most people, denotes something that can not ever be done > under any circumstances. True, it *is* a sort of "misuse". But I didn't intend to judge whether people are using the term "impossible" correctly or not. I was merely pointing three common ways in which the term is actually used (this being one of the three). To reconcile it with George's definition, read an implied "impossible (for current technology)" or some such into this usage. -- The seeds of crime bear bitter fruit. --- Dick Tracy -- Wayne Throop !mcnc!rti!xyzzy!throopw