[MD] If you find dichotomies immoral

[ian glendinning]

Not read the article yet Platt, but

MOST current computers are built on binary logic, but NOT all, and
that binary logic is not at all fundamental to computing / information
processing.

EINSTEIN reminds us about another side of Occam "Things should be as
simple as possible, but NOT more so."

PREGNANCY - it is possible to be in a DOUBTFUL state of pregnancy -
miscarriage at least and witness the highly emotive pro-life debate
and drawing lines around conception and viability. I wouldn't
celebrate too soon - 18 weeks maybe ?

Ian

On 2/27/08, Platt Holden <pholden at davtv.com> wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> Every once in awhile someone on this site gets slammed for suggesting a
> dichotomy (right/wrong, good/evil, white/black) or as it is termed in
> academe, "binary thinking." A wonderfully funny article on this subject can
> be found at:
>
> http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=0d88916qty2kc0t0b0gn0bsz1fmdjp7k
>
> With tongue in check, the author points out that: "Binary logic structures
> the very computers on which most attacks on binary logic are composed."
> He blames the assault on dichotomies on an academic "cult of complication,"
> and suggests, "Perhaps it is time to return to Ockham's principle of
> parsimony, his so-called razor: 'Plurality is not to be posited without
> necessity.' "
>
> The author is a professor of history, adding credibility to his mocking of
> academic devotion to "elevating confusion." Puncturing the "dichotomies are
> bad" balloon he points out that "some binary distinctions are worth
> recognizing if not celebrating, like the distinction between pregnant and
> not pregnant."
>
> Platt
>
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