survive beyond a generation or two. This actually is the key to
"faith". People are gulled by "old" lies (the Bible ?) more easily
test?). I'm communicating with you over radio (well the internet
(S05E20-The Transporter Malfunction). My civilisation is much further
> Sarbajit,
>
> Before I forget, induction is coming to a conclusion about the character of
> a class through amassing instances of that class. (Collecting swans that
> are white to show that all swans are white.) Abduction is amassing
> properties of an individual to show that that individual is belongs to a
> class. (This bird is white, water-loving, monogamous ......).
>
> I probably deserved your raillery. I am currently besotted with the
> American Pragmatist Philosophers, who included Peirce (philosophy), James
> (psychology) and Holmes (Law) among others. If you want to get as besotted
> as I, read Menand, The Metaphysical Club. Key to pragmatism is the faith
> that if everybody thinks carefully, and follows good rational procedures,
> and collects data, the community of inquiry (or the law) will converge on
> the truth. Reading that book, and a biography of James, and many original
> essays by Peirce, I am struck by how much of what I have taken for granted
> in my life is of relatively recent origin and could easily be torn down in a
> generation.
>
> I don't know how much you know about our politics over here, but there is
> actually a political war on rationality going on which is terrifying to me,
> and should be terrifying to anybody else in the world, given levels of fear
> and power that we combine. For example, we live in a scruffy little
> neighborhood in down town santa fe. The other night the little old lady who
> lives across the street was visited (he knocked on her door) by a begger.
> She has recently moved here from Texas. On her own report, she sat up the
> entire subsequent night, facing her door in an armchair, with a loaded
> shotgun across her knee. "I have a right to defend myself," she said.
>
> Anyway, Please forgive my besottedness. I have been using an awful lot of
> bandwidth, recently, and it's probably time to shut up.
>
> Nick
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
[hidden email] [mailto:
[hidden email]] On Behalf
> Of Sarbajit Roy
> Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2012 8:30 PM
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] So, *Are* We Alone?
>
> Dear Nick
>
> I'm rather surprised to learn from you that "the notion of settled legal
> opinion" is an American Institution brought about by induction.
>
> By this reasoning almost everything that are "uniquely" American useful
> things - apple pie, Thanksgiving turkey etc can be ascribed to induction in
> addition to bridges, cheap food etc,
>
> The apple falling on Newton's head could equally have been induced by him to
> formulate a recipe for Apple Pie for the masses instead of the Law of
> Gravitation.
>
> Could you be a little more specific on what you consider "induction"
>
> to be as I think you and Doug or Bruce understand induction to be different
> things. I am an engineer (aka. intelligent designer) , while designing
> bridges or machines etc I have neither the time nor inclination to consider
> the philosophical implications of whether my creation has feelings or free
> will. I just need to focus on my "grand design" and its purpose.
>
> Sarbajit
>
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College