RE: Qualia and the Galactic Loony Bin

O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Fri, 25 Jun 1999 10:23:15 +1000

Rob wrote:
> People think they don't need them, cos people are dumb. For instance,
> companies advertising products love to use the new buzzword "natural". Try
> defining that. Of course it can be done, I could say that the defn. is
> "those systems unaffected by human intervention". Does that definition fit
> the use of "natural" in describing a new hair product? Nope. In fact the
> true primitive abstract "definition" used by joe public is probably more
> like "trees and stuff, not toxic waste.", which is of course, utter shit.
> The advertising agencies love it though, cos the knackered concept implies
> superiority, good health and the like, with no basis in logic and no
> translation to the real world. This also means that they can apply it to
> virtally ANY product, as long as it is not named "toxic waste". They are
> within the law as "natural" doesn't mean shit, and the law knows it.
>
Unfortunately this appears to be correct. Luckily we still have more dependable words like "organic".

Emlyn, 100% organic