Re: Subject: Re: A Physicist Experiments With Cultural Studies

J. R. Molloy (jr@shasta.com)
Tue, 16 Nov 1999 12:07:41 -0800

Anders wrote,
>Actually, I would consider that politics. The architect will have to
>balance the wishes of the neighbours, the owners of the building, his
>own aesthetic views, costs and everything else; I would consider that
>a (small) political decision. As I see it, politics is about making
>decisions together with other people, acting in the public sphere.

A scientific approach to making decisions together with other people, acting in the public sphere would, I imagine, eliminate biases which interfere with obtaining the most successful decisions. Cutting politics ("A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of prinicples. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage." --Bierce) out of the loop, would meet with the strongest resistance from powerful politicians (whom the scientific method would also prune from the decision making system).

In this scenario, neither you nor I would decide which color to paint the building. We'd both agree to let the expert system decide. Eventually, we'd let the SI make all these kinds of decisions. (Didn't we have this conversation once before?)

>> Authority belongs to the one who best answers those who question authority.
>
>A good heuristic.

A good answer!

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"The word "genius" isn't applicable in football. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."
> > > -- Joe Theisman, NFL football quarterback and sports analyst