Re: MEMETICS: The Triumph of Reason

Eliezer Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Wed, 22 Jan 1997 12:41:18 -0600

[I said:]
> > And as for my fine proclamations about truth - and that's a small 't',
> > Lyle! -
[Lyle quoted me as saying:]
> > I want the Final Answers.
> > What can I do without the Truth? How can I know
> > what I'm doing or why I should be doing it without the Truth?

Yes, exactly. The Truth is the Answer to Life, the Universe, and
Everything. Whereas the truth is simply the quiet facts of the matter,
whatever they are. In an argument, the truth - small 't' - takes
precedence. *Nothing* takes precedence over the facts of the matter.
That is, truth subsumes and takes precedence over Truth. If you could
demonstrate that the truth was that the Truth wasn't important, I would
abandon my search for the Turth.

I've argued that the truth is that the Interim Truth is that we ought to
be searching for the Final Truth. If that's not the truth, forget the
Truth. My arguments must obey the laws of logic and rational thinking
just like everything else; it doesn't matter that I'm speaking about the
Truth.

-- 
         sentience@pobox.com      Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
          http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/singularity.html
           http://tezcat.com/~eliezer/algernon.html
Disclaimer:  Unless otherwise specified, I'm not telling you
everything I think I know.