Re: JP Barlow, Ph.D, Social Engineering

Reilly Jones (70544.1227@CompuServe.COM)
28 Sep 96 00:31:07 EDT


Jeff Dee wrote 9/27/96: <I think that the 'use' of ontology is as an
understanding that somewhere out there lies whatever actually exists in the
universe, behaving according to whatever rules it follows. Can we be certain
about any of these 'facts'? Maybe not. But the less uncertain our knowledge
is, the better our predictions get. The only way to reduce the uncertainty of
our epistemology to keep tinkering with it to more closely match ontology.>

Well put. At the Extro^2 conference last year, I said: "It's the reduction of
uncertainty in the incoming stream of continuous reality that tells us somewhat
of the precursors to this stream. The evolution of consciousness is accelerated
as we get better at this. We increase our ability to choose more adaptive paths
of action as we anticipate future dangers that would threaten our purposes."

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Reilly Jones | Philosophy of Technology:
70544.1227@compuserve.com | The rational, moral and political relations
| between 'How we create' and 'Why we create'