Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (24829)	7/19/2000 9:51:13 AM
From: TigerPaw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

never in a position to independently verify everything. One of the only things I know is TRUE is that you can't know everything (the number of possble states of brain connections is large, but not as large as the possible variation of the universe). But that does not mean that authority is to be completly trusted even if it is to be relied upon. There is an ongoing audit process which checks and rechecks the assumptions and foundations. Even the very axioms of science are subject to scrutiny. There was no concept more obvious than time. Time ticks on, second after second, it's consistency was the basis for longitudinal positioning, many of the most fundamental equations of science deal with rate of change over time. Well Einstein messed up that universal and absolute truth. Virtually all the unchallenged axioms are in the field of mathmatics (2+2 still equals 4 although to be precise you have to state the context). I read textbooks and mark the errors in the margin (which has caused me trouble with borrowed books), dictionaries don't always tell you what an author meant by a particular word, and I have followed road atlases which show new roads when in fact the road project was delayed or canceled. Authorities are usefull, even essential, but not to be completely trusted. And absolute truth? there may be things that are absolutely true that we don't know about or haven't learned to measure. The key concept is conclusions based on axioms (things we hold to be true) when in fact some of the axioms are shown to in error. When even some of the founding axioms change then the whole basis of conclusions must be reexamined. This is a step conservatives are unwilling to undertake. TP