Website look
Bijan Parsia
bparsia at email.unc.edu
Tue Apr 30 18:49:08 UTC 2002
On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Lex Spoon wrote:
> "Mark S. Miller" <markm at caplet.com> wrote:
> > Note that this logic places much higher value on drawing a clear line and
> > sticking with it than it does on getting the line right. Just like we draw
> > a line on "adult" at 18. It's clearly arbitrary, but an arbitrary simple
> > stable line is better than the mess that would result from trying to be more
> > accurate.
>
> This is a great example. In common parlance, "adult" is broader than
> "at least 18".
[snip]
Another wonderful example is "dead" (and "time of death"). Putting aside
revivability issues for a moment, it's pretty clear that dying is a
continuous process, thus the "moment" of death is a useful fiction. The
key to that fiction is that you are on the *correct* side of the fuzzy
line :)
Cheers,
Bijan Parsia.
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