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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