Klarinet Archive - Posting 000164.txt from 1994/05

From: "Jay Heiser, Product Manager, Govt Systems" <jayh@-----.COM>
Subj: Ah, ... but what if ... (Quatsch!)
Date: Fri, 6 May 1994 17:47:08 -0400

I think that this is complete nonsense. Meaningless precision is
the conceit of the anal retentive mind.

Human beings are not linear systems. Words like 'dark' and 'bright'
impart incredible amounts of information. Human jargon facilitates
rapid transmission and understanding of data by compressing it. It
allows information density.

Consider the difference between saying "his tone is too dark" or
the "French oboe tonality sounds ducklike to me" to what the
equation describing the acoustic waveform would look like.

Use of terminology like this is evidence of a higher order of thinking,
not an example of superstitious folklore.

-->Tom, I suggest that people also use what seem like vague, intuitive terms
-->because they are unable to be sufficinetly precise. They are absent
-->evidence and therefore fall back onto folk wisdom, wisdom that may or
-->may not be true, but the vagueness of the language allows the statements
-->to sound profound while being vacuous in content.
-->
-->
-->
-->====================================
-->Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
-->(leeson@-----.edu)
-->====================================
======================================
Garden Status:
First harvest: spinach, lettuce
Beans sprouting, tomatos still under plastic