From: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Neuromancer )
Newsgroups: alt.society.anarchy
Subject: ordinal value, huh!
Date: 12 Oct 1992 18:27:11 GMT
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4
Originator: glenne@csd4.csd.uwm.edu

Earlier someone made a slight misjudgement when they asserted that
value is ordinal not cardinal.  They went further to state that there
is no function in our brain such as U(X) = 3O + 2A.
 
To approach this problem we must begin by agreeing that value and
values are not some mystical things out there somewhere, but they deal
with real living people's preferences.  And these prefrerences are
stored in their minds.  Fortunately, today's neuroscientists have
provided overwhelming evidence that our minds are not separate from
our brains.  Thus if you yeild me this point, then perhaps we can get
to the task at hand. That is, that we can use neurophysiology to
determine whether or not value is ordinal or cardinal.
 
In recent years, the neurophysiological evidence has overwhelmingly
demonstrated that the nature of the brain and thus consciousness is
_computational_.  This would also infer that our values result from
sophisticated computation.  Thus, while the specific computation
U(X) = 3O +2A, is unlikely to reside in anyone's brain, there must
however be a vast variety of far more sophisticated (subconscious)
computations that exist in everyone's brains used for the
determination of value.
 
The amazing thing is that our brains are filled with values.  In
fact our brain is a value machine.  For each neuron, there are roughly
1000 synapses, and for each synapse there are a multitude of values that
for clarity's sake are reduced to one value for todays artifical neural
networks.  These values are cardinal amounts, not ordinal values.
 
All the volumes of neuro-physiological data support my contention that
we do represent the meaning we percieve in reality as vast web of
cardinal values, which are part of a massively parallel computation.
Our values are nothing more than our perceptions of reality.  Thus
value is cardinal, NOT ordinal.
 
Another engrossing discovery is that while our perception of
meaning is thouroughly rooted in our value system,  (even down
to the bio-molecular level), we have discovered that the rules
of logic are unable to produce any meaning in and of themselves.
In fact, you need the meaning first, and then the logic to sort
through the meaning if you are going to get anywhere.
 
Have I bored you all stiff?  It was all just to prove a point of how
lame all of this logical/philisophical/factual stuff really is.
Not only does it put us all to sleep, but it really doesn't mean
much either.  I laugh when I see someone says that some guy named
Nosedick (actually from what I have heard about Nosedick, I more than
likely will believe he is right on the mark)  has irrefutably proven
that left/non-propertarian/pacifistic anarchy is the way to go.  And
then someone else comes along and says that his professor has proven
with irrefutable logic that Nosedick didn't know his nose from a hole
in the ground.
 
What is going on here is that based on your _values_ Nosedick
either irrefutably proves or does not prove his point.  Forget this
philosophy/logic mumbo jumbo... It isn't going to get you anywhere.
Instead, just take a look at your values now and again, and ask
yourself am I living a life that is as meaningful as I can make it?
 
Thus when some like to stick to cold logic, I laugh at them.  What
counts is not the logic, but the values, the emotions, the passion
beneath the logic.  I have a similar beef I have with people who
say we should be more civil in our debates.
 
To hell with civility...  What we need is unbridled passion!
(all this coming from your fav pacifist, ME! ;)  C'mon haven't
you ever felt the thrill of adrenaline screaming through your
veins!  That's what anarchy's about!  Rock 'n Roll!  Tearing
down the walls... Out with the old, in with the new!  Dynamic...
living...  breathing...  Logic is controlled, caged, static.
Raw emotion can't be chained.  Stir up those emotions!  Knock
your values around, instead of being rigidly locked into the same
old ways of percieving reality.
 
Glenn                                     glenne@csd4.csd.uwm
(There's no organized hierchy in my brain, I kin tell ya dat much :)
Newsgroups: alt.society.anarchy