-----Original Message-----
From: KMO <kmo@c-realm.com>
Date: Sunday, February 21, 1999 11:00 PM
>In the episode of Star Trek: TOS that someone cited here recently, Spock
>claims to have come to the logical conclusion that it was time for an
>act of desperation. Might rationality prescribe an act of faith? (As if
>I haven't been reading the "rabid" threads.)
Yes, in the situations where a "self-fullfilling prophecy" might work. Case in point: if you are in a position of mentoring it makes sense for your trust of the student to lead trustworthiness by some small but significant amount. In this context I'm using "faith" to mean holding a belief more or less strongly than the evidence warrants.
>By the way, I read that article on Fischer information and thought I saw
>a parrallel to the kind of analysis by reverse engineering that you
>suggested. Was part of what you hoped we'd get from that article?
No doubt I have been influenced by the article on Fischer information, but I can't say I had it in mind when I wrote the aforementioned message.
David