Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Thinking of something new

I have been thinking for the last few days about how the ultimate reality of human thought is inherent its level of flaw. We need a determiner or a normalizer or an adjustment factor to all accepted "truths".
I propose something like this:
Take any accepted "truth" and add a modifier for the following:
Assumptions
Decisions
Known Communication Method
Acceptance
I have been thinking of a numbering system as the modifier, but that leads back to a math based description and I am hoping to 'rethink' thinking or at least come up with some indicator as to how much stock one should put into each accepted "truth". IE, is it valid.
Example:
Accepted Truth: The Earth revolves around the Sun.
Assumptions:
The Earth & the Sun exist.
The Earth is in motion.
Decisions:
The Earth & the Sun are related spatially.
This spatial relationship has a specific, describable pattern.
Communication Method:
Verbal
Written
Pictorial
Demonstrative
Electronic
Acceptance:
Generally accepted

This truth would have a high level of validity based on its low level of assumptions and decisions, coupled with its ease of communication and overall acceptance.
I guess what I would like to create with this is a web page or resource that people can use as a bullshit detector. Maybe this is already too complicated and could be pared back to just assumptions and decisions. Dunno. I think if we could make this somehow work, it could help a lot of things, like research for instance. Researchers could have a weekly meeting to go over the validity of the work they are doing, and keep themselves going towards the information they seek, rather than off in random directions. I also think it could help government. If Laws had to comply with the bullshit detector, they would ultimately do more harm than good. We could have discussions about the validity of ideas, rather than the practicality of the ideas. Ultimately, forging ideas for practicality only is mental masturbation. Ideas need validity too.

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