It’s not just economics 6 Aug 2009 “The real world is a special case.” Horngren’s Observation Philosophy Quotes Quotes
Evolution Rudiments and vestiges 23 Aug 2009 A new paper has just come out on the functionality of the human appendix, or cecum (caecum in British biology). The authors, following some work done on appendix function in 2006, have said that the caecum in humans has a role in repopulating gut flora. I was going to do… Read More
Book At last, a proper review of Fodor and Piatelli-Palmerini 3 Jul 2010 Peter Godfrey-Smith reviews What Darwin Got Wrong in the London Review of Books, and finally the review matches the book I am reading. PGS is usually right on everything, so read this one. It is critical, but doesn’t suppose that FAPP have made grade school level errors, like so many… Read More
Philosophy Floyer and the man-faced pig 20 Dec 201220 Dec 2012 This is from my forthcoming book with Malte Ebach. Floyer’s monster pigs and his use of homologies to eliminate the interspecies breeding claim In 1699, John Floyer reported upon a claim of interspecies breeding: human–pig. He had shown to him by a breeder in Staffordshire a new-born pig with what… Read More
All right, I’ll ask the obvious question – How does he know? how many other worlds did he live in? (OK, two obvious questions)
Pretty obvious. Any theoretical model one can set up has an indefinite number of values each parameter can take. It follows that each coordinate is a special case of the model. The world is therefore (since it must be represented by a coordinate if the model is adequate) a special case.