Larry Fontaine wrote:
> 
> Nothing can be proven without an assumption.
> For example, numbers can only be defined using numbers. Numbers were
> made up by humans out of thin air. This thought came about from
> something my math teacher was saying about college courses where 1=1
> cannot be assumed. As part of a psychology class required for becoming a
> teacher, there was a test that said, "Prove to me that there's a tree
> outside that window." The only person who got an A wrote, "Prove to me
> there's a window."
> Going along this tangent, one can also argue that morals cannot exist
> without bias. A religious value of right vs. wrong takes the position
> that good is good and evil is evil, period, but from the "evil"
> perspective, good is evil and evil is good. Kind of like the way maps
> from the Southern hemisphere show North going downward.
> All this could lead to the idea that everything is a paradox.
> Actually, that would then make this theory self-defeating, bringing down
> everything mankind believes with it. Which is maybe why arguments always
> seem to end with irrational statements and nothing gained.
> 
> How does this relate to POVray? Some may say it doesn't, but it goes
> along the same line as the discussion about "Eve's first morn" in p.b.i
> that asks, "What makes something appear real?" That's why I decided to
> post it, anyway.
> 
> Post your reactions to my paradoxism thoery. It's always fun to hear
> people argue.

It's a load of bollocks, espoused by college students who have become so
tangled up in theories that they've abandoned reality. For instance, in
the example you give, anybody can bloody well see that there's a window,
and therefore there's no point in proving it. Likewise, 1 most certainly
equals 1; that's the whole point of having a 1 in the first place.

In the case of realism, the answer is simple. In the real world, light
interacts with matter in various predictable ways, and that matter has
properties which are potentially definable. To make your scenes more
realistic, determine the behavior and nature of light and matter, and
then try to make the numbers match.

-Xplo

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