Margus Ramst wrote:
> 
> Ahh, but there's the rub.
> These theories basically state this: our definition of reality is empirical.
> What a person calls reality is what he perceives with his senses. Therefore, if
> you provide this person with complete artificial sensory input, this could
> become his reality. In essence, you could put a brain in a jar, attach wires to
> feed it sensory impulses, and thus create an alternate world for this solitary
> brain.

Perfectly true, the only thing that can be concretely proven is the 
old "cogito ergo sum" business. That is, if by "concretely proven" 
we mean that no assumptions of any kind are ever made along the way,
including the assumption that our sensory data isn't hallucinatory,
or that our memories of the past aren't, to cite Douglas Adam's 
Ruler of the Universe "merely a fiction designed to account for 
the descrepency between my current physical sensations, and my state 
of mind..."

However, Adams' fabulously wise Ruler also illustrates the only 
good answer to such arguments; While accepting nothing as a concrete
fact, he acknowledges that "The Lord knows I am not a cruel man." 
(He of course, means his cat, whom he calls "The Lord" and is kind to).
>>>>
"Aha!" shouted Zarniwoop, pressing home his point, "But how do you
know HE exists, or that he knows you to be kind, or enjoys what you
think of as your kindness?"
"I don't," said the old man, "It simply pleases me to behave in a
certain way to what appears to be a cat. Do you behave any 
differently?"
<<<<

I laugh at the (currently fashionable once more) mindless slogan
"Never assume!" so idiotically spouted by business and government
---ahem--- "leaders" today, since, it is clear that assumption is
the fundamental basis of all sane, productive human thought. The
problem is not whether or not you assume, but whether or not the
assumptions you choose to cling to are reasonably safe ones. The
only way to find that out is continually test them until something
breaks. When it does, bite the bullet and QYA. Until then, I say: 
chill out! (and get a better slogan...)

Charles
-- 
"Waiter! My food for thought has a fly in it!"

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