Re: OT: Doubting Thomas: was "Introducing Myself"

Hi!

Sally Caves <scaves@...> writes:
>..
> So is this science fiction?
:-)))

I'll simply wait to see what information I can gather in the future
and then eventually decide.  It's a very interesting and very special
story so staying tuned is good.

>...
> I'm taking a break from the grind, here.  This kind of doubt reminds me of
> an interesting dispute I had with a friend of mine about last fall.  The
> conversation got around to "strange" accidents, ...
> ...
> Pirahas and their equally strange development, which may be due just as much
> to chance and environment.  We don't need science fiction to find this world
> strange enough.
That's a good insight!

Doubt increases if the story becomes less believable, i.e., if the
story more and more contradict what you have encountered so far.
Quite natural. :-)

The more unbelievable the story, the more people/papers/input I need
to be convinced.  And every piece of information will get a weight
assigned by my intuitive selection of trustfulness. :-)  Even my
sensory units may cheat me, of course, although they usually get
a high weight of trustfullness.

Just for the record: I did not say it is a hoax (or at least did not
intend to...).  It's just that the Pirahã story is quite unbelievable,
special and contradicts quite a few things encountered so far.  So
I'll just keep my doubts for a while.  There are a lot of urban
legends out there.

Sources on the internet usually get assigned a low weight...
This list is exceptional, of course! :-)

**Henrik

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