REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix (10/26/82)
From: Robert Elton Maas <REM at MIT-MC>
There's a terrific program showing on PBS currently (KQED this past
evening, KQEC next Saturday evening) that deals with truth and how to
learn it. A major discussion of this subject dosn't belong here, but
since it bears on the question of SETI ("Does intelligent life and
technological civilization exist elsewhere than on Earth?") I thought
I might mention it here. Mortimer Adler is simply brilliant. Applying
his view of reality and truth to SETI, we have something like:
Objective reality exists independent of our opinions, continues to
be the same regardless of whether our opinions are correct (correspond
to reality) or not, and would continue to be the same even if we
didn't even think about it at all, even if we all died out. Either
there is life elsewhere or there isn't. To discover this truth we must
collect evidence, conduct experiments, argue and debate, and check out
our reasoning ...
Has anybody else heard of Mortimer Adler or seen this program (one of
a series called "Six Great Ideas"; this episode on truth, next week's
episode on beauty) and want to discuss this for a while? (Reply to me,
REM at MIT-MC on Arpanet, not to SPACE.)