Ed, Joe, Gary: I agree with Ed that scientists should not necessarily reject a term because it is abused by industry.
Regarding the amendment proposed about genetic diversity, yes we could add that and also make the point that different baselines may be relevant (i.e. other than pre-European settlement). Lee At 04:05 PM 11/5/2008, you wrote: >Joe, > >The world expressed as a series of equations is an engineering concept not >a scientific one. In order to be valid we must know all things about >every variable of the proposition. Since we do not know, and perhaps can >not know all things about every variable in a complex system, then our >scientific understanding will be limited to only the most simple of >things. That is one of the great failures of modern science, perhaps >driven by our ability to manipulate numbers so well by computer, is the >drive to quantify everything and to simply ignore things that can't be >readily quantified. There is often the opinion that a bad quantification >is better than no numbers at all. That is not true, if the the bad models >resulting from bad quantification lead you to the wrong conclusions. We >need to categorize things iteratively, but the arbitrary assignment of >numbers to poorly understood phenomena doesn't help. Scientific >understanding is based upon a logic structure that may contain equations, >but does not need to be numerical to be scientific. Requiring a concept >be an equation with may quantifiable variables limits the ability to >investigate or to even understand many natural phenomena. Mathematical >formulas and equations are a tool of scientific investigation, but are not >themselves science, no more than a shovel is the same thing as a hole in >the ground. > >Ed > >"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both. " >Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920. >----- Original Message ----- >From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Joseph Zorzin >To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected] >Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 4:18 PM >Subject: [ENTS] Re: Rendezvous Report > >Joe >PS: to me, the concept is an equation with many variables- each variable >must be quantifiable including values not yet in the marketplace- while >social and political values also plugged into the equation must be >transparent. > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Eastern Native Tree Society http://www.nativetreesociety.org You are subscribed to the Google Groups "ENTSTrees" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
