On 30 Dec 2008 at 11:57, Zefram wrote: > You can't fix this problem of incorrect nomenclature usage by changing > the meaning of one of the names. Please don't damage the nomenclature > for those who use it successfully.
Steven Pinker (who's been cited on this list before) had an interesting discussion in his book "The Stuff of Thought" about whether a thing referred to by a word in human language preserves its basic nature if the underlying technical definition changes, using thought experiments such as an alternate world that uses the label "water" for a substance that isn't H2O but serves all the same functions water does here on Earth; or the case where people suddenly realize that the creatures they call "cats" are actually sentient aliens; would they still be cats then? It seems like the varous scientific redefinitions of the second, and other units like days and years that are ultimately defined in terms of it, are a similar sort of thing. Non-scientists will be surprised to learn that a "day" is no longer the length of time it takes the earth to complete a rotation; so, is a day still a day? Those were the days, my friend. -- == Dan == Dan's Mail Format Site: http://mailformat.dan.info/ Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dan.info/ Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dan.info/ _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
