Tuesday 18 September 2007

Law of definition

Disclaimer: This was written some time before on a boring night.. I may or may not agree to everything said below.


Law of definition states that anything exists only if it is defined. Another version of the law says that the determining factor in differentiating one thing from another is its definition.This may seem a simple universal law, but in recent times it has helped me in answering two important scenarios.

The first one is the controversial topic of human mind versus AI. The power of the human mind is a combination of its logical ability and emotional versatility. If in the future we create an AI that has the same powers as a human mind, could it be called a human mind? I say yes. LOD says that the determining factor in differentiation is definition. AI satisfies the defenition of human mind. So it can be given the status of human mind.

I had a vague idea about my second scenario. But my friend's question made it clearer. Here goes the question: "What if the thing we call 'life' is just another long dream?" Again LOD came to my rescue. This is life 'coz it is defined so. The assumption that it may just be a part of some super-life, does not make any difference. Life may be that stage of super-life where the laws of physics as we see it hold true. My view maybe contradicting to 'The Matrix. The movie says that life in the Matrix is just an illusion.But I say for the people inside the Matrix, the outside life is just super-life. The only problem lies in definition. I remember my Physics teacher deftly answering my question: "Sir, why is it so?". He answered: "Because it is defined so."

2 comments:

  1. huh!! we can hav a million debates on this topic and still remain unresolved.... where didya get this LOD from?? pardon me if i'm ignorant but sry, i've never heard of it...

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  2. LOD is purely a creation of mine.. havent patented it yet, but if the future, you may address it as John's Universal Law of Defenition (JULOD)

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