From: Wade Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Wed 30 Oct 2002 - 19:33:50 GMT
On Wednesday, October 30, 2002, at 12:54 , Bill Spight wrote:
> So, then, "Stopping at red lights," "Refraining from taking things that
> do not belong to you," "Being nice to your mother," "Wearing matching
> colors," and so on, are performances, not just stopping, refraining from
> taking things, being nice, and wearing clothes (although they are
> performances, too). Right?
Stopping at a red light demands a red light to stop at, so it is not
just stopping, right.
Not taking something that does not belong to you demands being in a
situation where you could, but do not, so it is not just refraining,
right.
How one is nice to one's mother is way too loaded a condition to comment
upon, but, it might not just be being nice, right....
Wearing matching colors demands the requisite colored clothes are
available, so, it is not just wearing clothes, right.
The social convention of stopping at red lights is an ordinance-defined
social convention designed for public safety, on one hand, but it has
many hands, and just because one is stopped there is no direct
indication of intent.
Situations like the Prisoner's Dilemma (itself of a patent uselessness
simply _because_ it is an exercise without real consequence) are
analyzations with sufficient environment-damping to be data-gathering
resources. There are, unfortunately, no ethical opportunities for actual
experiments.
- Wade
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