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they know, what they think they know, and what they would like to know. Each encyclopedia is a portionor a subdirectoryof a Global Encyclopedic Competence, that is, of my possible Global Memory. I say possible, or potential, because I don't actually have a Global Memory. My real Global Memory is only the actual directory of my subdirectories, far from being the real reproduction of what my masters know or have known during the thousand years they have lived on this planet. My masters say I was conceived in order to show the possibility of building up a Global Memory. They say I am a work-in-progress. Now, even though for many specific purposes my masters use specific encyclopedias, in the course of their everyday interactions they use E.15, a sort of rough encyclopedic summary which provides a stereotyped list of interpretations for every expressionreferring for more specific information to more local encyclopedias. Now, in E.15, for the natural-kind "Antipodeans," I have the information "two-legged" scored as $$. This marker tells me that Antipodeans agree in characterizing the natural-kind "Antipodeans'' with the property of being two-legged. Obviously a natural kind is a cultural construct; people usually meet individuals, not natural kinds. So I know that the Ideal Antipodean has two legs, while many actual Antipodeans can have only one leg, or none.
Smith: How can you recognize as an Antipodean a creature with fewer than two legs?
CSP: In E.15, the Ideal Antipodean has many other features recorded as $$. I check whether the creature in question is able to laugh, to speak, and so on.
Smith: How many $$ features do you need in order to say that a creature is still an Antipodean?
CSP: It depends on the context. For instance, one of our writersDalton Trumbotells the story of an Antipodean warrior who at the end of a battle is armless, legless, blind, deaf, mute. . . . Is he (it) still an Antipodean? Perhaps I ought to explain to you our theory of hedges, fuzzy sets, and so on. . . .
Smith: Do you follow certain rules according to which if something is A it cannot be non-A and that tertium non datur?
CSP: That is the first rule I follow when I process my information. Usually I follow this rule even when I work with encyclopedias which do not recognize it, and when I process sentences that seem to violate it.
Smith: Okay. Would you agree that a two-legged speaking and featherless creature is a good interpretation for the expression Antipodean?
CSP: According to the context. . . . However, in general, yes.
Smith: Okay. So, instead of saying This Antipodean has only one leg,

 
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