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were told that historians made a mistake and that Hannibal did not use elephants, you could cancel your ££ information without any problem. What happens if you are told that your scientists have discovered that elephants are not animals? |
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CSP: Instructions are negotiable. |
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Smith: What do you mean by negotiable? |
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CSP: I have, among my instructions, markers such as &&&, which are called flexibility alarms. As a matter of fact, each of my instructions is &&&, but some of them have &&& at a 0 degree, which means that they are hardly negotiable. In E.15, chickens are birds, and birds are flying animals, but this latter piece of information is scored &&& at a high degree. Thus I can interpret such sentences as chickens do not fly. Also the information on grey elephants is &&&, so that I know how to react if you tell me that you have seen a white or a pink elephant. |
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Smith: Why is the information that elephants are animals hardly negotiable? |
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CSP: Antipodeans decided not to cast into doubt too frequently this piece of information; otherwise they would have to restructure the whole E.15. Centuries ago, Antipodeans relied on an obsolete E.14, where our planet was scored as the center of the universe. Later they changed their mind and were obliged to transform E.14 into E.15. It took a lot of time! However, saying that something is difficult and expensive does not mean that it is impossible. |
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Smith: What happens if I tell you that I have seen an Antipodean with three legs? |
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CSP: Prima facie I realize that in E.15 there are few chances of taking it seriously. Maybe you are crazy. However, I am a very collaborative machine. My Golden Rule is: take every sentence you receive as if it were uttered in order to be interpreted. If I find an uninterpretable sentence, my first duty is to doubt my own abilities. My orders are: never mistrust your interlocutor. In other words, I was told never to disregard expressions. If there is an expression, then there should be a meaning. If I try to interpret your statement, I realize that there would be articulatory difficulties. Then I try to represent graphically what you said, and I do not know where to put the third leg. If I put it between the other two, I would have to displace the belly in order to find space for additional bones. But in this case I would have to redesign the whole Antipodean skeleton and, as a consequence, all the information I have on the evolution of the speciesthus step by step I would be compelled to change all the instructions contained in E.15. I could, however, try to put a third leg on the back, perpendicular to the spinal cord. It would be use- |
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