Rough draft...  posted 7/19/2006



                 LEARNING, CERTAINTY AND CAUSALITY

                              LCC-2
                          19 July 2006

                 Copyright (C) 2006 Homer W. Smith
       Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes.


     THE A's AND THE B's

     If A and B are two objects, and A changes state and B doesn't,
then A and B were and are two DIFFERENT objects.

     If A and B are two different objects, then one or both are not
nothings, as there can not be two different nothings.

     If A changes state, then A is or was a something.

     Proof:

     A nothing can not change state into a nothing, as that is a no
change.

     Thus if A changes state, it either was a nothing and changed into
a something, or it was a something and changed into another something,
or it was a something and changed into a nothing.  QED

     The following belongs in LCC-1.


     [A something can not come from nothing.  If an object has the
potential ability to change in to a something then its object
quality set is not empty and thus it can not be a nothing.

     Thus if something exists now, something must have always existed.

     A something can not go into a nothing.

     Thus if something exists now, something will always exist.

     Something exists now.

     Therefore something has always existed, and something will aways
exist.]


     If A and B are separated by a space or time or extension in any
dimension, then A and B are two different objects.

     If A and B are two different objects, the only way B can learn
about A, is if A causes B to change state, that is if A has some
effect on B.  No matter how much effect B has on A, if A has no effect
on B, then B can not learn anything about A including whether A exists
or not.

     Since the only way B can learn about A is to be the effect of A,
the only thing B can learn about A is how A affects B, namely A's
qualities of causal relation to B.

     Thus the only qualities that B can learn about A, are qualities
of causal relation, namely how A caused B to change state.  All other
qualities about A are inferred as theories from A's qualities of causal
relation.

     If B and A are two different objects, at no time does B have
direct observation or contact with A.

     Thus even the qualities of causal relation of A are inferred by B
from changes in B's own state.

     If B does not change state, there can be no learning at all about
A.

     B's change in state IS B's learning about A.

     Since B's state gives no proof that B changed state, B can never
be perfectly certain it learned anything about A even if B did change
state as an effect of A.

     When B is learning about A, A is the referent and B is the
symbol.

     All mechanical learning between two different objects is a symbol
arising from a referent along a causal pathway.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Homer Wilson Smith     The Paths of Lovers    Art Matrix - Lightlink
(607) 277-0959 KC2ITF        Cross            Internet Access, Ithaca NY
homer@lightlink.com    In the Line of Duty    http://www.lightlink.com

Tue Jul 18 23:09:25 EDT 2006