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This morning, Alex is studying for his AI Computer Programming midterm. His instructor is Chinese and does not speak English well, so Alex is doing most of his studying from the textbook instead of from his class lecture notes. While the textbook speaks far better English than the professor, it still uses some very interesting examples in that language. Here is an excerpt:
"For example, suppose I have some butter and an aardvark in front of me. I can say there is one aardvark, but there is no obvious number of 'butter-objects' because any part of a butter-object is also a butter-object, at least until we get into very small parts indeed. This is the major distinction between stuff and things. If we cut an aardvark in half, we do not get two aardvarks (unfortunately). The English language distinguishes clearly between stuff and things. We say 'an aardvark,' but, except in pretentious California restaurants, one cannot say 'a butter.'"
Alex's textbook is much more fun to read than Plato. Aardvarks are almost as good as monkeys at making things more entertaining.
Now, I must go and get a shower and dry my hair so that I will be presentable when I go and observe the highschoolers today. Photos of hair will hopefully be posted this afternoon, as long as I can take a break from writing my paper on Plato.
"For example, suppose I have some butter and an aardvark in front of me. I can say there is one aardvark, but there is no obvious number of 'butter-objects' because any part of a butter-object is also a butter-object, at least until we get into very small parts indeed. This is the major distinction between stuff and things. If we cut an aardvark in half, we do not get two aardvarks (unfortunately). The English language distinguishes clearly between stuff and things. We say 'an aardvark,' but, except in pretentious California restaurants, one cannot say 'a butter.'"
Alex's textbook is much more fun to read than Plato. Aardvarks are almost as good as monkeys at making things more entertaining.
Now, I must go and get a shower and dry my hair so that I will be presentable when I go and observe the highschoolers today. Photos of hair will hopefully be posted this afternoon, as long as I can take a break from writing my paper on Plato.
