From newshub.ccs.yorku.ca!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.ecf!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!trwacs!erwin Mon May 25 14:06:47 EDT 1992
Article 5803 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: penrose
Message-ID: <593@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Date: 21 May 92 11:59:14 GMT
References: <1992May8.015202.10792@news.media.mit.edu> 	<1992May18.194416.27171@hellgate.utah.edu> 	<1992May19.025328.5332@news.media.mit.edu> 	<1992May20.010756.27980@news.media.mit.edu> <1992May20.074423.4405@sics.se>
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torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen) writes:

>In article <1992May20.010756.27980@news.media.mit.edu> nlc@media.mit.edu 
>(Nick Cassimatis) writes:

>   >Of course, even if human beings turned out to be consistent (which is
>   >a ludicrous belief), would it be an interesting or insightful way to
>   >think of them, study them and/or attempt to reproduce them?

>  I'd say this belief is unintelligible rather than ludicrous. What
>is "consistent" applied to humans supposed to mean in this discussion?

People working in risk management, analysis, and assessment have evidence
that humans are inconsistent in a very pragmatic sense--humans make
different decisions with regard to risk management depending on how
the decision is posed. Suppose I am going to a show and I've spent $40 on
tickets. I lose the tickets. Will I spend $40 to replace them? On the
other hand, suppose I was buying the tickets at the door and I lose the
$40. Will I spend another $40? The answers, interestingly are different,
although the objective costs are the same. Similar phenomena are seen in
disease management and disaster management. The interesting question is
how inconsistent categories of risk management could have been evolved
(since this is a cross-cultural invariant).

Cheers,
-- 
Harry Erwin
Internet: erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com



