Math Is Fun Forum

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: Robot Walks Like Us

Does it matter?  I am reminded by a book by Tim O'Brien, "The Things They Carried."  In it, he details a story of a solider who was in his foxhole with some buddies.  A grenade falls in the foxhole, and in a truly courageous act, he jumps on it and saves his friends from certain death.  Later, he remarks that the story isn't entirely true.  The solider did actually jump on the grenade, but his friends all still died.  But does it matter to the reader whether the stories are actually true, so long as the emotion the reader receives from them is the same?

You could argue that the soldier did save his friends from certain death. It's just that instead, they were faced with the only-slightly-better alternative of probable death, and so died anyway.

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Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.

Ricky

Moderator

Registered: 2005-12-04

Posts: 3,791

Re: Robot Walks Like Us

The point was that a story is not about the result of an action.  It is the action itself alone that makes the story.  The result is merely for closure.

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"In the real world, this would be a problem.  But in mathematics, we can just define a place where this problem doesn't exist.  So we'll go ahead and do that now..."

burningleo

Member

Registered: 2007-04-10

Posts: 24

Re: Robot Walks Like Us

the sound of one hand clapping is a wooshing noize because it's still a sound but its a clap with one hand

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What was, was and whats here is now

mathsyperson

Moderator

Registered: 2005-06-22

Posts: 4,900

Re: Robot Walks Like Us

But that's not the sound of a hand clapping, that's the sound of a hand waving about madly in the air.

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Why did the vector cross the road?
It wanted to be normal.