Exercise in Logic

[palani]

A wife asked her husband,

"Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk,

And if they have avocados, get 6."

A short time later the husband came back with 6 cartons of milk.

The wife asked him, "Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?".

He replied, "They had avocados."

[Glass]

I'm guessing he doesn't like avocados.

[joboo]

That will do it.

haha...warm up the couch.

[Hatha Sunahara]

The instruction 'get 6' was not specific enough.

For it to be specific enough in this context it would have to be amended to 'get 6 avocados'. If they did not have avocados, he would have come home with only one carton of milk.


Hatha

[Sparky]

Technically, he's correct. But that doesn't absolve him of being an impractical uncommunicative douche.

[General of Darkness]

Technically, he's correct. But that doesn't absolve him of being an impractical uncommunicative douche.

Exactly.

The joke was probably made by a jew bashing White males.

[vacuum]

The OP is bringing up a few important fundamental characteristics about science, logic, and nature.

First of all, on the nature of communications. In academia we like to ignore communications difficulty, and talk exclusively about abstract ideas. However, the noise through which we communicate with each other, and also through which we sense our surroundings is always present. We can't assume our abstract idea is the same as someone else's abstract idea even though we think we're talking about the same thing. We can't assume that someone else necessarily understands us, or that we necessarily understand someone else. That's one of the problems with black and white acceptance or condemnation of anything.

How to get around those communications problems? That leads to the second point, and that is the use of abductive reasoning rather than deductive reasoning. Deductive reasoning are very rigid and deterministic. It depends on the proper assumptions and postulates to work, or it gives the wrong answer. We can see that with this communication noise, or simply lack of knowledge, this deductive approach yields incorrect results, as the man found out when he got home. Computer programs can easily implement deductive reasoning. However, the more useful abductive reasoning is an active area of artificial intelligence research.

We do have evidence that abductive reasoning is correct. A new, revolutionary, field called compressed sensing was discovered by using the "minimum sufficient explanation" abductive principle. In that way, images with noise in them can be perfectly reconstructed. It turns out it's part of a generalization of nyquist's sampling theorem.

Bottom line: if your thinking is based on absolute postulates which are unquestionable, you will eventually deduce things which are wrong. Take the more realistic approach and instead try to use the the minimum sufficient explanation principle to explain things you observe. Allow your explanations for things change over time.

[Cebu_4_2]

I don't get it so I thanked you.

[osoab]

Exactly.

The joke was probably made by a jew bashing White males.

My first thought also.

[osoab]

But that doesn't absolve him of being an impractical uncommunicative douche.

Maybe, but his wife could be a bitch too.

[Horn]

Its the woman's fault for expecting perfection.

You guys should know this by now.

[palani]

How to get around those communications problems?

Asking questions when unsure helps to insure there is no misunderstanding. For example, I am frequently asked by clerks in stores "Could you sign this (or that) for me?" and, always willing to be helpful, I reply "Sure I can. What is your name?"

[joboo]

Another thing related to this is instead of saying "Don't forget to pick up xyz" use the words "Remember to pick up xyz"

The brain subliminally registers "forget" rather than "remember", and more times than not, it's another lonely night doing the laundry by hand. ;)

[joboo]

Q: Would you like fries with that?

A: I never placed an order for that.

Q: Sorry, you didn't place an order for what?

A: I don't feel like eating what.

Q: What?

A: Yes, that's correct, what.

;)

[palani]

When the waitress brings a check following a meal ... "Does that come with dinner?" or "I never ordered that."

[Hatha Sunahara]

When I give instructions, I always ask the instructee to repeat to me what he/she will be doing. If there is any hint of misunderstanding in this feedback, I correct it immediately. I usually get what I want, but not always.


Hatha

[Horn]

When I give instructions, I always ask the instructee to repeat to me what he/she will be doing. If there is any hint of misunderstanding in this feedback, I correct it immediately. I usually get what I want, but not always.


Hatha

When I got to the store to retrieve some list for someone I make it a habit to forget one of the important things,

instead I retrieve some arbitrary item that has less or little significance.