Cute Jab Taken out of Context

[Bill_Chiles@transarc.com]

[ROB, SORRY IF YOU GOT TWO COPIES OF THIS.  THE FUCKING MAIL SYSTEM AT
TRANSARC IS *A*L*W*A*Y*S* *B*I*T*I*N*G* *M*Y* *A*S*S*!]


 From the introduction to Danial Dennett's _Brainstorms_:

   Several very different sorts of intellectual productions are called
   theories: particle theory in physics, set theory in mathematics, game
   theory, literary theory, the theory of evolution, the identity theory in
   the philosophy of mind.  Some things are called theories that might
   better be called hypotheses.  The theory of evolution by natural
   selection is surely a theory of sorts, but its rival, creationism, is a
   theory only by courtesy.  It lacks the parts, the predictive power, the
   organization of a theory; it is merely a hypothesis, the hypothesis that
   the thory of evolution by natural selection is false and that God created
   the species.  I suspect we call it a throry to acknolwedge that it is a
   genuine alternative to something that clearly is a theory.  Creationism,
   after all, _might_ be true and Darwinism false -- which goes to show that
   one needn't always counter a theory with a _theory_.

Bill

P.S.,
     Oh, Jim, congrats on Rochester.  Hear anything from CMU?