Monday, July 7, 2008

Ill-posed questions*

The spoken word, like the expressed protein, is a means by which living things communicate. Sending a poorly-chosen enzyme through the body will get an organism in trouble, just as a poorly-chosen question (or statement) broadcast by the media will get a community in trouble.

Media representatives often pretend that poorly-chosen questions have well-defined answers, when in fact they deserve wiggly answers or no response at all. Flip-flop accusers who ask ill-informed questions are like molecule pushers who send enzymes for clotting into their customers' brain. Don't be shy about pointing it out when you see it happen.

* for some earlier more technical examples see "The well-posed problem" by E. T. Jaynes (Foundations of Physics 3, 1973, pages 477-493).

1 comment:

taylorExpansion said...

Folks don't normally think of ideas on a community's electronic web the way we do enzymes in the blood stream of a multicelled organism. Making sure they carry with them information on scope and relevance may not be a bad idea.