IRC-Galleria

http://groups.google.com/group/misc.metric-system/browse_thread/thread/d6844a79fe172aa7/f5652cbb5a045668?lnk=st&q=author%3Anaggum+%22the+normal+course+of+action%22&rnum=1#f5652cbb5a045668

" Some people learn only the first thing naturally, and then force any
later experience into the mold defined by their first experience. I
am not one of those people. I argue that the only way you can ever
really /learn/ something is to regard it as /new/, i.e., that is not
something you already know. Those who do all this bogus translation
and conversion, lack this ability to look at the real world with new
and open eyes, and somehow insist that the world they have already
seen should set the standard for the world of their future. I think
these people are broken and should be returned for a refund, because
the days when people could expect to learn something that held true
for the rest of their lives are /history/. The normal course of action
in the modern world is that everything you believed to be true becomes
invalidated sooner or later, and if you keep believing it, you will
hurt yourself or others. In a world of constant change, you cannot
/afford/ to shut your eyes and say «I already know what out there!».

I actually believe that the /order/ in which each of us observes any
aspect of the real world is the only truly random thing in the whole
entire universe. Those who regard the order in which they observed
the real world as somehow superior to other orders are /insane/."