Occam’s Razor

Filed in National by on February 16, 2012

To quote Captain Spock in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country: “An ancestor of mine maintained that when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” This is basically the theory of Occam’s Razor, the principle that generally recommends that, from among competing hypotheses, selecting the one that makes the fewest new assumptions usually provides the correct one, and that the simplest explanation will be the most plausible until evidence is presented to prove it false.

With that in mind:

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  1. From Pine View Farm » Blog's archive » Which Is the Path Not Fakin’? | February 17, 2012
  1. anon says:
    February 16, 2012 at 2:37 pm

    Uhm.

    “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” – Sherlock Holmes (1890 C.E.)

    … which significantly predates Captain Spock’s similar statement (approx. Stardate 9522.6).

  2. Jason330 says:
    February 16, 2012 at 2:58 pm

    Poor chap. Your understanding of the whimsy embedded in Star Trek is lacking. Spock was claiming Holmes as a Vulcan in the same way the Kilngons claim Shakespeare.

  3. Que Pasa says:
    February 16, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    “Obscene profits”?!?

    Only a bunch of Marxists stuck in a all-night college dormroom BS session mindset would use that kind of ignorant language.

    So who died and made you guys the arbiters of what constitutes “obscene” when a private enterprise –in a highly-regulated business at the mercy of global commodity price fluctuations– ingeniously figures out how to extract oil buried deep beneath the earth’s surface at a cost lower than what its sold to refineries for?

  4. cassandra m says:
    February 16, 2012 at 3:43 pm

    So who died and made you guys the arbiters of what constitutes “obscene” when a private enterprise –in a highly-regulated business at the mercy of global commodity price fluctuations– ingeniously figures out how to extract oil buried deep beneath the earth’s surface at a cost lower than what its sold to refineries for with significant subsidies from American taxpayers?

    Fixed that for you.

    And if you don’t get the hint — when these oil companies stop being subsidized by my tax money they can be free of my calling their profits “obscene”.

    EDIT: This:
    at a cost lower than what its sold to refineries
    is just plain Stupid.

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