Weak Argument Against Vacuous Truths

Vacuous truths never felt intuitive to me, ever since I first learned about them.

Here's one reason why.  It's a weak reason and not a strong reason.  But it's strong enough in my potentially deranged mind for me to feel I should mention.  Forgive me if there are any typos, because they are pretty easy to make here.

Look at the statement NOT(if A then B) and the statement A and NOT B.  They both have the EXACT same truth table, if you draw the truth table out or ask a competent AI program to do it for you.

But I would argue A and NOT B is actually a stronger statement than NOT(if A then B), making the statements not equivalent.  A and NOT B is clearly not a conditional statement.  A happens no matter what.  Does A also happen no matter what in the statement NOT(if A then B)?

Suppose A doesn't happen and B does.  Is this an instance of NOT(if A then B)?  What if A doesn't happen and B also doesn't happen?  Also an instance of NOT(if A then B) perhaps?  I would say anything whatsoever that is anything other than if A then B fits the criteria of NOT(if A then B).  

Let's try an example to flesh out this line of thought.

Think of the actions of A and B being the following:

A = the action that you honked your car horn yesterday

B = the action that your car windshield broke.

There are four possibilities involving your horn and windshield yesterday:

1) your horn honked and your windshield broke

2) your horn honked and it didn't break

3) your horn did not honk and your windshield broke

4) your horn did not honk and your windshield didn't break.

Which of these 4 possibilities fit the 2 statements NOT(if A then B) and A and NOT B?  

A and NOT B would say that you definitely honked your horn yesterday and your windshield did not break.  Only possibility #2 fits that.

NOT(if A then B) would say it's not true that if you honked your horn yesterday, then your windshield broke.

If you did honk your horn, then only possibility #2 would fit that.  If you didn't honk your horn, then we don't know what would have happened for sure.  But mostly likely honking your horn wouldn't actively have caused your windshield to break.  This is NOT A and NOT B. Possibility #4.

Is possibility #4 a subset of the statement "it's not true that if you honked your horn yesterday, then your windshield broke"?  I would say yes, based on probabilistic assumptions alone. The only way this would have been true is if some mischievous individual installed some device in your car on purpose that would smash your windshield every time you honked your horn.  At least if you interpret the conditional if/then as definite cause and effect and not just random occurrence of each.  

We could alter our truth table for this specific example, but if we wanted to make a general table, we'd probably have to set up a U for unknown on vacuous truths.  Or maybe M for meaningless.

Still, there are pros and cons to using U for vacuous truths. They're more conservative, but they leave the logical system open instead of closed.  Plus they introduce a ternary or three-valued logic system (which some logicians already have invented) and they're a bit more complicated than logics with truth values only limited to T or F.

So even though I don't think vacuous truths always adhere to reality despite being pushed as such, they do allow closure in a fairly simple logical system, and there are definite benefits to that.  Not worth changing, but probably worth questioning more than they're currently questioned in introductory logic classes.

The American Dream

One of the most popular wrestlers ever was Dusty Rhodes, who symbolized the American Dream.  The American Dream was his nickname as well.  

Most people equate the American Dream with owning a home, but it can pretty much be anything.  My dad was quite impoverished growing up, and when his mom said she didn't have any money to buy him a Coca-Cola Classic, he said when he grew up he was going to get a refrigerator stocked with plenty of Coca-Colas so he could have one whenever he wanted.  With this determined mindset, he went to college in Louisiana where he struggled to pass calculus, taking it three or four times before he finally got the credit he needed, and ultimately became a civil engineer.  Today he has a refrigerator and I've never seen that refrigerator without a Coca-Cola inside.  The man lived his dream.

When my wife was growing up she always wanted a super-fluffy cat.  But this proved a greater challenge than she thought initially.  She wasn't able to get one right away, and then had a sweet cat she dearly loved that lived to be at least 20 years old.  This cat wasn't fluffy, but he was her best friend and kept her very happy.  When he passed away, it broke her heart.  Then she finally decided it was time.  She ended up getting the super-fluffy cat she always dreamed of, even though it took a few decades.  She still misses the cat that was her best friend, but she loves her super-fluffy cat too.  

And when I was in high school, I loved wrestling even more than I do now.  I watched old stuff from the video store, and watched either WCW or WWF every week for a good four years or so.  Always looked forward to the Monday night Nitro or RAW that followed the monthly Sunday pay per view in particular to find out what happened at the big show.  I did purchase a few pay per views, but they were at least $60 a show, so I probably bought fewer than I could count on one hand.  I bought a few VHS tapes as well, but they were $30 each, and that's a lot of money to a kid with no job.  Couldn't buy very many of them.

I said one day I'd watch all those pay per views I couldn't watch growing up.  Then I found out about the WWE network, I guess not too long after it came out.  Every pay per view I ever wanted to watch was on that network, for a reasonable monthly fee.  But even though I had a degree and a job at that time, I was married and still didn't have quite enough money to buy the subscription.  Or the time to watch it for that matter.  I said when I finish grad school I'll get the WWE network.

Well, eventually the network was acquired by Peacock.  So I said I'd get Peacock when I finished grad school, and I didn't have but a few classes left at that point.  But then my wife tells me she's getting Xfinity for our TV service, just because it came with our internet.  And Peacock was included for free.  So just a few months before finishing grad school, I finally got to watch all the pay per views I wanted to watch.  In particular I wanted to see the Shawn Michaels and Undertaker cell match from Bad Blood 1997.  And I finally got to see it after 23 years of waiting.  I got to live my dream.

Now a lot of those matches are on the WWE Vault and WCW YouTube channels for free, and Netflix has the WWE pay per view library also.  But the main thing is I got to live my dream.  Just like my dad got to live his, and my wife got to live hers.  Even though it took each of us a while to get what we had our hearts set on.  We lived the American Dream.

Hulk Hogan Sign from WrestleManias 6 and 18

This is kind of amazing to me.  In April of 1990, WrestleMania 6 took place in the Skydome in Toronto, Canada with Hulk Hogan vs the Ultimate Warrior in the main event.  And you could see a big banner of Hogan clearly in the audience as the Ultimate Warrior made his entrance.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRtOTIykZNE

A full 12 years later, WrestleMania took place in the Skydome again, with Hulk Hogan going against the Rock in a highly anticipated match at WrestleMania 18.  And either the same exact banner or a REMARKABLY similar one could be seen in the audience as the Rock and Hogan stared each other down.  The only difference is it's in a different seat this time.  But pretty much the same sign, in the same building, with the same wrestler in the match.  Twelve years later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ9zibElS5w

Sparing the Rod and Spoiling the Child

This old phrase is often attributed to the book of Proverbs.  It has fallen out of fashion in recent years due to the increasingly negative view of corporal punishment in the western world.  But if you generalize it beyond the meaning of corporal punishment, there's something interesting to note.

It really implies that the wise party should never yield control to the unwise.  And not even because of the adverse effects on the wise, but because such yielding does NO favors for the unwise either.  Power in the hands of the foolish does not aid the foolish in any way that matters.

What Are Your 5 Favorite Books? - Job Interview Question

I've held my current job for 19 years, but if I'm ever in the position of interviewing for a job again, I would like to answer the question, "What are your top 5 favorite books?" as follows because it's a good balance of my eclectic interests:

1) Ecclesiastes - I love many books in the collection of Biblical scriptures, but Ecclesiastes really sticks out.  It really gets you thinking about how easy it is to get caught up in unimportant things and calls out the reader to consider what real purpose is and to prioritize the things of life.  Because most things, regardless of how grand they seem, are just going to fade away and vanish over time.  Harsh, and not for the weak at heart.

2) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - These two books contained in one cover first gave me a real interest in reading for fun and not just for career purposes.  The books seemed to break every rule I was ever taught about plot structures and main ideas, and I absolutely loved the freedom resulting from that.  Lots of fun and timeless humor.  Not to mention an insane amount of creativity.  Something you have to read more than once.  If I ever published a book myself, I'd want it to look like these two books.

3) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - This might be the only book I've ever read that fits into the self-help category, but it's written so well I never felt the need to read any other self-help books.  It taught me about the Eisenhower Box method of organization, and the circle of concern method of prioritization, both of which I still use to this day.  This book and its techniques still give me the confidence to continuously and patiently pursue whatever goals I have, provided they are eventually within my reach before I pass away due to old age or some other cause.

4) Discovering Relativity For Yourself (by Sam Lilley) - Although this book was intended to make it easier to understand both special and general relativity, it's still extremely complicated and hard to follow.  But despite all that, it is the best mix of thoroughness and simplicity I can find on a subject that snugly fits into the category of inaccessible better than most any topic on the planet.  Extremely well written considering the supreme challenge of writing it.

5) William McGonagall, Collected Poems - My favorite poet ever.  No question.  The topics he chose to put into verse (particularly his disaster poems) were often highly questionable, and his meter was non-existent, but there's still a certain charm to his efforts despite the poet's lack of conventional ability.  His work earned him admiration even though it shouldn't have.  Like many films presented on Mystery Science Theater 3000, McGonagall's poems reinforce the idea that a presented work doesn't always have to be good quality to make its audience happy that it was made.

A Divine Haiku

Don't be mad at God

You won't stay disappointed

He'll fix everything

Golden Rule Variation

The Golden Rule is to treat others the way you want to be treated.  

I always thought of Greg the Hammer Valentine as an interesting instance of the Golden Rule. He was quite rough in the ring compared to other wrestlers and wanted rough convincing matches where he hit hard and his opponents hit hard back. Some wrestlers tend to wrestle stiff like him and others are fairly gentle in the ring like Bobby Eaton was.