X-Message-Number: 19907 From: Date: Sun, 25 Aug 2002 23:28:18 EDT Subject: unique or trivial solutions --part1_4f.22705dd5.2a9afa52_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Thomas Donaldson asked me: > You claim that the solution is always unique. Is the solution of > high-order polynomial equations always unique? And since we use them > often, is this nonuniqueness trivial or not? > Yes, I think it (the solution to a problem in living), if not unique, is always trivial in a certain sense, which I didn't bother to make explicit but did (I thought) indicate. The perpetual problem is: What should I do next? The answer: Whatever seems likeliest to maximize my long term satisfaction. If two or more alternate courses of action score equally, then any difference between them is personally trivial. Robert Ettinger --part1_4f.22705dd5.2a9afa52_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" [ AUTOMATICALLY SKIPPING HTML ENCODING! ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19907