fandomhigh | Logic, Reason and Critical Thinking, Class 10: Period 4, Thursday, November 12

"This week," Miss Bennet said, "we are going to discuss another tool that will aid us in problem-solving: one that starts at the very beginning and can immediately set us upon the right track. This technique is deceptively simple: we define the problem. We restate it methodically, examine the hidden assumptions and unspoken concerns, and address the exact dimensions of the current difficulty. When properly defined, the problem will lead us toward possible solutions.

She lifted a piece of chalk and headed towards the blackboard. "Let us take a simple hypothetical. Let us say that a certain teacher wished to have office hours on Tuesday, but discovered that the town was filled with vicious, sentient plants." Miss Bennet did, in fact, think she was amusing. "In describing the problem, said teacher might express her frustration in the following manner:"

I cannot go to my office; there are killer vegetables on the loose.

Miss Bennet underlined the sentence before turning back to her students. "This is a rather natural response to the situation, but it is not a well-defined problem, for our purposes. Let us make it into one, then. Where shall we start? Cannot is a rather strong term; in many cases, 'cannot' would be more accurately replaced with 'would rather not.' Similarly, the word 'killer' is quite loaded, and we would do well to replace it with a more accurate and less emotional word. Very well; there are menacing plants about, and the instructor would rather not go to her office. The connection between the two statements is left unspoken. It seems a natural deduction that the teacher is fearful of the dangers presented by those plants, which is a rather more specific problem. Reshaped, the problem now appears to be:"

Dangerous vegetables may harm me if I go to my office today.

"In this form, the dilemma quite readily lends itself to suggestions. For one, perhaps the instructor should not go to her office today. These vegetables may present only a temporary difficulty; perhaps there is nothing in the teacher's office which cannot wait until tomorrow. Another alternative is for the lady in question to arm herself before leaving the house, if she is confident in her abilities. If she is not, she may do well to ask a gentleman to escort her, or to fetch whatever is so urgent from her office that it mustn't wait a day.

Satisfied, Miss Bennet set the chalk down and brushed the dust from her hands. "When we fully understand a problem, we will have an easier time discovering its solution."

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Eww, tuna fish. It always left your hands smelling funny.

"And I'm not easy," she ~~lied~~ said. "What d'you want?"

Calvin had never actually been bribed to do someone else's homework for them. Finally, people were ~~completely unaware of~~ realising his genius.

"I'm sure you can think of something."

Edited 2009-11-12 14:05 (UTC)

"Well, yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Rose teased. She tossed her hair back over her shoulder. "Get back to me when you know how much you're worth, Calvin."

"I can tell right now that it won't cost you the earth," Calvin said. "That happened to me once."

He'd gotten fifty alien leaves out of it mind. Fifty. Wasn't that impressive?

Edited 2009-11-12 14:13 (UTC)

"Which is good," she agreed, nodding. "Because - and, okay, I know it's shocking, but I don't actually own the earth."

He was such an odd, odd kid.

He wasn't odd, his reality was just a bit more subjective than most.

"But most aliens wouldn't know that, now would they?" Calvin pointed out. "Just be sure they're aware of the effects of axial tilt combined with an elliptical orbit, or you might have to sacrifice your Christmas stocking to save the world when they find out about the snow."

Okay, make that much more subjective.

"See, here's the thing," Rose said, staring juuust a little bit at him. "If aliens come? Regardless of their elliptical orbit tilt? I'm probably punching them in the face unless they're Jedi or something. So..."

She really didn't have anywhere to go with that.

"That's why you're the science guy."

What? Aliens couldn't participate in capitalism?

"Punching them in the face? You mean like Spaceman Spiff?"

All aliens were communists. Duh. ~~Didn't you watch V?~~

"Is he friends with Captain Toke and Lieutenant Bong?" Rose asked innocently.

~~He thought they were meant to be Nazis. Plus he'd been distracted by the creepyhot alien leader.~~

"Who?" Fortunately for all concerned, Calvin had never tried anything stronger than sugar and caffeine. "He's only the greatest space adventurer who ever lived."

~~They're aliens. We can project whatever problem we want on 'em~~

"Never heard of him," Rose said, totally snickering. "Must be a 'your world' thing."

Logic, Reason and Critical Thinking, Class 10: Period 4, Thursday, November 12

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