Justin Richards wrote:
> I find it "convenient" that a portable radio can be just that and the
> transmitting end which doesn't really need to be portable is big and
> bulky.
>
> I find it "convenient" that water happens to be liquid at room
> temperature and room temperature is just that.
>
> Very "convenient" that PN junctions behave the way they do.

This is non-logic.  Of course we find the things convenient that are
convenient.  Where are your control cases?  Did you make a unbiased list of
many randomly chosen physical properties, then conduct a double blind test
with independent subjects that rate each by its convenience?  I didn't thin=
k
so.  Did you even try to come up with inconvenient properties as
counter-examples?

A even bigger failing of this logic than the total lack of control is the
impossibility of impartially rating the convenience of the properties since
we are largely here in our present form because of those properties.

Let's take the particularly silly statement about water and room
temperature.  We are water-based life forms, so of course our preferred
temperature is going to match up with naturally occurring liquid water.
That means nothing therefore.  However, here is a case where we do have
other examples we can check for naturally occurring liquid water.  We have =
a
pretty good idea of the chemical makeup and conditions on many of the
various planets and moons in our star system.  Of these, how many have
naturally occurring liquid water?  Only two that I'm aware of, and the
second is mostly a guess because it is expected to have oceans under ice.  =
A
third almost certainly had liquid water in the past, but didn't have the
gravity to hold on to it over time.  Now that would be rather inconvenient
to have the water you evolved to depend on evaporate into space.

What about the speed of light?  It's really really inconveniently slow for
humans on a cosmic scale.  If it does represent the cosmic speed limit as w=
e
think it does, then that's pretty darn inconvenient for us getting off this
rock before the sun does something very inconvenient.  The earth is already
half way to its expiration date, and we've only just gotten to sliced bread=
,
flush toilets, and the ability to make silly statements.


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