Noam Chomsky is perhaps the United States’ best-known anarchist. There’s a certain irony to this, however; for just as St. Augustine once prayed, “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet,” Chomsky’s aim is in effect anarchy, but not yet. Chomsky’s reason for the “not yet” is that a powerful central government is currently necessary as a bulwark against the power of the corporate elite; thus it will not be safe to abolish or even scale b
This book is about beliefs---how we get them and how we evaluate them. It takes the form of a fictional conversation makes the following points: 1) in analogy with robots, we humans know by the models we make of reality, 2) these models are always provisional and sometimes unreliable, 3) it is especially important to examine thoroughly those models upon which we base actions, and 4) the scientific method provides an excellent guide for such examination. The level of exposition is neither technical nor deeply philosophical