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There’s a vast difference between possibility and probability

Have you ever heard about the Norden bombsight or the death touch? They highlight the difference between possible and probable.

The Norden Bombsight and the Death Touch

Norden Bombsight
There’s a debate that we’ve been having in my fencing class about the existence of dim mak, also known as the death touch.

The idea is that one could train for years to acquire the knowledge necessary to hit a mythical area on the body to cause death or paralysis of the body immediately or days later.

I don’t think such points exists but I’ve been wrong before about things.

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But even if they did exist, it’s irrelevant, because there’s a vast difference between possibility and probability.

It is entirely possible that there’s a magical spot on my body; it’s improbable someone could hit it in the heat of battle, especially if I’m armed.

Moreover the training required to hit this spot would require years of practice – years that could be spent training for other, more probable issues, such as a guy trying to throw a haymaker at you.

After all, repetition is the mother of skill.

The Norden Bombsight was a project to build a bombing mechanism that would allow one to “drop a bomb into a pickle barrel.” In practice, it worked flawlessly and the army spent $1.5 billion on it – in 1940s money!

Here, the thing: for it to work flawlessly, the plane had to travel at low speeds, in clear daylight.

And when bombers fly at low speeds in clear daylight, they get shot down.

For all intents and purposes it did not work for it’s stated purposes. And that’s my problem with things like dim mak and the like, they may work in theory – and I have serious reservations about that – but in practical usage, the return on time investment just doesn’t justify it.

And we only have about 27,000 days to invest. Personally, I’d rather invest it in the probable than the merely possible. But that’s just me.

Location: waiting for some workmen
Mood: irritated
Music: Not enough time for all That I want for you
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