free variable

Long-time readers may remember my favorite party game, “Whack-an-enthymeme”. The producers of “Who wants to be a millionaire?” (one of my least-favorite game shows) apparently have decided to let us play my game at home while playing their game at home. By felicitous coincidence, I managed to notice an opportunity for WaE on the TV and snap a picture:

It’s a real pity for would-be slave owners that the Emancipation Proclamation is merely a “dead document”, robbed of its opportunity to evolve and fixed in time with the precise meaning Lincoln intended. However, the absence of other “living documents” only makes the Constitution all the more remarkable. Indeed, I wish I could find the exact incantation that the Framers used to animate the Constitution — if I could write some technical papers with “meaning that [could] evolve over time”, I could really stay on top of my field!