Psybertron Asks

I’ve made made countless references to Maslow ever since I noticed that Pirsig‘s levels of “value” (absolute quality or goodness) appeared to mirror it and recently since Foucault seemed to reinforce this impression. I always warmed to Maslow since pre-MBA management training days so I thought I’d better check out how good my memory was [...]

The Apothecary’s Drawer. Interesting mixed culture / science / history / writing blog from Ray Girvan (Link via Seb) with main site home pages containing many interesting (and classified) links. Picked up a link from there to Kuro5hin – “Technology and Culture from the Trenches” a lo-noise bulletin board with democratic moderation. [Post Note - [...]

Finished Foucault – ultimately unsatisfactory despite 80% good content. Conclusions as incomprehensible as the penultimate chapter on Man. Did Foucault get tired towards the end, or his translator, or his editor (or was it just me) ? Discovered publishers note about the mysterious translation of the title – sure enough, the publisher suggested The Order [...]

Seb’s Open Reasearch. Another interesting blog – seen some time ago, now added to the sidebar. Picked-up this quote / link:The O’Reilly Network has posted a transcript of Lawrence Lessig’s keynote speech on copyright at the Open Source Convention in late July. His four theses:[Quote] + Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. + [...]

Stepford Citizen Syndrome. (From BuzzFlash via Adam Curry). Many a true word, but really an example of how “cultural rationalisation” manifests itself like some kind of evil conspiracy, yet each individual would probably claim – “but I’m different.” Argyris again. [Post Note - spookily my recorded impression of Perth, WA is Stepford Wives meets Bournemouth [...]

Cycorp – Dimensions of Context Space. Reference to Doug Lenat’s paper (via Seth). If one accepts “context” as the space in which information represented by relationships is organised and characterised, then this Cyc stuff has a lot in common with the EPISTLE work I’ve mentioned before. Also like EPISTLE Atomic Templates and Seth’s Mentographs, includes [...]

University of Western Ontario. (via Jorn) Linked on-line reading list for Philosophy of Information course.

Gustav Flaubert(via Jorn) His St Anthony was cited by Foucault as a Semantic Web.

Another milestone. Most are Google search hits, amazing number of searches for Jostein Gaarder (Sophie’s World) and Friedrich Durrenmatt (Die Physiker) – both of which figure in my references, but not as significant contributions to the main threads. Increasing number of recognisable regular visitors. Thanks peeps.[Thanks to gimbo too for the reciprocal sidebar link.][And thanks [...]

Seth’s WebLog. Promising blog from Seth Russell. I need to get more techie / practical with the XML / RDF stuff to be able to exploit some of these new trends. Mind you what was it I said about sticking to the theory ? [Thanks for the link BTW.]

“It’s like receiving a threat from a post-modernist gangster, who makes you an offer you can’t understand.” – Charlie Stross (via Jeff Vogel, via Jacob Haller, via “kibology”, via Jorn). [Link omitted intentionally. I've not ventured into kibology yet, whatever that is, but the time may yet come.] Seriously though, I re-read most of Joe [...]

It’s unlikely DNA / Marvin were thinking of a very small planet, therefore ….[planet] = [spatially large][brain] = [not a physical thing] / [not spatially inside Marvin's physical head][size] = [not in spatial dimensions]Makes you think – (a brain that is).

How not to get behind in the 21st century. Interesting summary from Leonid Ototsky of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (via Danny’s Blog) of technical directions in e-style information integration. Not surprisingly Leonid makes reference to his adopting the EPISTLE information model, as well as numerous references to his recently deceased inspiration – Stafford Beer. [...]

10 Reasons the Internet is a “Happy Accident”. By Dan Gillmor out of SiliconValley via Cape Science WebLog.[Must add Cape Science to the permanent links in the side-bar. - Already done !]

Struggled with the penultimate chapter of Foucault – He name drops every philosopher since 18C that I’ve heard of (except Wittgenstein), but I don’t get what this chapter is about – the concept of Man. Fortunately the final chapter on Human Sciences is much clearer – the balance between science and anthropology / behaviour / [...]

Everything Is Obsolete Except Ideas. (Forbes via Ron Lusk) [Quote] Standing in line can’t be improved upon is because it is all idea. There is literally no material to improve. [Unquote]Also Technology Past Its Prime

The Quotations Page (via Adam Curry)QuoteYou can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.Unquote, Plato

From NYT via Adam Curry. The 10 most elegant experimental demonstrations as voted by physicists. Chronologically …Eratosthenes’ measurement of the Earth’s circumference. (7th)Galileo’s objects falling with constant gravitational acceleration. (2nd)Galileo’s balls rolling down inclined planes also under gravity. (8th)Newton’s decomposition of sunlight with a prism. (4th)Cavendish’s weighing the Earth / measuring gravitational constant. (6th)Young’s interference [...]

Lies and Statistics. (From National Post via The Bottom of the Barrell). Frightening stats about rising “murder” rates being disguised by rising assault victim recovery rates in casualty / emergency rooms / paramedic services etc.

Almost finished Foucault’s The Order of Things. The powerful chapter on Labour, Life and Language attempts to build fundamental levels of existence based on processes of creation and change (as opposed to being and exchange) in contrast to models based on taxonomies of representation. Labour – Ricardo building fundamental value on Adam Smith, arriving at [...]

Bumped into Michael in the Pick – my first night there in weeks, probably his last in months, and when I mentioned I’d been to the Athabasca Tar Sands in Alberta the week before last, he revealed that his father had developed and exploited a radio / radar based probe for surveying tar sand deposits [...]