Butterflies and Wheels [via Ray Girvan] Butterflies and Wheels is “fighting fashionable nonsense” (particularly pseudoscience driven by political ideology). There’s currently a dig at cultural relativism and at the charge of elitism (is it elitist to strive for excellence, and why does no-one ever cry “elitism” over those given special treatment to foster their sporting [...]
Entries from March 2004
Butterflies and Wheels
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March 25, 2004 at 10:06am
by Psybertron
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Blogging in China
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March 20, 2004 at 2:53am
by Psybertron
This and the previous three posts blogged from the hotel broadband link in Aotou, People’s Republic of China. Like last time in January, the travel has given me reading time, and the hotel evenings blogging time. Fourth visit, so the local place names are beginning to stick – Dayawan, Anhui, Aotou, Danshui, Huiyang, Huizhou. Also [...]
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Synesthesia
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March 18, 2004 at 11:02pm
by Psybertron
Synthesia. A blog by Watford-based Julian Elve, not one I’d seen before. Looks interesting contentwise and he seems to have got himself organised catogory-wise using MT. Must return to that particular task soon. Has has a thread on Action Research (a la Argyris ?) which I must take a look at, and another on Pattern [...]
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The Tipping Point
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March 18, 2004 at 1:36pm
by Psybertron
Also just read Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, which by comparison with Capra is a crushing bore. Yes, certain small things can have disproportionate non-intuitive effects. Yes ideas spread like contagion. Yes it helps if the idea “sticks” and is transmitted to the next generation of communicators. Yes communication is more than words. Zero-tolerance. Look after [...]
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The Tao of Physics
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March 18, 2004 at 1:01pm
by Psybertron
1976 book by Frijtof Capra (with 1992 updated afterword). Written slightly after, but published slightly before, Michael Talbot’s Mysticism and the New Physics (Blogged earlier and originally read even earlier.) Excellent books both of them. Capra is a best-seller which has a surprisingly detailed description of state-of-the-art particle physics, together with a summary of the [...]
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Google losing it ?
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March 10, 2004 at 8:29am
by Psybertron
Had several people make comments recently about Google not being what it was, about how search results are swamped with disguised commercially sponsored links ? Can’t see it myself. As a blogger, I personally find Google amazing in the speed and depth of indexing, including my own pages – as if by magic, with no [...]
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Rorty on the Beeb
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March 10, 2004 at 8:18am
by Psybertron
Rorty on the Beeb – Grauniad interview with Rorty about the Beeb4 program.e-Philosopher – a site I’ve not seen before.
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Spiral Model for Knowledge Acquisition
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March 9, 2004 at 3:02pm
by Psybertron
Spiral Model for Knowledge Acquisition. “Spiral” metaphor contrasted with “Waterfall” metaphor. Iterative vs Sequential. Right first time is wrong (sets wrong expectation), lots of parallel working and recycle is better. (IBM “Rational” approach for managing S/W development uses this concept if not the same metaphor.) No brainer, common sense. [Here in a psychology context too.] [...]
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ZMM for Teaching Lawyers and Pilots
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March 5, 2004 at 12:41pm
by Psybertron
ZMM for Teaching Lawyers and Pilots. Interesting page from J R Elkins’ West Virginia Univ “Moral Philosophy for Lawyers” course material, with a very positive view of Pirsig‘s ZMM.
Logical Positivism is a Meme
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March 5, 2004 at 9:52am
by Psybertron
And memes are self-reinforcing. Talk about blindingly obvious. It’s my Catch-22. How do you argue rationally against scientific fundamentalism / logical positivism ? I’ve read Dawkins, though I’ve still never read “The Meme Machine”, but now I’ve just read Susan Blackmore’s “Waking from the Meme Dream“. Stong Zen thread here – clearing the mind of [...]
Gurteen – Knowledge – Cynefin – Complexity
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March 4, 2004 at 7:42pm
by Psybertron
Where to start – I have 12 pages of notes from David Gurteen’s 3rd Knowledge Management Conference in London yesterday 3rd March 2004. (Matt Mower has blogged notes too.) The main speakers were David Snowden (IBM / Cynefin) and various advocates and users of the Cynefin framework – Martyn Laycock, Bruce Cronin, Les Johnson, Anabelle [...]
Robot Wisdom Back On-Line
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March 4, 2004 at 6:17pm
by Psybertron
Robot Wisdom Back On-Line. Hooray … Jorn still does not yet seem to be posting in public anywhere, but his material (home pages and blog) are all back on line in the state they were on 1st October 2003. Great news given that I am slowly getting to grips with James Joyce’s Ulysses, is that [...]
