Psybertron Asks

Still working my way through Searle, but reading a 1952 booklet of essays by William Hubben on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky and Kafka. “Easily the most straightforward and easily understandable introduction to existentialism” says William Barrett (author of Irrational Man 1958, covering pretty much the same subjects). Kierkegaard said … “Life must be understood backwards, but [...]

I’ve now read about 40% of Searle’s “Mind”. For most of the first third he is outlining Philosophy of Mind issues, mainly stemming from Descartes (and other disasters, as he puts it). He outlines the classic mind / matter problems, the standard refutations, and his arguments against the refutations and alternatives. I found myself screaming [...]

I’ve just started reading John Searle’s latest, “Mind – A Brief Introduction”.Interestingly, David Chalmers (see two posts earlier) is credited as a reviewer and also appears in the bibliography. So far I’ve just done the 7 pages of introduction, and already getting that impatient “Oh fer chris’sakes get on with it” feeling – but hang [...]

BBC News story includes link to 2005 Bloggies voting page. Loads there I don’t know, so I’m not sure I’ll vote – but it is a source of new links.

When I saw this picture it said something.(Susan Blackmore and David Chalmers, picture courtesy of David’s archives on the conferences of the Centre for Consciousness Studies, Tuscon, Arizona. That centre is currently run by Stuart Hameroff. David Chalmers, the original director, is back in Canberra, running the ANU Centre for Consciousness.) Interesting review of this [...]

I’ve had an angle for some time (since before the manifesto) that adding technology to a system that is not already reasonably automatic, almost invariably makes matters worse. Introduction of new IT systems for example bring new process constraints whose downside may often outweigh the value of the system itself, since the value of ad-hoc [...]

Well maybe not. I picked-up on this paper on the “Technosophy” site of Terry Alden’s, because of a search hit on the 22 in my Catch-22, only to find a whole culture of synchronicity around the number 22 (and 23 ?). Anyway, some of it is probably too mystic and new age, but the particular [...]

…. were the words of Robert Kilroy-Silk leaving the UK Independence Party yesterday. Don’t know why I blogged that, since I sympathise with neither he nor UKIP, but it’s a week or two since I blogged and I had to start somewhere … Been a tough couple of weeks, not least because I had another [...]

How to give people MP3 on your blog. [via Udell's InfoWorld]

… and feed them to the Lesbians, went the line in “Jerry Springer – The Opera” screened on BBC2 last night. The tap dancing Ku Klux Klan probably took the biscuit in surreality though, that or the particular chorus line comprising entirely the c-word. Obviously the humour is at the live alternative comedian level of [...]

Carly Fiorina, CTO of HP says “The digital revolution is focused on letting people tell and share their own stories” [At Las Vegas CES, via BBC] Obvious, but the telling point is the word “stories” – it’s not about data and information, even multi-media, it’s about stories. Part of the grand narrative view.

Some discussion on the MoQ Discussion Board about the wonder of maths underlying basic (quantum) physics and hence life, the universe and evrything else. Picked up this link to Ray Girvan (Apothecary’s Drawer), on the wonder of maths (in real life) as an antidote to Billy Connolly’s rant about “f**ing algebra”. Suspect his valid point [...]

Some speculation, based on aparent coincidences concerning a series of earthquakes, whale beachings and oil industry seismic exploration around the Australian tectonic plate, that suggests the devastating earthquake and tsunami may not have been entirely natural. [Andrew Limburg of Independent Media TV via Robin Good]. Speculation only, but makes you think. [Robin Good's (Luigi Canali [...]

Last summarised here. I see the BBC is now reporting that “The UN World Food Programme says it believes hundreds of Burmese fisherman died in the tsunami, unaccounted for in official government figures”

Recurring theme, here picked up from “Tripzine” by Corpus MMothra. One quote relevant to the Pirsig story [Timeline, 1960] – [Quote] I had experienced with psilocybin mushrooms, or LSD. [DXM] was more like, “Here it is, this is the truth, do whatever you want with it”. [Unquote] The full article ends with this [editor's note: [...]

Or was it a case of synchronicity ? You may recall I linked to Mark Richardson earlier in summer 2004, when he was re-tracing Robert Pirsig‘s “ZMM” motorcycle trip from Minnesota to California as part of researching a book he is writing. Using his column in the Toronto Star, he’s just posted an uplifting little [...]

Article by Howard Campbell at Twisp, brought to my attention by Ben Mack.

I’ve been using G-Mail as my main e-mail tool for a month or so.It’s still beta but I’ve not had a single hitch – if Google can’t make it scale no-one can – and they’re offering a free Gig of mailbox space – it’s web-mail with POP3 capability and a neat threading interface – I [...]

Another article at Adbusters, taken from New York magazine. Good message – capitalism & corporations are not intrinsically wrong per se, it’s the global corporate “culture” that is stultefying. The objective bottom-line value systems on which such coporations operate are so narrow (even if they “account” for environmental issues), that the quality is all “static”, [...]

Reminded by Matt Bartlett of this poem (that I’d forgotten was Shelley !) that made a big impression on me at school. Also picked-up on this Glen Colquhoun Link. Also via Matt, this Vision of Christian Education – Our Cultural Context (1.7 Meg PDF link) I like the contrasting Modernist and Post-Modernist “Apostle’s Creeds” that [...]

Could this take off into wider public awareness ? Here’s hoping. This is one of Adbuster.Org’s Biggest Ideas for 2005 – called Clarity of Mind. Brought to my attention by David Hodgson [blogged here at Digital Falcon], via contact with Reed Burkhart. Also from contact with Rudy van Stratum, links to the work of the [...]