Post to the point from Euan Semple [quoting David Maister]. Post Note : Interestingly Dave Snowden comments twice encouraging proper publishing attempts.
Entries from March 2006
Should I Write a Book ?
0
March 27, 2006 at 8:51pm
by Psybertron
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End of Oil Dependency Myths
2
March 27, 2006 at 8:46pm
by Psybertron
A list of Amory Lovins’ myths, presented by Dave Pollard. I’m struck not by the oil dependency specifics, but by the genericity of the “rational” human behaviour myths. I think this is the same “autistic economics” story from Dave Snowden ?
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Crossroad Blues
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March 27, 2006 at 3:55pm
by Psybertron
Aparently that’s my Robert Johnson song – one of my favourites, along with Dust My Broom, I remember being performed by Scarecrow, mid to late 70′s, after the Clapton version … [via Rivets] Also from Rivets this link to high-rise skylines of the world. You’d have to like modern man-made skylines to appreciate it, but [...]
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The 10 / 12 Most Influential Books
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March 27, 2006 at 1:52pm
by Psybertron
Not sure whether Melvyn Bragg’s recent book, describing 10 (or is it 12) books that changed the world prompted Sam’s recent post – but the list of most important books is a meme that comes around. Sam’s are a personally significant collection, Melvyn had some clear criteria for influencing the world. Anyway Brian Walden reviews [...]
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Post-Autistic-Memetics
2
March 27, 2006 at 9:33am
by Psybertron
Or even plain old post-autistic-rationality. I keep using the “scientific” meme in scare quotes … the idea that being hyper-rational, fundamentally-objectivist … the meme of using entirely deterministic and reductionist scientific arguments and logical induction … cannot be the basis of a high quality explanation in all but the simplest “scientific” context. (Every debate of [...]
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Wisdom of LSD
1
March 24, 2006 at 12:10pm
by Psybertron
I was about to post a link to Sue Blackmore’s piece about Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday party, which she had published in the Times Higher Education Supplement, mainly to continue the ongoing psychedelics thread I have within Psybertron. I did post the link of course, but in re-reading it, I noticed her final paragraph is [...]
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Darwin (or Dawkins) @ the LSE
31
March 23, 2006 at 3:26pm
by Psybertron
The proceedings of the Darwin Day Talks “The Selfish Gene 30 Years on.” at LSE last week 16th March are now on-line on The Edge web-site. (I was in the air over China at the moment the tickets went on release, and by the time I landed they were all gone, though by the sound [...]
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Dawkins’ God
5
March 23, 2006 at 10:23am
by Psybertron
“You’re missing something Dawkins” has been a theme of mine for some time – see my 2003″Hyper-rationalism” review of “A Devil’s Chaplain”. Here, via a link from Alan Rayner mentioned in the previous post, a review by Martin Lockley of Alister McGrath’s “Dawkins’ God”. Dawkins’ postures, therefore, only revive rather trivial historical debates and create [...]
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Holey Communion
1
March 23, 2006 at 9:35am
by Psybertron
The title of an article by Alan Rayner (of Bath University) orginally published in Philosophica 73 (2004) 51-70, describing his forthcoming book … here an extract. At the heart of the book is a refreshing way of understanding the dynamic geometry of human and non-human nature, based on modern scientific evidence of the inextricability of [...]
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As the Archbishop said to the Grauniad
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March 21, 2006 at 8:44am
by Psybertron
Archbishop Rowan Williams weighs in against IDC being taught in schools as any kind of alternative to science, (and against any literal teaching of the bible generally it seems.) Good on him. [Thanks to Sam for the link.] Wisdom prevails. Talking of which “Friends of Wisdom“. And “Unhooked Thinking“.
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More Spam
0
March 20, 2006 at 3:39pm
by Psybertron
I see the clever ones seem to extract key word or two from the context of your blog, and auto-construct something like a sentence using them, plus some hyperlinked keyword(s) of their own. But why ?
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Flexible, Printed, Plastic Chips
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March 20, 2006 at 3:36pm
by Psybertron
I guess these plastic chips are a spin off from the same technology as the re-usable paper blogged earlier ?
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Strange Loops and Distributed Consciousness
7
March 20, 2006 at 2:07pm
by Psybertron
The following is the abstract from Douglas Hofstadter’s contribution to this year’s upcoming Science of Consciousness Conference, April 4th to 8th, Tucson 2006. (Followed by some other interesting abstracts.) (I had been kinda hoping I could be there, but it seems less and less likely as I approach my move to the US ironically.) Strange [...]
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And then there were 3, no 4
1
March 20, 2006 at 7:46am
by Psybertron
Another MoQ‘er Blogger hits the streets. Sam Norton – Elizaphanian Christian Activism Paul Turner – Twelve Links Analytic Buddhism and now … Matt Kundert – Pirsig Affliction Space for Quality (oh, and me.) (MoQ = Robert Pirsig‘s Metaphysics of Quality, see side-bar for links)
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Blog Comment Spamming
1
March 15, 2006 at 5:07pm
by Psybertron
Is it just me or has the rate of blog comment spamming risen recently ? I’m getting dozens daily at the moment. Why do they bother – does any blogger allow un-moderated comments onto their pages ? Amongst the blatant sex and drugs plugs, the worst (trickiest) kind are those that appeal to vanity. Automated, [...]
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All You Need is Love #3
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March 15, 2006 at 11:32am
by Psybertron
Is love all you need, or does money make the world go round ? Interesting post from Euan Semple, contrasting the “pathological” shareholder-value-making duty of business organisations, with the idea that love is the most important driver in any organisation. Like any of us taking this stuff seriously, he is forced to conclude with an [...]
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Those Darned Numbers Again
0
March 15, 2006 at 10:58am
by Psybertron
Yet more from Anecdote. A great Dilbert cartoon, about the artificiality of fitting numbers and rationality to strategic plans. Works on many levels. The “complexity” in the square root of the negative number, or simply the fact that the result is “imaginary”, and the strange recursion in the mobius strip timeline. Many a true word. [...]
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Data Needs Human Input ?
0
March 15, 2006 at 9:22am
by Psybertron
The “Data Rat” from David Pope, via Anecdote. Also from the guys at Anecdote, Two linked posts on building trust and the value of silence in narrative knowledge. And, a link to Malcolm Gladwell’s blog. Not really a fan of Gladwell, in the sense that I saw a lot of over-sensationalised unoriginality in his Tipping [...]
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Personal DNA
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March 14, 2006 at 4:25pm
by Psybertron
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Not as Daft as it Sounds
0
March 14, 2006 at 4:00pm
by Psybertron
Monitoring system behaviour by translating its functional patterns into music. [Also via Rivets]
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Post-Autistic Economics
1
March 14, 2006 at 3:35pm
by Psybertron
Can’t quite work out where the name “Post-Autistic Economics” comes from, but this is essentially about numbers being irrelevant in economics. Naturally I approve. [From AdBusters via Rivets] Post Note : Of course I remember now why the word “autistic” struck a chord – Dave Snowden’s quote from earlier … “The only humans who analyse [...]
