Had an exchange with David Morey today on MoQ.Discuss, on non-simple mechanisms contributing to evolution, prompted by the recent “In Our Time” edition on “altruism” involving Dawkins and Dupre, and we got into Systems Engineering approaches to evolution … By coincidence, stumbled across this interesting post from Matt Wyndham (who looks like he hasn’t posted [...]
Entries from November 2006
Designed Evolution
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November 29, 2006 at 3:56am
by Psybertron
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Gotcha
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November 29, 2006 at 3:03am
by Psybertron
A post by Sam from 2005, summarising the MoQ. Just capturing this link so I don’t lose it. Worth building on methinks. [Totally irrelevant, but the 1991 film "Riff Raff" playing on the Sundance channel in the background here in Alabama, and it's got subtitles for the Geordie, Scouse, Glaswegian and Cockney accents. Brilliant.]
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Productive Time Management
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November 28, 2006 at 1:52am
by Psybertron
Great little piece of Bad Language from Matthew Stibbe (via Matt Bartlett) with some useful and witty hints on writing to a deadline. I need all the help I can get. Actualy Matt (Bartlett) has a great collection of links for November. Spookily, Anecdote have a time management piece this month too. Draw’s on David Allen’s [...]
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Wittgenstein Disappointment
16
November 27, 2006 at 4:20am
by Psybertron
Instead of reading David Morey’s novel (which I had with me on our trip to the Gulf Coast over the Thanksgiving holiday) I finished Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and got about half-way through “Philosophical Investigations”. The latter so far just seems to continue casting doubt on the science (logic) of natural language, and of course logic [...]
Pirsig Guardian Interview
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November 19, 2006 at 7:47pm
by Psybertron
Another interview promoting the re-publishing of Lila, pointed out by Ant and linked by Horse. Actually a very sympathetic interview of the man by Tim Adams who recalls reading Zen and the Art at the age of 14. Lots of anecdotal recalls of biographical (and very personal) events behind the two books, including some worth [...]
Community of Emergence
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November 12, 2006 at 2:06pm
by Psybertron
Brian Eno speaking on BBC Radio 3, at Hope University, Liverpool Future City of Culture “Free Thinking” series. Nothing new in terms of this blog, but lots of good material, worth a listen. Darwinian optimism. “Scenius” the genius of “the scene” – everyone is smarter than anyone. Emergence from simplicity. Art and politcs. Power of [...]
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The Stern Warning
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November 4, 2006 at 9:14pm
by Psybertron
Can’t believe I let the Stern Report and the press response go by without comment. I guess I had the BBC links in my side-bar at all times, so I was following events there. This link at Know Your Place (via Sam) is as good an entry point as any. The interesting thing, given agreement that this [...]
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An Atheist Christmas
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November 4, 2006 at 5:28pm
by Psybertron
Excellent edition of The Edge NEwsletter, includes not only Dan Dennett, recovering from an acute heart condition, and Evolutionary Morality from Nick Wade of the NYT, but also last weekend’s Observer piece by their religious correspondent Jamie Doward, reviewing the three popular science books lined up against God in the best seller charts as we run [...]
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Requiem for an Ant
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November 3, 2006 at 11:13pm
by Psybertron
Nothing to lose but an ideology. Brilliant via Rivets yet again. Some more great Weird Al Jankovic spoofs on YouTube too.
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Weinberg’s Second Law
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November 3, 2006 at 10:26pm
by Psybertron
Not heard this one before, but as an engineer in the s/w business it rings true. “If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.” – Weinberg’s Second Law Via TCL via Rivets. Guessing Steve Weinberg, but I don’t know, must check. (Gerry (Gerald) Weinberg [...]
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The DeLorean Effect
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November 3, 2006 at 5:13pm
by Psybertron
Interesting post from Anecdote about peer pressure influencing moral decisions. I first noted this 15 years go when I read DeLorean’s (auto)-biography. The paraphrased quote of his I keep dredging up is “Committees of moral men make immoral decisions”. Nils Brunsson has this well documented as “Management Hypocrisy” Interstingly another recurring memory on that score, [...]
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Our Tune
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November 2, 2006 at 3:58am
by Psybertron
Not the kind of stuff I usually expect to find at The Apothecary’s Drawer, but it looks like Ray Girvan has found YouTube too. This takes me back to the jukebox in the Fisherman’s Arms in Scalloway, when Sylvia and I first met back in 1979. Don’t think I’ve ever seen the video before. Great [...]
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Post Rationalisation
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November 2, 2006 at 3:50am
by Psybertron
Just a snippet to store away, since I’m not really up on Hume yet. Hume’s metaethics … his emotivist stance on the nature of moral judgment and … the assertion of rationality as part of that process is only an ad hoc attempt to somehow “independently” justify the moral conclusions we’ve already reached. A recurring theme, but the [...]
The Atheist and the Archbishop
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November 1, 2006 at 4:47am
by Psybertron
As a confirmed atheist, I was about to do some research on the coincidences of atheist philosophers converting to catholicism in later life (Wittgenstein ? McLuhan ? and a couple of others ?), basically wondering if there was an intellectual elitst attraction with the hierarchy in said church. That’ll have to wait. I stumbled across the [...]
