Psybertron Asks

If this were adults rather than children perhaps the “piss-up in a brewery” metaphor might be more apt, but I love the dead-pan delivery of the choices in planning a childrens party from Dave Snowden at Cognitive Edge. I saw Dave do this a few years ago, so it’s good to have the video to [...]

Audience participation for conference speakers ? The common power of the pentatonic scale demonstrated by Bobby McFerrin at the World Science Festival. After rehearsing just two notes the entire audience is spot on the third – with absolutely no warning of where he’s going next, up or down. And it continues eventually to the tonic [...]

Two ironic points struck me at last might’s Muse gig at Oslo Spektrum. Excellent performance by Matt, Dom and Chris as we have come to expect, and performance is the word. (1) as Muse repertoire grows, the new stuff slots in with the old quite seamlessly, even though it clearly becomes impossible to experience all [...]

Interesting edition of Thinking Allowed. Laurie’s newsletter about forgetfulness focussed light-heartedly on the aging process of finding it harder to remember names and faces. In fact the subject matter is more about cultural change and the evolution of greater difficulty in remembering generally – a book by Paul Connerton. Not simply displacement by overload in [...]

Followed a series of links from Johnnie Moore (on more reflective, indirect approach to “problem solving” when the situation is complex and the “problem” itself not at all clear – reminded me of Terry Eagleton’s “C-Word” reaction to the macho “can do” mentality). Peter Block …  we have a deeply held belief that the way [...]

Something I didn’t know. (Testing the LinkedIn integration too incidentally.)

No mention of Libet here (?) and not had a chance to digest, but British Psychological Society – Research Digest article looks interesting. Via Sue Blackmore.

Prompted partly by “And Another Thing” the latest (No.6) in the HitchHiker’s Guide being published, and partly by wanting to remind myself what DNA would really think of Dawkins, I’ve been re-reading the first five parts of the trilogy. OK, so the film could not do justice to the the constant stream of verbal, philosophically [...]

Great shots – that winning view of the Old Man of Storr is one of my favourite locations. Must have a few shots of that myself – nothing to compare of course. [Post Note - More prize-winning wildlife pictures in 2009 (and side-bar links to 2005 / 6 / 7 / 8 ]

A true liberal and a humanist – nothing wishy-washy about Sir Ludovic Kennedy. “Looked like he was just helping out on his way to his club.” Appearances can be deceptive.

Not news, but I wanted to capture this 2006 Independent review of Dan Dennett’s “Breaking the Spell – Religion as a Natural Phenomenon.” As a fan of Dennett it was useful to capture a review that made the distance between Dennett and Dawkins clear. OK so Dennett also falls into using the term “scientific” to [...]

Working title. A common enough turn of phrase, “Hubris Humbled“, but not so far the title of any publication that I can see. Takes me back to Quinn and Cameron : “the buzzing, booming confusion of paradox …. …. no matter how strongly our logical arrogance tries to convince us otherwise.”

Since I see most problems as “evolutionary psychology” at root, you’ll not be surprised that I see a solution looking something like “cultural psychotherapy”, though the jury is still out on how to adminster the treatment. It was Alastair McIntosh in “Hell and High Water” (Chap 9) that prescribed “cultural psychotherapy” quoted here by Rowan [...]

Wonders may never cease with Windows 7 ?

There’s no such thing as a non-self-organising system, only people deluded that they are organising it. Johnnie Moore on Harrison Owen, via Euan Semple.

Only became aware of Imogen Heap recently when I saw a recording of her doing “Coulda Had Religion / Rollin And Tumblin” with Jeff Beck at Ronnie Scotts. Seems, like Stevie Lang, she’s the anonymous female session voice behind so many commercial recordings ? I was intending to check her (and Tal Wilkenfeld) out when I [...]

Nice story in the NYT on the Higgs Boson and other Large Hadron Collider myths. “… a funny thing that could make us to believe in the theory.” “… craziness has a fine history in a physics …” “We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it [...]

Nice. via Rivets.

With a few days of enforced rest, and no new unread books left, I’ve been dipping into an odd mix of earlier attempts – Dante’s Inferno, Hitchhiker Trilogy, Heisenberg, Cluetrain Manifesto to name a few. Spurred by the latter no doubt, I checked out what Dave Weinberger is blogging these days : As we come [...]

Sue Blackmore’s recent experience of evening classes.

In no particular order, just to share the passion and power of expression. The idea …. that Islamic radicals are envious of western freedoms is about as convincing as the suggestion that they are secretly hankering to sit in cafes smoking dope and reading Gilles Deleuze. A small cabal of dogmatists occupied the white house [...]