Psybertron Asks

Really grown on me from this year’s “This is PiL” release. I don’t think I even mentioned it making any particular impression when I listed the setlist from Newcastle ? (Has the making of a future crowd-pleaser, I said in fact.) When I try to explain to people why PiL are so worth seeing, some [...]

And Excellent RSA (Royal Society of Arts and … ) “RSAnimation” of a lecture by Iain McGilchrist. (Hat tip to David Morey on Facebook for the link.) Blogged several references to reading McGilchrist’s “The Master and his Emissary” but never wrote a complete review in one post – It so knocked me out, it led [...]

Dave Gurteen has a stream of daily quotes on KM subjects, and this one from Dave Snowden always catches my eye when it comes round. “The way we know is not the way we report what we know.” Dave Snowden That is so true, and pretty fundamental to the Psybertron agenda “What, why and how [...]

Good piece by Mark Lewis in Time. Yes, in terms of the individual (multiple) crime, the victims and Norway’s liberal justice system the sentencing is right and safe. If he doesn’t “reform” his view of events, or get terminated by an insider, he’s there for life. The curtailment of his liberties – imprisoned with limited [...]

Mark Lewis tweets the accepted refrain – accepted in the sense that the existing legal situation appears to demand this choice. But no reason the judiciary shouldn’t do the right thing ? Mad or bad: #breivik will be sentenced tomorrow. He wants prison. Prosecution wants compulsory mental healthcare Right thing is – he’s guilty (culpable, responsible, [...]

Honour among thieves – and you don’t steal innocent young lives. Bring me the head of Anders Breivik – the subject is London gangster Danny Wollard (who?). Technically insane or not, Breivik is guilty / responsible, and he’ll need solitary confinement if he expects, or we expect him, to live on the inside. Hat tip [...]

BBC Magazine piece on the recent US poll on religious belief comprising (mainly) two comments by religious conservative Ron Dreher and moderate atheist David Dickerson. I’m constantly baffled that sexual orientation and marriage is a central issue on both sides – surely it takes all sorts, and normal is a numbers game that needn’t be [...]

Paul Ryan genuinely fell out of love with Rand …. and that comes with age. “Atlas Shrugged was a very exciting book to read when you’re young but then you grow up …. she massages the egos of juveniles.” Same message as the last mention.

Terrible flirts both of them, but great to see the chautauqua tradition continue. Humans having intelligent conversation that educates. Larry is moved to say: Most things humans have written over the ages (mythological or otherwise) contain some “wisdom” …. Science isn’t wisdom – just one of the raw materials. Wow. He’s good. A chameleon who [...]

Disappointed in finishing Krauss’ “A Universe From Nothing”. He makes some good points (see previous post) but nothing entirely new – quantum fluctuations, big bang, matter asymmetry, inflation, flatness, cosmological constant, CMBR distribution – and most of the newer stuff is very speculative. If this is new to you then he is a strongly recommended [...]

I’m reading “A Universe From Nothing” following this post, and am 80% through already. Some quick notes summarising significant points he makes: Anthropic principles do warrant serious scientific consideration. (Despite the various “fine-tuning” questions, no updated mention of the CMBR correlation with earth’s orbit.) String theory(ies) are overblown in public consciousness well beyond their scientific [...]

Apologies for the headline, but since I tend to use Dawkins as my prime example of the arrogant scientist who doesn’t get the value anything other than science (and objective / deterministic logic), but by way of balance, this conversation with Larry Krauss from February this year, has some excellent content. It does of course still [...]

Mentioned earlier enjoying the output of Andy Martin – surfer, Cambridge languages don, writer, film-maker. Tremendous personally-engaging, witty style whatever the topic. His latest book is “Sartre vs Camus – The Boxer and the Goalkeeper (aka Philosophy Fight Club)” The premise of the book is typically personal – read the 5 minute memoir – extracted [...]

Fascinating piece from Errol Morris on NYT Opinionator today. Picked-up from a cross hit on Psybertron for David Deutsch. One of his quotes is used as an example, but in fact it is tangential to the subject of the article – why the experienced quality, value and truth in a text depends on the font [...]

This is surreal and ironic on many levels. Sam is probably my second favourite amongst the four horsemen, a real moral philosopher. No prize for guessing my least favourite, but it was he who tweeted the link picked-up by Ricky. (Dan, Sam, Hitch and the Dawk in that order in case you’re interested.) Fact : [...]

Says Ricky – “Jesus Christ !! – and I’m an atheist.” and later when comparing the death penalty with abortion, Jerry says, “so you can arrange these things to suit – when you’re wealthy ?” Comedians in Cars, getting Coffee.

Here we go again. BHA and its negative campaigning. Removal of Bishops from the Lords this time. The second (revising / conservative) chamber needs a cultural heritage component and a constituency representation component that is separate from “popular voting”, and – being political  - reflecting human psychology separate from “scientific” fact. When the churches have [...]

No time for review now, but thanks to David Morey for the link to this piece including Hillary Lawson. Post Review: Contrary to the blurb, Giles Fraser (the theologian) is not really against the three metaphysicians, he’s just against Plato’s narrow metaphysics. Join the very large club.  Not listened to the “particle physics” section yet, [...]

A recurring theme, and target in the various naive God vs Science debates, I last mentioned it here, but it’s just not an issue for this atheist /scientist. It’s like this: We are our minds; “our” minds are concentrated in our brains but distributed throughout “our” bodily electro-chemical systems; the content and consciousness of our minds [...]