Author: Psybertron

Progress via Disruptive Technologies – From Hugh Blackmer, Science Librarian, Washington & Lee Uni. [via Seb] Particularly on the subject of colaborative web tools, but on the message of emergence and change – mainly technology driven – usually hingeing on chaos at disruptive cusps in development. See my dissertation on business change.

Interesting and related story today on BBC Radio 4, about business cycles in large successful family run businesses, being driven by the three generations rule. Very much my view of Kondratiev in economic cycles (Techno-Economic Paradigms) generally – One generation to learn & grow – One to succeed & exploit – One to lose-focus & fall prey to the next disruptive influence. 80 Year knowledge cycles are predictable. Is the cycle of change really faster in the e-memes age ? I doubt it – still human limited – unless artificial knowledge can really supplement the rate of human knowledge transfer, evolution and emergence.

Conversational Terrorism [via Seb] For example, as the same quote used by Seb, sums it up …
[Quote] “Think vs. Feel” Any person will likely be off-center of the analytical / emotive spectrum in any heated exchange. By pointing out which side the other person is on, (either side will do) he/she is obliged to defend his/her temperament instead of the case at hand. Either
(1) “Your cold, analytical approach to this issue doesn’t take into account the human element.”, or
(2) “Your emotional involvement with this issue obscures your ability to see things objectively.” [Unquote]

Social science at 190mph. Analysis of Nascar behaviour from First Monday. [via Jorn]
Earlier blog on Netherlands road-safety behaviour via eye-contact in the absence of road markings / signs etc.

P2P Marches On – From The Register. [via Jorn]

Language Timothy ! (II) – Terry Jones speaking about the appalling collateral damage already being inflicted on the English language.
[via Jorn] [via Common Dreams] [via UK Guardian] [Language Timothy !]

Kurzweil on Wolfram – Blogged a few days ago on the Ray Kurzweil comments and discussions from last year on Wolfram’s ANKOS. A long set of discussion threads now exist on this work. First off here are some Kurzweil / Wolfram quotes …

Kurzweil [Quote] Personally, I find Wolfram’s enthusiasm for his own ideas refreshing. I am reminded of a comment made by the Buddhist teacher Guru Amrit Desai, when he looked out of his car window and saw that he was in the midst of a gang of Hell’s Angels. After studying them in great detail for a long while, he finally exclaimed, “They really love their motorcycles.” [Unquote] And on the subject of how progress arises from catastrophe.

Wolfram [Quote] From such a repetitive and deterministic process [CA – Cellular Automata], one would expect repetitive and predictable behavior ….. Whenever a phenomenon is encountered that seems complex it is taken almost for granted that the phenomenon must be the result of some underlying mechanism that is itself complex. But my discovery [ WTF !!?!?! ] that simple programs can produce great complexity makes it clear that this is not in fact correct. [Unquote] But surely this is well known chaos, complexity and fractal stuff as, of course, Kurzweil proceeds to comment. Kurzweil’s basic conclusion is that Wolframs CA’s cannot possibly drive all natural behaviours mechanistically without the kind of complexity generated by evolutionary drives and mechanisms. I’d have to agree, interesting, stimulating discussion, valid thoughts, but not new, and certainly not ANKOS nor Life the Universe and Everything.

Kurzweil’s site also hosts many thoughtful “MindExchange” threads, prompted by his article. See this thread with Karun Philip.

Karun Philip [Quote] creative conjecture procedes solely by a process of analogy …. Syllogism itself is an analogy to causality (whether such causality is real or apparent is unimportant) [Unquote] Analogy and metaphor again. [Quote] AI, in my opinion, is useless, practically speaking. We might as well hire someone from China [Unquote] Is this a deliberate Chinese Room allusion ? And for an encore his book Zen and the Art of Funk Capitalism [Quote] …. purports to tell the story of what is true of the universe in which we live. If we are to tell the story of what is true, we must then begin with an investigation of what constitutes valid knowledge and what does not. Indeed, what do we mean by the word knowledge ? (epistemology) …. ends with a proposal that I claim will largely get rid of extreme global poverty …. giving people the knowledge and philosophy of how to maximize the chance of building a successful small business. [Unquote] I’m all for high-minded aims. Mine are merely to improve business organisational decision making. Intriguing stuff. K-Capital is Karun Philip’s business venture.

I’d appreciate any feedback from anyone concerning my ARCHIVES link (In the left side panel immediately above the “Powered by Blogger Pro” button. I’m, still publishing archives using the Phil Ringnalda script, but it seems to be invisible to my new Windows XP client. Please use the feedback link to report what you see / how it works from your end.

Frank Ramsey – Brother of the Archbishop Lord Michael Ramsey and son of A.S Ramsey (Mathematics, Vice-Master Magdelene, Cambs), died in 1930, aged just 26. [Cambs links broken – temporary here, and here.] Get’s a mention in Wittgenstein’s Poker as the “precociously brilliant mathematician” I notice, but I had not recognised his contribution to changing the thinking of Maynard-Keynes and Wittgenstein (post-Tractatus) until I read this. Hugh Mellor’s transcript of his 25 year old BBC radio program about Ramsey. [Quote] The final words of the Tractatus, for example – ‘Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent’ in the original English translation – positively reek of profundity. Whereas Ramsey’s ‘What we can’t say we can’t say, and we can’t whistle it either’ (p. 146) sounds much less impressive, although in fact it sums up a serious objection to the Tractatus, whose approach Ramsey was, incidentally, influential in persuading Wittgenstein to abandon.[Unquote]

On truth [Quote] “It is true that Caesar was murdered” means no more than “Caesar was murdered”. The real question is what it is to believe that Caesar was murdered – as opposed on the one hand to hoping, fearing or having some other attitude to Caesar’s murder, and on the other hand to having a belief about something else. If we can answer those questions we shall thereby also, Ramsey claimed, “have solved the problem of truth”[Unquote] Mentions also that Ramsey knew of C.S.Pierce, and he is compared to Quine – the line to Dennett is apparent ?

On deferred gratification [Quote] as Keynes remarked …. even a non-economist like me can appreciate Ramsey’s use, for the ideal state in which all possible enjoyment can be had now, so that there’s no need to save anything, of the technical term ‘bliss’! It isn’t only in economics that one wishes writers could more often be so apt and witty in their choice of words.[Unquote]

On binary choice [Quote] The adherents of two [opposing] theories could quite well dispute, although neither affirmed anything the other denied. [Unquote].

Quote from the Archbishop about his militant atheist brother [Quote] he was aware of mysticism as a kind of phenomenon worth studying empirically [Unquote]. A mind worth investigating methinks. The parallels in maths / economics / game theory with John Nash (A Beautiful Mind) are striking too.

Spooky photograph of Ramsey atop Red Pike in the English Lakes – a spot on which I’ve stood myself, possibly even been photographed.