Konrad Zuse

Konrad Zuse is a new name to me, picked up from twitter mentions by  @generuso and @rolyperera. Actually, like myself, an engineer rather than a scientist, but who apparently originally proposed a fundamentally information-based view of reality after considering causation from first principles. Apart from the fundamental causation and information aspects that recur here on … Continue reading “Konrad Zuse”

Teleology Without a God

Discounting the intellectual snobbery that this is about Dan Brown, as indeed the reviewer himself suggests, it is worth a read. The headline is: “Dan Brown’s New Novel Pushes Atheism and Endorses Intelligent Design … Wait …What?“ I’ve not digested the whole yet (and there are secondary references to follow-up) but my own position is … Continue reading “Teleology Without a God”

The Tensions Between Science and Psychology – recent bookmarks

A collection of interesting links I’ve had bookmarked for a while: Yaïr Pinto in Aeon: When you split the brain, do you split the person? The Divided Brain is an important topic to understand better, too easily dismissed amid misunderstood myths. Ben Medlock in Aeon: The body is the missing link for truly intelligent machines. … Continue reading “The Tensions Between Science and Psychology – recent bookmarks”

Why Fluid Dynamics is not boring?

A bookmarking post only. Interesting to me as an one-time fluid-dynamicist, and I’ve mentioned the parallels before between Navier-Stokes et al in Fluid Dynamics and more fundamental physics. Especially point-based (Boscovich), quantum-loop-based (Rovelli) and integrated-information (IIT). Just capturing the link here. “fluid dynamics, is surprisingly pivotal to understanding some of the most elementary constituents and … Continue reading “Why Fluid Dynamics is not boring?”

Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog

There was a time when I followed John Brockman’s Edge regularly, it was a great way to pick up relationships between living thinkers you already knew and admired and others you didn’t, from across unlimited intellectual fields. The great thing about the annual Edge Question is that apart from the open question, there is no … Continue reading “Hidden Concepts – Edge 2017 – Let’s play Connections instead of Bulldog”

Physics of Consciousness

I’ve been sitting on this Physics of Consciousness link for a while, without so far watching the video interviews, because of both the topic and the participants. I’m a bit sceptical I’ll hear anything newly convincing, but I will take a look. (Also worth linking because of the overall range of material on Robert Lawrence Kuhn’s “Closer … Continue reading “Physics of Consciousness”

Unpicking Confused Causation with Massimo Pigliucci

I have many times left hanging the idea that causation is seriously weird, if you get down to looking closely at what we really mean or try to explain how it works. “… important assumptions about time and causality at base — seriously weird concepts when you research beyond common sense — a recurring issue … Continue reading “Unpicking Confused Causation with Massimo Pigliucci”

Carlo Rovelli – A Fresh Spin on Fundamental Physics

Interesting to see today’s news on standardisation of units of measure, that time, distance and mass are now to be unified through the Caesium clock with application of the speed of light (c) and Planck’s constant (h). (Hat tip to Jim Al-Khalili on Twitter). Fascinating article in itself, however yet more evidence that the accepted standard … Continue reading “Carlo Rovelli – A Fresh Spin on Fundamental Physics”