What, Why & How do we Know ?
R.E.S.P.E.C.T is the only rule – Good Faith and Honest Intentions. (Once again for the hard of hearing, the ONLY RULE of engagement is good faith and respect for the engagement.) Rule #1 RESPECT – Understand & Question before Disagree & Criticize. Rule #2 RESPECT – No ad hominem attacks on the Individual or their Tribe. Rule … Continue reading “Rules of Rhetorical Engagement”
In the spirit of “long-read” here is a long-watch (1hr 40mins). So far I’ve only watched the first few minutes (with false start *) … but it bodes well. (* Missing start available here.) Firstly, Rubin makes it clear in his “no rules” facilitation that this is about people talking to each other, himself included at … Continue reading “A Long Watch – Proper Dialogue?”
I’ve been pretty sceptical about AI hype going back a decade or so when Kurzweil coined Transhumanism beyond the Singularity where artificial computer intelligence overtakes real human capabilities. Here my 2010 take on the 2009 Singularity Summit, where one of my heroes, Hofstadter, and others were also sceptical about Kurzweil’s take. In fact there are many … Continue reading “Pre & Post Humanism in Dan Brown’s “Origin””
A running theme throughout Psybertron is the reality of conscious mind and its consequences in the real world. That’s partly because explantory understanding of our understanding and of our decision-making is my main research focus and partly because – probably not coincidentally – it’s also a prime (but not the only) example where politicised scientific dogma … Continue reading “Altered States of Consciousness”
Vaguely (subconscious irony) aware of David Gray’s upcoming Liminal Thinking publication, and reminded today by a Facebook post from Johnnie Moore (which itself has a hat tip to Jon Husband) that set me thinking – a riff linking some thinking, rather than any deep reading of the references (yet). Johnnie’s trigger was “Tyranny of the explicit” which … Continue reading “X-Plane – the Liminal Layer”
This post primarily about Al MacIntyre (and its comment thread) have been important several times, in joining up to both philosophy of consciousness and neuroscience topics. A re-read to day, thanks to a recorded hit means I notice some additional dots to join up. The philosophical collections on consciousness in the previous post but one, … Continue reading “Joining up more dots”
Interesting piece in the Grauniad today by Karen O’Donnell (a student of Prof Francesca), particularly interesting for the (male) responses in the comment thread. At the outset, I should say I’ve no idea why it is cast as a response to (the media myths of) the Jeremy Hunt debacle, other than the Grauniad audience-attention-grabbing motive, … Continue reading “The Objectivity Fetish”
Had an interesting evening Thursday, listening to Rupert Sheldrake (again) at Theos, the Christian religious think-tank (for the first time), and having the opportunity to question and talk with him and with other Theos members. Also acquired a copy of Nick Spencer’s “Atheists, the Origin of the Species“; more on which later. [Post Note : Full … Continue reading “Atheists, the Origin of the Species #TheosSheldrake @Theosthinktank”