What, Why & How do we Know ?
Just a hold that thought link. Prompted by another link from Thinking Meat to a paper at PhysOrg.com on the origins of life. The one thing it sparked was this increasing / decreasing entropy paradox. Many people talk of life (and intelligence) as a reversal of the inexorable entropy gradient – creating order out of disorder. … Continue reading “Make Yourself Small Enough”
As promised herwith a few pointers to those items of interest in answers to the 2009 Edge Question. Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions. THE TORONTO STAR Sue Blackmore – predictably, when some other “artificial” technological meme replicator becomes … Continue reading “What Will Change Everything ?”
In the previous post – more on the interminable God vs Science saga – I concluded with a reference to Chicago. Firstly, the reason I was browsing Mary Hrovat’s Thinking Meat was because I noticed she’d blogged an initial look at this year’s Edge question, which I’d not done yet, but she already concluded as I have … Continue reading “Chicago on the Edge”
This New Scientist article on the Intelligent Design crowd reinforcing the dualism of mind stuff distinct from material stuff, as part of a theism vs Darwinism debate passed me by in my recent move a couple of months ago. I’m pretty clearly a physicalist, a non-reductive materialist … both material-stuff and meaning-stuff arising from the … Continue reading “Who Built The Simulation ?”
Mentioned to Island in the comment thread about the Multiverse below, the problem that otherwise credible stories in physics are accompanied by mathematical theory near incomprehensible to laymen such as myself. I had this feeling previously when trying to understand the “Dirac Nilpotent Rewrite” behind the Rowlands and Diaz work in quantum information theory. Reminded … Continue reading “Maths Leaves Me Trailing”
Had one of those transatlantic (twelve hours of sunset) opportunities to get a bit of reading in last week, a week in Boston. (Incidentally encountered Steven Pinker in the hotel bar, though left him undisturbed deep in conversation with another, having just explained he was my second favourite evolutionary psychology / linguistic philosopher, after Dan … Continue reading “So It Goes … dot dot dot”
A “chain-letter” post from Sam at Elizaphanian (he calls ’em memes – yuk!) Q1. How would you define “atheism”? Rev Sam – The denial of theism. Psybertron – Theism cannot be denied, it’s a fact of life. Atheism is a label use by theists for those who don’t share the same theistic basis of belief. … Continue reading “More on Theism vs Atheism”
Several different threads here. All mentioned before – reading Sam Harris “End of Faith” itself, a discussion thread on MoQ.Discuss with End of Faith title and several spin-off threads, and a discussion thread on Chairman Parker’s Blog. My position can be summarised quite easily. Tolerance of (misplaced) religious faith is as dangerous as extremes of … Continue reading “End of Faith in What ?”