Metzinger’s – Elephant and the Blind

Mentioned Thomas Metzinger a few times before, so was interested in his new book. Sadly expensive as a book, so initially on the unbought as well as unread library list, but in fact MIT Press Direct has a free online copy: [Love that version of the image of the blind men getting to grips with … Continue reading “Metzinger’s – Elephant and the Blind”

WOSC or ISSS – “Systems Umbrella”?

I’ve elaborated my own systems position once or twice before. The idea of systems referring to any “control volume of current interest”, internally and/or environmentally, were ubiquitous from my earliest education and experience, earliest schooldays even. No brainer, just a word for things that involved stuff happening. Not a word I would have worried about … Continue reading “WOSC or ISSS – “Systems Umbrella”?”

A Time for Reckoning?

I keep falling foul of my use of the word “computation” being taken as the formal “machine” kind intended by Turing, algorithmic at the level of interest with all the corollaries of computability and halting/decidability and Gödelian incompleteness. I just use it to mean processing (inc. communication) of information quite generally – however it’s done, … Continue reading “A Time for Reckoning?”

Whiteheadian or Not?

Just to capture a couple of new “process view” resources for me. Naomi de Ruiter in the first and Dan Nicholson in the second: The Dissenter Podcast on Spotify And Brain Inspired on YouTube Hat tip to Kevin Mitchell’s timeline for both. Obviously Whitehead is an inspiration, an important reference used, but Dan claims not … Continue reading “Whiteheadian or Not?”

Philip Ball – Life & Minds

Two of Philip Ball’s books are on my wish list, but I’m unlikely to obtain and have time to read either for a while – “The Book of Minds” and “How Life Works” – in that counter-intuitive order apparently. I’ve mostly picked-up on his reviews and articles for magazines and journals previously, never actually read … Continue reading “Philip Ball – Life & Minds”

Pranay Sanklecha – New Philosophy Contact

The thing I find most immediately fascinating about Pranay Sanklecha is the title of his 2013 PhD Thesis at the University of Graz, Austria: “Climate Change, Theories of Justice, and The Ethics of Ontology” “The Ethics of Ontology” sounds a good fit with my “Epistemological Ontology” – there is no absolute ontology independent of what … Continue reading “Pranay Sanklecha – New Philosophy Contact”

William Godwin

William Godwin has never previously figured in any of the posts or pages of Psybertron, despite often appearing in conversations arising from the same subjects. (Not to be confused with Mike Godwin of Godwin’s Law – mentioned here several times before. Don’t mention the war, Pike!) So this is just a placeholder for William Godwin … Continue reading “William Godwin”

Bradley’s Appearance & Reality

I came to F.H.Bradley through Bertrand Russell’s metaphysical ruminations only 5 or 6 years ago (hat-tip Stephen Mumford). It was a conscious effort, because I’d pretty much given-up on Russell after the debacle of Principia Mathematica, from which co-author Whitehead seemed to have learned, but from which Russell appeared never to have recovered (nor from … Continue reading “Bradley’s Appearance & Reality”