What, Why & How do we Know ?
As an atheist who believes in the fundamental nature of information and meaning this episode of Future Proofing on Faith – “how the functions of religion could be taken over by technology” – I found very hard to listen to. Great conclusion from Timandra Harkness, despite some awfully confused content contributors. Good in parts, but where to … Continue reading ““There’s No Faith Without AI” – Please God, No!”
Few days without any posting thanks to several glorious days in the mountains of UK Lake District (Facebook album here.) Never seen such conditions for hiking and views in dozen or more trips over 40 years. As usual I’m using down time to read, two books this time. I mentioned Martin Robinson’s Trivium 21c already, … Continue reading “Science is Only Human”
I’m reading Martin Robinson’s “Trivium 21c” – apparently propounding adoption of the classical Trivium for the 21st century, so far anyway. As is my wont, after a scan of contents and a read of introductory chapters I’m posting my early thoughts, so I can more honestly talk about new learning vs existing reinforcement later. First … Continue reading “Trivium 21c – First Thoughts”
I repeatedly use the evolutionary concepts of fidelity and fecundity when talking about (small c) conservatism in political and social change. Freedom to change things, anything, anytime, is a kind of dogma of free-thought and individual freedoms generally. A principle to be defended at all costs, to the death. Because we can, and have a … Continue reading “Cultural Evolution – Fidelity and Fecundity”
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”
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”
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”
At Hay on Wye HTLGI festival again for the final weekend: My late arrival and changes to programme meant Friday pm didn’t quite go according to my pre-planning, but got to see and hear; Denis Noble, Anne Bowcock and Rupert Sheldrake chaired by David Malone, talking on the promissory hype of the Human Genome project … Continue reading “How The Light Gets In 2016 #htlgi2016”