Category: Uncategorized

Another hat tip to David Morey; we have a dialogue going between emails, Facebook and the blogs, and David keeps picking up excellent source references. Here the latest example: A conference speech from the Bank of England analysing the banking crisis.

The Tower of Basel metaphor is about less is more – a few simple rules are better than a stack of complex regulations (a recurring theme in itself). Why ? Well, the opening quote says most of it:

Catching a frisbee is remarkably common. Casual empiricism reveals that it is not an activity only undertaken by those with a doctorate in physics. It is a task that an average dog can master. Indeed some, such as border collies, are better at frisbee-catching than humans.

So what is the secret of the dog’s success? The answer …  is to keep it simple. For studies have shown that the frisbee-catching dog follows the simplest of rules of thumb: Humans follow an identical rule of thumb.

I’ve used the tennis player returning a fast serve before (the example quoted from Wegner) but the principle is the same. In reacting to dynamic situations (like living life, for example) it doesn’t pay to rationally analyse and calculate every objective variable involved, not forgetting all questions of predictability. Remember in the tennis example, there are two humans involved – add in game theory – not just one dog / human and an inanimate ball / frisbee. I’ll let you decide which is closer to economic behaviour. But, to succeed, it pays to have a minimum number of heuristic rules of thumb that can be applied instinctively.

This isn’t to say that objective, scientific analysis and empirical testing of all variables doesn’t add to knowledge of the situation (obviously), nor that heuristic rules shouldn’t be updated in the light of feedback from both theoretical and practical knowledge (again, obviously) – but remember, that dog isn’t actually doing calculations, even with simple rules.

The rules regulating reality should remain simple heuristics that can be applied instinctively – without rational objective analysis and calculation as part of the process of regulation.

“It’s not reality but it works better.”

To quote McGilchrist.

[Post Note : For the Wegner and McGilchrist references – see indirectly via this previous post, also bringing Dave Snowden into this whole agenda – the latter in particular is closest to this business management consulting context in recognising important pitfalls around simple and simplistic, chaotic, complex and complicated.]

I often feel people misunderstand when I don’t join the mob campaigns … demanding prosecute the bankers, prosecute the police, prosecute the politicians, ban faith schools, ban the lords, etc … It’s not that I don’t see the wrongs, or I’m too lazy to engage my one voice with the larger mob, it’s because I feel I’ve moved beyond that to attacking the root of the problem: Redressing the “western” illusion of reality that pervades all organized and institutional human activities, and how that illusion is the natural result of the evolution of mind.

The really worrying sign of how deeply engrained the problem is, is that its realization as the problem is as old as human history, at least 4000 BCE, and yet still we plough on. Each cycle of fashion in philosophy or governance seems to be ratcheting inexorably in the wrong direction. Massive good and progress within each cycle, naturally, but the general trend, the net results … oh dear. Darwin’s dangerous idea is as true and inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow, more so in fact (one day the sun will not rise tomorrow), but it doesn’t “learn” from history, as we imagine (hope) humans might – it’s “inhuman”. It’s going to take more than hope.

Another of David Gurteen’s cycle of quotes is this one from Thoreau.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)

Is that the arrogance of an individual ego “I’m wiser than the mob” ? Guess it could be, there are enough quotations around about lone nuts and prophets in their own lands, the child who sees the emperor or the boy with his finger in the dyke, but at root it’s a genuine plea to the many and their institutional edifices.

Interesting to look at the sociology of friends & followers linking via Facebook and Twitter. Some people set great store by their numbers (millions) of likes, friends and followers. Certain public politicians and entertainers in particular.

The mighty Muse have a free charity gig at the Camden Roundhouse on 30th Sept, just a couple of weeks away. The official page promoting that gig has a link to the competitive ballot process for tickets “coming soon”. There are 77 likes, 4 tweets and 39 shares, which have been static for at least an hour, on that page. Presumably no-one is sharing the link – until their own name is in the ballot. Who me ?

Amazing that both Muse (Matt Bellamy and co) and PiL (John Lydon and co) are in the TV studio together for the first show of the new Jools series Later on BBC2.

Muse the musically-and-entertainment-wise excellent-but-probably-past-their-best OTT stadium prog rockers, and PiL the original post-punk new-wave been-to-hell-and-back riding the crest of their third (and currently their best) wave. The two bands (incidentally) mentioned most in the life of this blog.

Matt, Chris and Dom could no doubt learn a thing or two from John, Lu, Scott and Bruce. Here’s hoping.

Eric Pickles writing in the Telegraph today.

When in office, New Labour’s spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, declared: “We don’t do God.” By contrast, I think this Government does. We are committed to the right of Christians and people of other beliefs …

Non-sequitor. Being Christian and believing in God are entirely different. Jesus is a much mythologised good-life / life-style prophet with a love of fellow man on which a great deal of western culture is built. Fact. I/we are part of that culture. Does the narrative of a “good” culture depend on a Jesus – no, but that does’t change the historical fact. God on the other hand, a personal, sensible agent on which the workings of the world literally depend, is part of the mythology, simply one myth too far.

The mythological history of our culture is a fact, the contents of the mythology are, well, …. mythological, a mix of practical common sense and experience, tangled up in communicable parables and stories of doubtful origin involving mythological beings along the way of its evolution.

As an atheist / humanist I wouldn’t identify myself, define myself in terms of being, “a Christian” but you’d need to be an ostrich to deny the culture you come from.

[Post Note : responding indirectly to Sam’s comment below – even the top jew refers to the top atheist as a “christian atheist”.]

First in the new series of In Our Time, on The Cell. Steve Jones as one of the panel of three enthusiasts talking about what they know best. Origins of life, via Schroedinger to RNA, DNA, membranes, mitochondria and chloroplasts and so forth on what cells are, how they came to be and how they work.

Early on, to illustrate the proportion of human cells to bacterial cells in a human body, Steve suggests; think of one leg filled-up to just below the knee with human cells – the rest is bacteria.

[Post note ; unconnected to this programme, but just now – two weeks later – I’m reading Stuart Kaufman’s “Reinventing the Sacred” and it majors on the wonders of cell complexity – how we have become hooked on the digital information simplicity of DNA/RNA/Genes /G/A/C/T/U et al and completely overlook the other self-organizing wonders of life in both evolution and individual ontogeny.]

Take a hint from Du Pont. (From Futility Closet with hat tip to BifRiv)

Interesting that the customer service contacts of these food companies all seem to use Google and Wikipedia to answer customer questions about sources and processes of their products.

Not sure we ever got to the “bottom” (beyond speculation in the broadcast material) of how the LGG Probiotic bacteria really are originally sourced, but no surprise they are factory cultured in production quantities thereafter.

The grapefruit processing is an eye-opener – not the blanching and manual peeling, but the hydrochloric acid and caustic soda treatments. Must use a lot of water too to wash away the chlorine / chloride by-products – and what about the natural citric acid, if processed to neutralisation?

None-too incisive journalism, but interesting first in a new series, with James and Martin of Brewdog as well as Kate Quilton and Matt Tebbutt.

Interesting to hear new Green Party leader Natalie Bennett responding do the standard scientistic questions from the Pod Mob. Knows the issues and handled them pretty well for the quick fire Q&A format – certainly didn’t dodge any. Sarah Palin with brains (and an Oz accent?) maybe.

The rest of the Pod is indeed deluded.

Really grown on me from this year’s “This is PiL” release. I don’t think I even mentioned it making any particular impression when I listed the setlist from Newcastle ? (Has the making of a future crowd-pleaser, I said in fact.)

When I try to explain to people why PiL are so worth seeing, some cannot get their minds beyond “that punk Johnny Rotten” – some albatross. Whilst John may now be a national treasure, the English eccentric, light relief on Question Time, what is beyond doubt is that John, Lu, Scott and Bruce are a top drawer band with top quality material, both lyrically / subject matter-wise and musically. Having seen this “best PiL ever” three times now I can also report that the live experience is second to none, and it’s not just the music, it’s the respect. John demands a little respect from his audience but it’s repaid in spades – the band returns passion and genuine appreciation for an audience that turns out to see them.

The setlist on Monday at the O2 Academy in Newcastle [Aug 16, 2012] had five numbers from the latest “This is PiL” album amongst the tried and tested mix of crowd-pleasers and personal favourites. (This is Not a Love Song, Deeper Water, Albatross, Reggie Song, Disappointed, Warrior, Flowers of Romance, Lollipop Opera, Death Disco, Bags / Chant and Religion, with Out of the Woods, One Drop, Rise and Open Up as the encores.)

The order seems to vary from gig to gig, but the collection seems to have crystallised around the set first aired in April 2012 at Heaven. Out of the Woods and One Drop have the makings of future crowd favourites, Reggie Song fits the set like a glove, and Warrior, Religion and Open Up remain magnificent; the irresistible, pile-driven arrangements so tight.

Can you resist dancing and singing along to these ?
Find out for yourself. You’d be mad not to catch them live on this tour.

Wonder if upcoming trips to US might provide an opportunity to catch them there ?

[PS One of the other reviewers that night mentioned the omission of Public Image itself from the set list. I found that weird too. It’s the blistering opening track on the 2011 Isle of Wight – Live Album – smashing through the lousy sound system feedback problems in the opening numbers – maybe what actually fried the monitor mixer – stunning, literally. It says something about PiL’s depth of material when they can leave out a number like this and still wow their audience.]