What, Why & How do we Know ?
Attended the Intelligence Squared debate at the Royal Geographic Society yesterday evening – chaired by Jonathan Freedland, with Jesse Norman and Rachel Johnson for the motion and with Will Self and Rod Liddle against. On the way in, the audience (full theatre of 350-ish?) were a little under 50% for and the rest more undecided … Continue reading “We’ve Never Had It So Good?”
Lisa Jardine was briefly on BBC R4 Today this morning on the need for science to have proper conversation with the pubic about its work. Not sure even top class journalists like Justin an/or Evan got what Lisa meant my a proper conversation, but her point is very important. In these days of ubiquitous mass … Continue reading “#ScienceInTheHeadlines @ProfLisaJardine @jimalkhalili @BBCR4today @tiffanyjenkins”
There’s nothing new under the sun, is one of my repeated adages. Plus ca change – with technology of communications and media, for example – plus c’est la meme chose. I often also quote Horace quoting another from 4000BCE similarly pointing out the the perceived problems “of our time” are nothing of the sort, but … Continue reading “Nothing New Under The Sun”
Heard Sacks on BBC Sunday, talking sense as usual. Not really digested this yet. Contentious, was equating trust with religion – with which I have no problem – religion / trust is what binds “us” together. Only question is who is “us” and the nature of the “bondage”. In essence I agree with Sacks point … Continue reading “Losing the Plot @BHAhumanists”
The point of critical disagreement is to test agreement, it’s not for the sake of argument itself. The point is to achieve progress on what can be agreed – to expand mutual knowledge, not to perpetuate and extend disagreement. (Of course that doesn’t change the fact that ultimately everything agreed as known is contingent and … Continue reading “The Dogma – a work in progress.”
Tiffany Jenkins writing in The Scotsman reviews the Edinburgh Fringe production of “HeLa“ by IronOxide. The controversy looks set to fester long after the Festival, with developments in genetic research and Opera Winfrey and HBO making a movie of Lack’s life story. The dominant narrative is of a poor black woman who was exploited by science, … Continue reading “Race for Science @tiffanyjenkins @LKrauss1”
Lancelot White, writing in his 1961 edited collection of pieces on Roger Boscovich says, without attributing it to Boscovich (or to anyone else for that matter), “It has been said that … Man loves logic, but chooses his premises with passion.” Googled various whole and part versions of that expression, but cannot find it attributed … Continue reading “Logic vs Passion”
Just a holding post for now – need time to come back and build on thoughts. Natalie Wolchover article Is Nature Natural at Simons Foundation. And an io9 piece reviewing it here. Wilful prejudiced rejection of any Anthropic mentions. When will these scientists listen to themselves. “Multiverses might not make sense, but I’m sure we could … Continue reading “Standard Model Universe – Unnatural”