What, Why & How do we Know ?
This evening Nick Maxwell presented “How Universities Can Help Create a Wiser World” launching his latest book of the same name. Alan Sokal and and Philip Ball provided responses. Some 50/55 in the theatre as the UCL Grand Challenge on Human Wellbeing is introduced. Nick describing his main theme that science has enabled the technologies that have contributed, … Continue reading “Sokal vs Maxwell”
Not sure about the “battleground” metaphor, but otherwise sounds about right. It’s a plug for tonight’s Horizon documentary featuring Daniel Kahneman on how we really make decisions. My governance agenda: Post doc notes : Hmmm. Too much emphasis on “error and mistake”, too much emphasis on error relative to some “perfect” rational model – assumes perfect … Continue reading “Battleground Between Intuition & Logic”
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?”
If you’ve ever read the on-line version of my masters dissertation, or any number of references in the blog to the human aspects of organisational behaviour in governance, or the gender differences in world-views and decision-making behaviour, you can’t fail to have noticed my references to the three women I had the honour to be … Continue reading “Dot Griffiths”
The “Everybody Wants a Revolution” theme continues from the last post, and a the post before that, with a few post-notes inserted along the way. Interesting in this Guardian interview Brand continues the “don’t ask me I’m no expert” line, and admits he’s only recently taken an interest in the topic of alternative governance, so the … Continue reading “The Russell Brand Effect”
Whenever I hear people talking about the need for a revolution, I need to look in their eyes and see what they are really thinking by that word “revolution” before I think “careful what you wish for”. Bankers and capitalism / globalisation / consumerism generally; Democratic, parliamentary government; Standards in education and academe; Press and … Continue reading “Everybody Wants a Revolution”
Just a holding post for now after hearing the first of four in full. Democracy has bad taste. Quality does not = popularity; Quality = validated by enough of the right people. Simple truth. And brings in the value of “authority” based on time-served effort to understand. That and the memetic downside of popularity – … Continue reading “Grayson Perry’s Reith Lectures”
Hopefully this is nothing more than coincidental, but history seems to be repeating itself, with France taking Syria more seriously than the Brits again. Old imperialists never die it seems. Probably really just a reflection how weak and unprincipled current UK government and parliament has become – damaged goods thanks to the Thatcher/Reagan & Blair/Bush … Continue reading “Sykes-Picot Revisited”