Search results for: trust

One of my pet subjects is the fact that in (free democratic) systems of governance, there must be institutions that are not free and democratic, not in the sense of the popular “one man one vote” mantra. OK, so most people quickly see that total freedom for popular decision-making is a recipe for anarchy, not … Continue reading “Cor baby, that’s really free.”

As promised herwith a few pointers to those items of interest in answers to the 2009 Edge Question. Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions. THE TORONTO STAR Sue Blackmore – predictably, when some other “artificial” technological meme replicator becomes … Continue reading “What Will Change Everything ?”

Twice in as many days … another footbal story, two actually. Great to see Blades get the decision on the Tevez fiasco at West Ham two seasons ago and love or hate him, great to see Warnock happy. No amount of compensation fixes it of course, but justice is done. (I love the Warnock quote … Continue reading “Football Bizarre”

The subject of fish has come up several times recently – Tigris Carp & Salmon of (Doubt) Wisdom as wise advisors, BabelFish as a metaphor for language independent interoperability interface, and I had become convinced I’d heard of “talking catfish” somewhere before. I say heard of, because I was also recently thinking I was maybe … Continue reading “Fishy Week”

We were discussing at an extended family meal week before last how the Godfather trilogy was quality drama – perhaps Godfather II being the weakest. Sylvia and I recalled and discussed it further for some reason over the weekend and noticed we had only a VHS recording of the trilogy, and no longer any video … Continue reading “Godfather III”

The whole world in a grain of salt. Where to start ? You maybe don’t need me to point out that these are anagrams of each other? Table-Top Battle-Op Ob-Platte Potel-Bat Bel-Patto Plato-Bet But what are they ? It might help if you knew that they are the title of Chapter 8 of Douglas Hofstadter’s book “Fluid … Continue reading “Ob-Platte or the next best thing ?”

Or if you prefer; the “Three Body Language”. Something that has cropped-up several times in recent quite separate correspondences are analogies to the Newtonian “Three-Body-Problem” and I realised these linked to some earlier things I’d blogged about. The three-body-problem is insoluble analytically – take three or more bodies (physical objects) apply Newtons laws of motion … Continue reading “Body Language – Three’s a Crowd”