Psybertron Asks

Soaring costs of ITER (now there’s a surprise) may compromise other science research spending.

Fusion is like trying to put the Sun in a box …
… but we don’t know how to make the box.

Strange how wikipedia works. Whoever (Antonio Alafuente) last edited this page included a link to a post of mine about the distinction between Cynic and Kynic – in relation to Zizek and Sloterdijk. Working backwards through the link we come to this Spanish blog on expanded education, refering to the 11th  conference of Zemos98 earlier this year – interesting because it seems to link well with the current Nick Maxwell agenda in education.

Interesting Bristol exhibition of Banksy work create and funded by Banksy – chance to see a greater range of his work than street art. (See the other exhibition links in the side-bar too.)

Google Wave – Interesting if only as an e-mail / IM integration with branching conversations as a single object – effectively blurring email-list / forum / bulletin board with wiki / blog / twitter collaborative editing , linking and commenting on that common object. Not sure the simple switching of real-time typing and private branches is such a great idea and the simple “bloggie” publish – to make the whole object a public page, and thence pick-up blog / twitter responses and links into the same object – real extremes one click apart – powerful though.

“Makes flame-wars so much more effective.”

It’s Open-Source and beyond that it’s API’s and Protocols for develpers to extend. Thanks to Mark Federman for the link. See also blog from the creators Lars and Jens Rasmussen.

Lot of sense spoken by Stephen Fry here on Loose Ends – concerning the motives behind public interest in the MP’s expenses saga, and the Steve Queenan contribution on the obsession with numbers to which we can relate.

Both Shawn and Mark at Anecdote have blogged about James Harlow Brown’s “Dangerous Undertaking: The Search for Transformation“.

The book is on my reading list, but I have several others ahead of it in the pipeline at the moment, however this metaphor reinforces why it looks interesting to me. Yes, overlapping patterns of involvement in the unfolding of reality, and reality as metaphor – but also seen as writing one’s own narrative. Rayner & Pirsig, Hofstadter & Lakoff, and Al MacIntyre & TE Lawrence all in one ?

Idiot, nonsense and now bullshit … apparently … to add to the plaudit collection.

It’s fair to say that doing an MBA back in the late 1980’s was instrumental in developing my focus on the psychological aspects of the question, “What, why and how do we know?” I’ve referenced my dissertation once or twice before and acknowledged the input from the tutors in the “organizational behavioural” subjects.

Of course the MBA I did, like all MBA’s then and for some time since, probably deserved the backlash to the idea that by doing an MBA, an otherwise unseasoned individual had learned how to do business. The steady stream of (expensive) Harvard “Case Studies” – where having “done the numbers” students were expected to pronounce on the rights and wrongs of business decisions made, propose courses of action and (in some cases) compare predictions with real outcomes. Right ? Err, Mu. Causation is weirder than that.

Tom Peters was already become the guru of excellence or quality – sequels to Peters & Waterman “In Search of Excellence” were already required reading. Apart for dynamism and difference and a focus on people (staff and customers) Tom’s bombastic style continued to promote his own consulting guru business, but of course flatly refused to reduce advice to fixed repeatable prescriptions – or rather only ever prescriptions for “style” of doing business, never for predictable success for specific actions.

Interesting to see this recent Tom Peters conclusion from two health-care related pieces, one on “architecture” the other on the “shape” of winners.

(1) Process “beats” outcome in evaluating an “experience”–even one as apparently “outcome sensitive” as a hospital stay …
(2) Happy staff, happy customers. Want to “put the customer first”? Put the staff “more first”!
(3) Quality is free–and then some.

…
Who doesn’t work with his hands.
He looks at you once,
You know he understands.
[Peter Gabriel – Lamb Lies Down …]

Interesting to see “Shop Class as Soul Craft” by Matthew Crawford is making a buzz. The parallels to Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance are noted in reviews, but not apparently in the book (?) which I’ll review myself once I’ve read it.

And of conscious perception generally. [via Sam]. Including reference to Daniel Wegner – I blogged about reading earlier.