Is all philosophy and religion are about says Jorn of “Values and Choice“.
Philosophy and religion necessarily gravitate to the extremes of a middle-ground that naturally exists. I like it.
Bacterial Quorum
I referred earlier to re-discovering the “myxobacter” example of simple bacteria performing some amazing feats when acting acting in unison, as an example of “emergence” of unpredictably “intelligent” phenomena from complex systems of simple units.
Well, here Johnnie Moore picks up a link to another example – cholera bacteria reaching a “quorum” before “deciding” to release toxins. Equally relevant to my agenda is Johnnie’s point in linking to the piece – the self-doubt of Bonnie Bassler, the scientist involved in the work.
Trail Of Tears
Updated my gallery with some photos taken at yesterday’s “Trail of Tears” motorcycle rally, (some 10,000 bikes, up to 200 per minute for almost an hour) which follows part of the route from Ross Landing (in Chattanooga, TN) to Waterloo (beyond Florence, AL), taken in 1838 by Cherokee Indians en route to being deported the other side of the Mississippi. It comemorates a particularly sad piece of history because for some three generations or more they had been living in relative harmony amongst the European settlers, trapping and trading, and even taking on homestead life-styles, before civil wars amongst those indian tribes rejecting the expansion of white-men into their lands, led to congress taking action.
The route to the Mississippi used the Tennessee River, except for the section through what is now Huntsville, beyond the shallows at Muscle Shoals, round which they were marched during time of drought, many to their deaths.
Bad Ideas Win
Reading the Lenny Susskind / Lee Smolin anthropic principle debate at The Edge, I noticed Susskind opens with this no-win disclaimer …
The problem is that the easiest ideas to explain, which sound convincing to a general audience, are not always the best ideas.
Attribution – The Fatal Flaw
Nice article linked by Johnnie Moore. A New Yorker article by James Surowiecki, via Rob May (Business Pundit) whose subscription newsletter I really must read more closely and often.
You can see my comment on Johhnie’s post, but this is another cause vs explanation confusion, where attributing cause looks like reason, but is really just culturally evolved short-hand for more contextual, complex (emergent) reality
The Hedonistic Imperative
Not really evaluated what HedWeb has to offer, but looks interesting.
Link via a set of cross-hits.
Engineering at the Dawn of Time ?
Terry Bristol, Director of ISEPP (University of Oregon) introduced the concept of reality as Engineering into the Friends of Wisdom environment, which caught my imagination, because I’m an engineer and came to this space through engineering. (Notice, Linus Pauling and Bob Ulanowizc connections BTW.) And, having been inflicted by Pirsigian Metaphysics of Quality before noticing Dennett’s engineering view of evolution as nature’s problem solving ingenuity imagine my surprise when this turned up. [Hat tip to Anon for now, thanks by the way.]
Spookier still because I was just using Authur C Clarke / Stanley Kubrick’s 2010 fantasy to illustrate on MoQ-Discuss how the future of the cosmos really is in the hands of intelligent life – the intelligence behind the TMA replicates itself and turns Jupiter into a second star in our solar system.
And spookier still, because the first comment refers to Atlas Shrugged !?! Given recent threads on that subject.
The alternative to coincidence is paranoia, surely ?
Interesting also that Terry makes some interesting East v West comparisons of the engineering profession on Friends of Wisdom.
My god it’s full of engineers !
Hire Vint Cerf & then redesign TCP/IP ?
One down one to go ? Actually a fascinating planning whiteboard from Google, which probably says more about the “playful” working style at Google than any specific plans. [via Robot Wisdom]
Evidence-based Fascism
Ben Goldacre, over at the Grauniad-based “Bad Science Blog” does a good job exposing pseudo-scientific tosh.
Anyone who cites Deleuze and Guattari as their main references and uses “fascist” as an adjective to describe ” evidence-based [science]” is on a hiding to nothing, though to be fair Dr David Holmes et al (Ottawa and Toronto) opens with “We can already hear the objections …”
Ben rises to that “challenge”. All I hear (in the comments supporting Ben’s put down) is closed minds with blind-faith in “evidence-based” objectivity – hyper-rationalists. If you’re looking for something more down-to-earth and less “PoMo” against a narrow scientific view of “medicine” try Dr James Willis. Fortunately, those practitioners with good bedside manners, recognise that there is far more to medicine than “science”. (Ironically “House” is playing on the TV in the background.)
No Takebacks
Nice one from Tim Kreider (16th August) who has been on hiatus since early July.
Planethood; Nationhood; whatever next ? The historical taxonomic angle appeals to me.