What, Why & How do we Know ?
Alan Alda on PBS – Actually on reflection Alan Alda’s contribution to the Edge World Question Centre 2003 (previous blog) is easily the most though provoking – spot on the main event – the dangers of rationality, I said. I didn’t know Alan Alda moved in these circles – I guess one price of living … Continue reading “Alan Alda on Rationality”
Why Science Needs Us to be Afraid. From Cringely, quoting a letter from Australian engineer scientist Richard Worsley. [Quote] … I’ve done my time in the trenches …. therefore feel able to comment on the lot of the scientist today….. science is not separate from society …. what you are seeing is a symptom …. … Continue reading “Why Science Needs Us to be Afraid”
Metaphors We Live By. From JOHO’s booklist. Blogged several earlier mentions about how metaphorical aphorisms often seemed closer to the truth than any apparently rational view of a reality being described. (Part of my main thesis in fact as “many a true word”.) Bizarre, but here’s a book by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson on … Continue reading “Metaphors We Live By”
Cycorp – Dimensions of Context Space. Reference to Doug Lenat’s paper (via Seth). If one accepts “context” as the space in which information represented by relationships is organised and characterised, then this Cyc stuff has a lot in common with the EPISTLE work I’ve mentioned before. Also like EPISTLE Atomic Templates and Seth’s Mentographs, includes … Continue reading “Cycorp – Dimensions of Context Space”
“It’s like receiving a threat from a post-modernist gangster, who makes you an offer you can’t understand.” – Charlie Stross (via Jeff Vogel, via Jacob Haller, via “kibology”, via Jorn). [Link omitted intentionally. I’ve not ventured into kibology yet, whatever that is, but the time may yet come.] Seriously though, I re-read most of Joe … Continue reading “Talking of Post-Modernists”
Boston Globe article on PKC (via Jorn)And Jorn’s page of Lawrence Weed’s Problem-Knowledge Couplers biographical links.Another interesting link from Jorn. A variation of the medical expert diagnostic system which, rather than following pre-structured diagnostic sequences of questions, suspends analysis until after asking many questions then seeks to find patterns and relationships. Interesting evidence of effectiveness, … Continue reading “What your doctor doesn’t know could kill you”
I Was a Teenage Fraudster in the Guardian today.Barry Minkow eventually imprisoned for a major wall street fraud, is “poacher turned gamekeper”, interviewed on BBC Today this morning. Describes small mis-representations leading to larger frauds, and an environment of collusion within business, even including ostensibly “independant” auditors. Makes explicit reference to the big accountancy firms … Continue reading “Minkow’s Fraudodynamics”