Not for the faint-hearted, but a new take on an old philosophical argument from David Chalmers on the knowable and the actual.
Year: 2010
Follow the Money – Network Style
Kevin Kelley’s thoughts on intermediaries creating value and earning money at the nano-penny per node level.
Creating Your Enemy
Interesting interview with John LeCarre. We’re as guilty as each other, though in general we are more open and honest about what goes on in reality, but there is an important difference between the US and Europe or Russia. Couldn’t help thinking of T Boone Pickens words at last week’s conference – default US position to simply treat everyone else as “the enemy”.
The Eyes Have It
I have a small collection of Niqab photos … they can be very err… sexy. Something I see the producers of Sex and the City 2 seem to agree on (great film by the way). Article here on Moslem women’s choices in headgear. Nothing wrong with tradition (recognized as such), nor religious freedom (with responsibility), provided practical choices are possible …. for eating and identification and communication. I’ve supported “bans” in the sense I support society’s right to ask for its removal for identification and communication – the oft excluded middle again. Obscuring one’s face is not a “right”.
Withholding Grades
Not a lot new here either, but the withholding grades item caught my eye – the crux of Pirsig’s original teaching experiment in defining Quality.
Smart to Say “I Don’t Know”
BBC Magazine story. Not a new subject, the excluded middle often contains the greater value.
Too Much Coincidence ?
Dusty the cat and this current UK news story ?
Heard suggestions on the news this morning (BBC Radio4 Today) that the UK story was in fact a hoax …. don’t see any later updated news …. I’m guessing a meme spurred by 4chan – meme in the (awful) web sense.
I mean, who has a CCTV camera set up focussed on their wheelie bin ?
How are Bale and Mann connected …. that is the question.
The Answer is Facebook
If facebook is the answer, what was the question ? The open-graph framework / foundation of the social-layer on which the game-layer will be built.
The “game layer”;
a pervasive net of behavior-steering game dynamics that will reshape education and commerce.
Intriguing TED Talk from Seth Priebatsch. It’s all game theory in practice … so behaviour steering dynamics is an interesting concept.
Buzz Kill
I’ve been disappointed that neither Buzz nor Wave has taken off – both very clever, but both struggling to find the app that even web savvy people can understand. Interesting post here from Leo Laporte (hat tip to Matt) – even much blogging is like shouting into the void – it’s not all conversation – but at least with a blog it’s your thoughts being collected in your words, your way, and the level of dialogue can be measured in quality rather than noise.
Inception
Saw it a couple of weeks ago and it left me unmoved, and more to the point impressed at the budget and stunning FX and depressed to see them wasted on such pretentious twaddle (just like Avatar). Read a few reviews since. Guardian, Kermode.
Yes, lots of unresolved uncertainty, dreams within dreams leaving disjoints in time and in between dream and reality. Clearly not meant to be easy to follow, getting lost is deliberate – OK, no problem with films that take several close viewings to get the whole story – Fight Club say. But why the mix of drivel script – as if we needed a running commentary of what was going on – with the zap-pow action-movie for what is obviously a psychological plot. The recurring wife and kids guilt trip just deepened the tendency to gag on the formulaic hollywood elements.