What, Why & How do we Know ?
There’s a lot of bollox being reported about Grenfell cladding, its spec changes and “100%” failures on every other tower block cladding sample tested. Purely anecdotal quickie – my opinions as an engineer – I have no inside knowledge on these tower block refurbishments Pretty sure the “zinc” will have been some galvanised or zinc-coated … Continue reading “#Grenfell Cladding – Let’s Get a Grip!”
I’m exploring available theories of consciousness that tie themselves in open-minded ways to fundamental physics, that is they don’t automatically exclude themselves from physical explanation by overly reductionist reliance on objects already (accepted as being) defined by physics. Yesterday, I summarised what I heard from Robert Kuhn’s Physics of Consciousness / Closer to Truth resources. … Continue reading “Integrated Information Theory”
The death of Robert Pirsig last month triggered a good deal of new correspondence on his work, his Metaphysics of Quality as well as his novels, “ZMM” and “Lila“. My own summary of his MoQ, or more correctly the world-view implied by his metaphysics, I have previously presented here: I’ve expressed my (limited) appreciation of … Continue reading “Pirsig meets Foucault and more besides.”
Part of my agenda is being honest about the limits to science. Some parts of the Science-PR machine will defend to their death, that no such limits exist, but in fact such dogmatic defence in itself shows up these limits, is one of the limitations. I haven’t fully unpicked these recent stories yet, but wanted to capture … Continue reading “Let’s Get Metaphysical”
Larry Krauss giving BHA Darwin Day 2017 Lecture (From 10 or 11 Feb, Euston or Camden) [These are just contemporary notes recorded whilst watching the video. Not edited into any coherent piece in sentences.] Dawkins intro too flippant about “something from nothing”. Krauss actually no better than “all things complex from almost nothing”. (Empty space … Continue reading “Larry Krauss BHA Darwin Day 2017 Lecture (from February)”
Vive La Différance – or a white swan in the hand is worth more than risking a few black feathers in the bush. I’ve regularly used the Derridan version of difference (différance) ironically and usually when talking about gender differences. That minefield of: what differences there really are between men and women (specifically archetypically, but … Continue reading “Vive La Différance, Again.”
Doumentary Series – Why Are We Here? In four parts. Blog background info here. Hat tip to David Morey for the links. The following is simply raw running notes of content topics. Almost whole scope of my own agenda and writings. David Malone has pretty much the same rational-atheist position as myself, though I didn’t know that … Continue reading “David Malone’s “Why Are We Here?””
The core of this post I almost drafted some months ago, but thought it might have been a bit sour grapes, a bit jealousy even, certainly patronising. Honestly patronising. Whenever I’d have written it, it would have been honest, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, speech may be free but is it always worth … Continue reading “God Save the Expert – She Ain’t no Human Bein’”