Psybertron Asks

Did this back in 2003.

Sam picked up on it recently, and I was prompted to re-do and see how my outlook has changed.

Latest Result

	1.	Aquinas   (100%)  Information link
	2.	Aristotle   (94%)  Information link
	3.	Jeremy Bentham   (72%)  Information link
	4.	Plato   (71%)  Information link
	5.	John Stuart Mill   (55%)  Information link
	6.	St. Augustine   (53%)  Information link
	7.	Epicureans   (52%)  Information link
	8.	Spinoza   (51%)  Information link
	9.	Jean-Paul Sartre   (50%)  Information link
	10.	Ayn Rand   (46%)  Information link
	11.	Thomas Hobbes   (40%)  Information link
	12.	Stoics   (40%)  Information link
	13.	Nel Noddings   (38%)  Information link
	14.	David Hume   (38%)  Information link
	15.	Nietzsche   (37%)  Information link
	16.	Cynics   (29%)  Information link
	17.	Ockham   (14%)  Information link
	18.	Kant   (11%)  Information link
	19.	Prescriptivism   (3%)  Information link

Previous Result

1. Spinoza (100%)
2. Aquinas (89%)
3. Stoics (89%)
4. Aristotle (86%)
5. Nietzsche (85%)
6. Jeremy Bentham (70%)
7. Epicureans (68%)
8. Jean-Paul Sartre (68%)
9. Nel Noddings (65%)
10. Plato (64%)

Significant differences … the survey itself seems modified behind the scenes, certainly the reporting has.

Aquinas, Aristotle and Plato all up, Spinoza down, Nietzsche well down. Weird ? Re-reading Nietzsche and reading Spinoza both at the moment. Not sure if this is meaningful at all. Clearly there is a level of interpretation in the survey relationships to the specific philosophers introduced by whomever created it.

Shortly after Vonnegut’s death I came across this interview from June 06, but didn’t blog a link. Rectified that.

WTF. As a loyal fan of the Beeb, I have to call them out on this one.

Censoring the word “faggot” out of The Pogues and Kirsty McColl’s Fairy Tale of New York. Surely the very best of that dodgy genre of Christmas singles.

Response to the vote on censorship, and the “Have Your Say” comment thread is over 96% against, and over 115 pages of responses so far … all with the same message so far as  can see. Censorship does have a legitimate place in a society built on freedom of speech, but this isn’t one of them.

It’s pure poetry … a scene of an old married couple at Christmas, a time of family stress, and alcohol-fueled emotions, taking stock as one year ends and another looms  … throwing insults at each other only to discover how much they really are in love with each others dreams. A truly uplifting piece of work

The word “faggot” may have homophobic uses, but absolutely not in this context, the redeeming power of real love. So much more offensive language exists in other songs with misanthropic intent; it’s a travesty that Shane McGowan’s poetry should come in for this abuse.

Rectify your glaring mistake Auntie.

[Post Note : Oh wow they just did.
The power of the people. Well done Auntie Beeb.

Peter Tatchell I have a lot of respect for his brave stands on freedoms, not just gay rights, but I have to say he’s wrong on this one. Context matters.]

[Post Post Note – 2030 (!) comments on the “have your say” thread in under two days.]

This news story is the first time I’ve seen the sea-level rise due to global warming correctly described in popular media.

Melting of ice over land, and the thermal expansion of the sea-water itself. The “melting of polar ice-caps” meme makes me cringe every time I hear it … forgetting that more than half of that is floating on the sea, already displacing its own mass.

Ten years of blogging. As well as inspiring my own blogging style, Jorn Barger’s Robot Wisdom was responsible for my “timeline” view of any important subject.

Only caught part of this interview / debate involving Dawkins, but thought I’d better blog the link so I don’t lose it. Got the impression he was looking for compromise ground (?) based on what little I did hear, but reaction by those on the God side of the debate don’t seem to have made that iterpretation … need to find time for a closer listen.

(Post Note : The link is just a news report
… can’t see the link to hear the programme itself ?)

Link to the “Talking Point” video recording provided my Mardé.
December 2007 Link on this page.

Interestingly, the first caller’s point is the same as Dan Dennett’s. Atheist or agnostic, the existence of God is an uninteresting question. What good / bad is caused by professed religious faith in God’s name is the much more real, pragmatic issue. Dawkins still doesn’t seem to get that.

Some wonderfully dirty rhetorical tricks later on from the religious side trying to smear the atheist agenda with the authoritatian evils of Stalin and Hitler prepetrated “in the name of atheism”. Heh heh. I thought Dawkins was remarkably reserved in maintaining his moral high-ground – and as you know, I’m no fan of Dawkins.

Dawkins may be tolerant on comparative religion as historical cultural fact, but his pure scientific outlook means he misses other values in faith and denies any parallels with the “dogmas” of science itself – meta-dogmas.

Struck by the focus of stats in this news story on the illegal drug use in baseball. Stephen Jay Gould majors on baseball stats in “Life’s Grandeur”, if I remember correctly, to illustrate on the illusion of trends, and the psychological tendency to seek such number trends in explanations.

The tyranny of numbers.

Interesting little snapshot here via Johnnie Moore, originally from Marina’s Bloggariffic on the evolution of blogging. The technology changes like fashions come and go, but the evolution of use, uses that add value to humanity, is comically retarded. The ratio of nuggets to trivia is pretty static ….

90% of X is crap, because 90% of everything is crap

…. someone once said.

I have a theory about memetic evolution – the three generation rule – originally evident in “Kondratiev Waves”. However fast the technology itself, humans have to learn habits, exploit habits and unlearn habits, and we humans as a whole / in general / culturally have physiological limits to the pace of learning, and communicating / applying that learning.

Interestingly, Johnnie has a later post about the optimal load for a brain to take something new on board.

Find myself surfing YouTube one full evening a week or fortnight these days, finding music video of acts I’d long forgotten were important to me (*), often prompted by a link from Rivets, who has his own musical agenda, but the lateral connections are infinite. I blogged about Rory Gallagher some weeks ago, and spent last night absorbing all things Mothersbaugh (Mark, Bob1 and Jim) and Casales (Jerry and Bob2) – after a sneak listen to Rory’s Montreux Jazz version of Shadow Play – more Akron-Spud-madness later … but a few evenings ago I stumbled upon The Thoughts of Chairman Parker. Where to start ?

Graham Parker was responsible for the best gig I ever experienced at London’s Roundhouse in 1978, supported by the then little-known-in-the-UK Blondie and Devo, on the evening of the day of the Anti-Nazi league rally from Trafalgar Square to Victoria Park Hackney – featuring The Clash and Tom Robinson amongst others – what a day. Some weeks / months later we saw GP & The Rumour again on the two opening night(s) of Richard Branson’s Virgin Venue in Victoria, where I took some pics, including my favourite of GP (Passion is no Ordinary Word).

Anyway Chairman Parker was waxing philosophical about the Harris / Dawkins / Hitchens debate – on the atheistic side of it – and drawing some flak in comments from US fans – which is coincidental to my agenda here. What I picked-up on is how active GP has been and still is, in the US since the late 70’s. Official web-site, most of the backlog available CD and MP3 formats … and a link to this 5 hour radio marathon … which I’m about 3.5 hours through. A 9 hour (!) Elvis Costello marathon there too, I’m yet to dip into.

Anyway Devo … all their early “art school” experimentation too … and they’ve been perfoming as recently as last month, Manchester, Vegas … official site.

(*) Important 70’s music that I have on vinyl, but never replaced with CD or Mp3, having gone through the 90’s and 00’s with my experiencing both my sons’ rock tastes. Small world though – Elder son did unplugged arrangements of Whole Lotta Love & Black Dog the week before Led Zep’s re-union gig acclaimed by critics and fans alike at the London O2 Arena. Saw Zep at Earl’s Court in 76 was it ?

Can’t decide whether I need to do a more methodical search, subscription or otherwise re-connect with the old vinyl collection … or continue the random trip of rediscovery.

Just added “Freedom of Science” to the blogroll. Pretty whacky style, but a very similar agenda to mine, in this case aimed at “Newtonism” specifically as the problem rather than “scientific objectivism” more generally in my case. Freeing knowledge from academic categories.

But very similar rationale too, about the easy option associated with the immensely successful “marketing and branding” of Newtonism, or in my case the memetics of the hyper-rational.

No human identity, but “Freedom” responded to Island’s post mentioned in my previous post below.

(Post Note – Dec 19th – I see Domenic has picked-up on Island’s conjecture and is following the logic of where the maths exists to support it …. comment thread ensues … all that is required is one open mind.)