What, Why & How do we Know ?
Sam Harris conversation with Thomas Metzinger in the Waking Up Podcast. Hat tip to Terry Waites for the link as a conversation starter: Brain dump only whilst listening (few sentences / little editing) : In usual “naive” Sam Harris way the conversation skips superficially across many topics, and Metzinger is himself highly politically motivated. These days … Continue reading “Progress in Dialogue – Thomas Metzinger meets Sam Harris”
A bookmarking post only. Interesting to me as an one-time fluid-dynamicist, and I’ve mentioned the parallels before between Navier-Stokes et al in Fluid Dynamics and more fundamental physics. Especially point-based (Boscovich), quantum-loop-based (Rovelli) and integrated-information (IIT). Just capturing the link here. “fluid dynamics, is surprisingly pivotal to understanding some of the most elementary constituents and … Continue reading “Why Fluid Dynamics is not boring?”
I was fortunate to meet and hear Dan Dennett delivering Convergence: Information, Evolution, and Intelligent Design at The Royal Institution on Wednesday 25th March this week. I say fortunate because, despite being a huge fan of his as these pages will attest, and despite exchanging emails with him back in January when I noticed he … Continue reading “Daniel Dennett at The Royal Institution of Great Britain @Ri_Science”
Already the 3rd week of 2010 and I’ve still read only a smattering of the responses to the 2010 Edge Question “How has the internet changed the way you think ?” This George Dyson response is a good one. We used to be kayak builders, collecting all available fragments of information to assemble the framework … Continue reading “Paddling Logs”
As promised herwith a few pointers to those items of interest in answers to the 2009 Edge Question. Answers ring like scientific odes to uncertainty, humility and doubt; passionate pleas for critical thought in a world threatened by blind convictions. THE TORONTO STAR Sue Blackmore – predictably, when some other “artificial” technological meme replicator becomes … Continue reading “What Will Change Everything ?”
Is love all you need, or does money make the world go round ? Interesting post from Euan Semple, contrasting the “pathological” shareholder-value-making duty of business organisations, with the idea that love is the most important driver in any organisation. Like any of us taking this stuff seriously, he is forced to conclude with an … Continue reading “All You Need is Love #3”
[Holding post now updated(*)] Philip Goff (oft referenced here for his attempt at panpsychism) has been quiet for a while. I thought he had actually been ill / injured a couple of months ago, but for whatever the reason, his deep thinking opportunity has led him to Christianity – a heretical form he says. An … Continue reading “Heretic or Mainstream?”
This is a version of my Rules of Engagement / Rules of Discourse page. Being updated to make it more explicitly obvious that these are also the rules of free-speech, more generally than lip-service to “freeze peach”. The mantra being parroted by followers of Elon Musk – topical in 2024 because he made it his … Continue reading “The Rules of Freeze Peach”