What, Why & How do we Know ?
Speculative presentation from Brian Josephson … I love the anti-reductionist “levels of reality” aspect – and the teleological “future directedness” of life. Explanation being distinct from predictability – no unique cause-effect or whole-part relations, and two-way causal & explanatory dependencies. Such basic common-sense stuff from the Nobel Laureate. … note the parallels in his fundamental life idea … Continue reading “Fundamental Life”
Another to add to the intriguing list of intellectuals converting to catholicism. Most famous for his much parodied “Trees”, but an interesting if brief life. I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree. Picked-up on Kilmer because of this quote of the subsequent couplet … A tree whose hungry mouth is … Continue reading “(Alfred) Joyce Kilmer”
Interesting seminar from FIATECH by Jerome Glenn of The Millennium Project – trans-institutional think tank on forecastsing preparing for the future. (See the 15 challenges). Maturing technology possibilities and the highest level sustainability and ethical conflict agenda presented in a business environment. eg genetic engineering of self-organizing (new) lifeforms anyone ? (See previous Josephson link.) … Continue reading “Millennium Project”
I like to think of myself as (I’ve even been branded) a “sophisticated atheist” and, as an “open-minded scientist”, I’ve been a fan for several years of Brian Josephson; staunch Nodel-laureate defender against bad knee-jerk science. Feb 2009 article here from Brian, about the case last year where Michael Reiss (a Theist) came to “step … Continue reading “Dumb Atheists”
I just blogged about Colin Talbot‘s “Paradoxical Primate” which despite the unlikely sounding TLA (Three Letter Acronym) “PST” (Paradoxical Systems Theory) jargon, and the negative review I initially stumbled upon, I found the subject and title headings sufficiently attractive to order a copy. I’d just renewed contact with Bruce Charlton only a couple of days ago, … Continue reading “Full Circle, Paradoxically”
Mark Germine posted a link on MoQ-Discuss to his paper “The Holographic Principle Theory of Mind” on the Dynamical Psychology philosophy journal site edited by Ben Goertzel. (I have Ben linked in my side-bar blogroll). Mark’s summary is The Holographic Principle holds the information in any region of space and time exists on the surface … Continue reading “Quantum Consciousness, Whitehead and Pirsig”
Demonstrated today in Silicon Valley by Canadian company D:Wave Systems. Thanks to Magnus Berg over on MoQ.Discuss for the link. I’ve been following Quantum Computing, not so much for the interest in processing power and super-computing applications, exciting though they may be, but because of the increasing importance of Quantum Information as a fundamental level … Continue reading “First Commercial Quantum Computer”
I blogged about Eestor recently. That’s not an anomalous energy patent, but an electrical capacitance alternative to the internal combustion engine. Will it work commercially and socially ? The point is that there may be reasons for engineering scepticism, but the basic physics is not (yet) in doubt. Brian Josephson has been a regular champion … Continue reading “Anomalous Energy”
I’ve barely blogged or posted anywhere in the last few months, almost none in the last month. Just too busy with the day job, and in a temporary state domestically. We move into a longer term place next weekend. I have however found some disjointed time to do some reading. I think the last things … Continue reading “Enlightened Reading ?”
I continue to be fascinated by the developments at the British Computer Society Cybernetic Machine Specialist Group (BCS Cybernetics Group or BCSCMSG for short) despite the dense specialist jargon making proceedings all but unintelligible to any lay reader like myself. Here is the synopsis of papers presented at the BCSCMSG Symposium 10 as part of … Continue reading “Quantum Information & More”