Interesting how you can see the security beliefs in the article that Jason (I think) posted about Hameroff's ideas about quantum consciousness. Quanta have really become the get out clause of the modern world, probably because it's not well understood and is often a bit weird. It's no excuse for bad science though and the claims made for Penroses ideas are being stretched way beyond what he was originally trying to prove. And by one of the authors! Does it make me more likely to believe it? No, I think that everyone has the desire to live forever, it's buried deep down but it might be tricky getting going in the morning without it.
---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <anartaxius@...> wrote: SECURITY BELIEFS Some of us may recall the author Arthur C. Clarke's three laws of prediction: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. These 'laws' apply to scientific advancement. In the field of human psychology, there are a set of statements made by another author, Isaac Asimov, which refer to beliefs we humans invoke in order to feel 'safer', beliefs that reduce cognitive dissonance when what we think and how we act does not seem to be approved of by the world world around us. These beliefs tend to be rampant in spiritual circles, where belief dominates rather than simple observation and direct experience, the latter two always seemingly to be somewhat in short supply. Azimov called these six items 'security beliefs'. In the spirit of modesty (rather atypical for Azimov), he suggested the reader could supply a seventh, if one could be thought of. Because of their prevalence however, one might think of these items as laws. These beliefs and their descriptions are not really laws, just as Clarke's 'laws' are not really laws, they are just simple observations about human behaviour and human responses to situations, but because they are so prevalent, they might be accorded informal status as 'laws' of human behaviour. Azimov's Security Beliefs: There exist supernatural forces that can be cajoled or forced into protecting mankind. There is no such thing, really, as death. There is some purpose to the Universe. Individuals have special powers that will enable them to get something for nothing. You are better than the next fellow. If anything goes wrong, it's not one's own fault. I found these in a book titled 'Magic', a collection of stories and essays published not long after Asimov's death. Asimov was one of the most prolific authors of the 20th century, having written or edited more than 500 books, and an equally large number of short stories and essays. Assuming his professional writing career began about 1940, that comes to nearly ten books a year, not including the other material. As you can gander from the 'security beliefs', they seem to apply in full force to our group of miscreants here on FFL. I have certainly fallen into their grip at one time or another in my life, and am still probably not free of them - yet - although if number two is false, there's hope. One way to look at these is if they are not true, then their opposites are what is true, and they would be laws of the Universe.
