So Miles, Since you and Eric seem to be in basic agreement, I'd be interested in your answer to the questions I posed for Eric.
-- Russ On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 3:20 PM, Miles Parker <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Sep 16, 2009, at 1:35 PM, ERIC P. CHARLES wrote: > > It's funny, I have the general notion that "scientists" shouldn't know > better. I don't mean that based on their intelligence, but I think it is > much easier for scientists to go about doing the stuff they do, and they do > it better, if they think they are REALLY doing it. Albeit, it may be fun to > predict where a cannon ball is going to land, or what the orbit of the > planets will be, but if people didn't think they were finding out something > "real" about "gravity" I doubt the activity would have been as engaging. > > > I think that's a really neat way to think about it. I'm sure that it is > helpful to a lot of people, and in fact as the reference I sent makes clear, > it would actually be impossible to accomplish anything without some ability > to conceptualize things as if they were real, or certainly to communicate > them. On the other hand, the belief that such things are real has lead to > all sorts of mischief -- including scientific materialism itself, but also > see say classical economics. > > > When people on this list talk about emergence, complexity, intrinsic > organization, rule governed behavior, consciousness, software usability, > threshold phenomenon, keyboard preferences, etc., don't most of them think > they are talking about something real? > > > Put me into the "No" category. > > Except that I will say that emergence and complexity might be the closest > thing to something that is "real", i.e. pervasive and permanent. But I > better leave it at that. > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
