Oh, and I'm 200% with Doug about our "deadly embrace" tendency, quibbling about words and sucking the life out of otherwise interesting conversations. Now *that's* trolling!
-- Owen On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 10:44 AM, Owen Densmore <o...@backspaces.net> wrote: > Wait, to be fair, Doug simply > 1 - Presented a pointer to an interesting article > 2 - Explained why the article was interesting to him > > Where's the problem? > > I'm amazed at the article and would love to see the stunts that the > program uses to increase entropy locally .. if I get it. > > -- Owen > > > On Tue, Apr 23, 2013 at 10:34 AM, glen ropella <g...@ropella.name> wrote: > >> >> Whenever I go down to Portland State University, there's a >> fundamentalist preacher standing on a bench asserting that all the >> people walking around are morally in danger. He talks and talks, rails >> and rails. Yet the students discuss their classes or their social >> networks, study their books, talk on their phones, eat their lunch, etc. >> >> No matter how loud the preacher yells about the behavior and moral >> degradation of the people around him, nobody listens. They continue to >> do what they do, sometimes listening in amusement to the preacher, or >> playing "Amen, brother" games with him, but mostly ignoring him. >> >> I have some ideas about why his protestations have no effect. But it >> would help, especially in a conversation like this, if the preacher, >> himself, were to give some practical hint as to _how_ the discussion >> could be taken in a new direction. Or even in what new direction the >> preacher would like us to take the discussion. (Aside from thumbing >> some bible or other.) >> >> Mostly, the preacher seems to want to preach, with no discussion being >> possible. Anytime anyone tries to approach the preacher and _discuss_ >> whatever, the preacher ends up ranting and railing about how that person >> just doesn't get it and always falls into the standard immorality they >> exhibited before they tried to start a discussion with the preacher. >> >> >> On 04/23/2013 08:16 AM, Douglas Roberts wrote: >> > Fuggit, work can wait, the first proposal is in final edit and the >> second >> > one is under control, so why delay my response. >> > >> > Re: your question of what do I find ridiculous: Not the subject of the >> > referenced paper, certainly. Rather our little group's pronounced >> tendency >> > to niggle and (dare I say it?) pontificate over the true, deep, and >> (dare I >> > say it?) philosophical meanings of words. Like, say, just to pick a >> random >> > sample: "emergence", "complex", "behaviors", "through", "causal", >> > "entropic", and "forces". >> > >> > And now to hijack my own thread: the referenced paper mentions >> cosmology as >> > one of the topic ares that the above terms are frequently used to >> describe. >> > Since cosmology is one of my favorite spare time reading focus areas, I >> > wanted to make an observation that the following reference makes very >> > clearly, which is that *nobody* has even the slightest glimmer of >> > understanding of our true cosmological origins. Even the events after >> that >> > instant of the big bang, where it is postulated that our universe >> expanded >> > from sub-atomic dimensions, through inflation (inflation? WTF caused >> that?) >> > are only sparsely understood. >> > >> > Classical physicists like to duck the subject of "What caused the big >> > bang?" by hiding behind the academic artifice of claiming that the >> question >> > is meaningless because space-time did not exist before the big bang. >> > >> > But, we do like to pontificate here on FRIAM, don't we? Deeply, and >> > philosophically. But rather than continuing in the usual vein of >> debating >> > (deeply, but with much pontification) the true meaning, of, say >> "emergence" >> > again, let's take the discussion in a new direction. Sorry for the >> > Facebook link, but the original article is buried behind a NewScientist >> > paywall. The article nicely addresses my thoughts on that other >> question >> > you asked me, i.e. where do I think life comes from. >> > >> > >> https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=501821756549668&set=a.477892902275887.114170.334816523250193&type=1&theater >> > >> > >> > --TrollBoi >> >> >> -- >> glen =><= Hail Eris! >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> > >
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