[FRIAM] what's old is new again
Is the problem blowing up in the Middle East Islam or something else? On the one hand it is fully dressed up as Islam. It wears turbans, speaks Arabic quotes the Koran and the Hadith, issues Fatwas. Is seems fully Islamic and sounds like religious fanaticism. But, oddly, if you strip away the religious trappings, it looks a lot like Nazism and Communism, the obscene 20th Century Totalitarian movements we fought for a century. There is the desire for a single omnipotent leader, for everyone to be forced to believe the same things as everyone else. The belief that glorious ends justify any conceivable means. The blood lust and focus on terror and random violence. Hatred and scapegoats and the language of genocide and class warfare and now sectarian warfare. Maybe this isn't an excess of religious passion, but a rather more base desire in a new hat. Is this just a phase very traditional societies, with rigid hierarchies and sharp sex role divisions, go through as they modernize? As they modernize, they look at the West and see decadence and weakness and calculate that, instead of modernizing, they can just conquer the West and subordinate it. Instead of relaxing their hierarchies, they can make the more extreme and rigid on their way to world domination. The goal seems more and more unworkable, but the process seems to be playing out yet again. -Mike Oliker 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] fewer but better laws
Eric, I think this is brilliant. I would love to see 10 years of law removal. I'm afraid Obamacare lost me the second I heard about its size. It is disenfranchising, not only for the voters, but for the congressman who couldn't digest it. We pass laws, and if they don't work we add complications. If the courts nullify parts, we add workarounds, until we have something incomprehensible, ineffective for its intended purpose, but very good at gumming up the works. Consider the pointless mess campaign finance reform laws have become. I love creativity and am always open to trying something new -- but real creativity includes a willingness to see if it worked, undo the damage, and try something different if it doesn't. The governments (federal, state) are weak on step 2. The useful distinction here is may be complexity vs. complication, and a bias towards control. Huge bodies of laws and rulings may give the illusion of control and certainty, but they deaden the vast network of interactions which make us up. The Federal Reserve, managing one to two key variables (the discount rate and the reserve requirement) is more effective than the huge bodies of regulation which are so ripe with unintended consequences (e.g. the Mark to Market rule). -Mike Oliker Message: 10 Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 10:24:06 -0400 From: ERIC P. CHARLES e...@psu.edu To: Roger Critchlow r...@elf.org Cc: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Is my government too big? Message-ID: 1347719046l.2158618l...@psu.edu Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Roger, Two points: 1) Being a third party kind of guy, with no particular loyalty for or against Obama (though keeping a healthy fear of Romney), I share Owen's frustration at Obama's inability/unwillingness to clearly articulate his successes. His overall record includes a surprising number of major successes that few seem to know about. 2) I don't think anyone has a problem with the government scaling in needed ways to the population. Yes, as cities get bigger, they need more police officers, firemen, etc. When people complain about the growth in government, I think what they are really complaining about is the proliferation of new laws, especially when they involve mission creep, in which the government starts to regulate newer and less necessary parts of their lives. When there are too many rules for people (i.e., legislators) to keep track of, you start to get schizophrenic sounding contradictions, which are necessarily enforced arbitrarily. Much of our problems could be solved if, at least for a short period, we convinced legislators to brag about how many laws they repealed, rather than them feeling they had to justify their existence by proposing and passing new laws. To make matters worse, when the per capita size of government remains the same, and the number of new laws continues to grow at staggering rates, it must be the case that enforcement of the old laws and regulations starts slipping. This means even more arbitrary enforcement and uncertainty. Eric P.S. Not a Federal issue, but: I have a friend who does some fun looking pistol competitions, and have been considering getting the licenses to participate. The PA gun law is 126 pages thick. When getting the quick summary from my friend, I was surprised to learn, for example: 1) There is no license required to own and carry a non-concealed, loaded firearm. 2) The license to carry a concealed weapon is easy to get, and will even let you drive with a concealed loaded pistol on your person! 3) If you are hunting with have a rifle (or any long-barrel gun), and accidentally lay it in plain sight in the passenger seat of your car, that is a big crime, even if you have said permit. If anyone could explain how that combination of laws makes sense. 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] FW: [FFF] First Friday Fractals - January 5th
Check it Out -- Forwarded Message: -- From: Jonathan Wolfe [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [FFF] First Friday Fractals - January 5th Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2007 05:41:45 + Hi everyone - I hope you all are having a great new year! I'm excited to keep improving our educational programs this year, and we have much in store. We have many great plans to share the beauty of fractals with ever-larger audiences, inspiring people all over the world about math, science and art. We're busily working on making the upcoming First Friday Fractal shows better than ever. This includes beautiful new custom created music and newly rendered fractal zoom animations. And, as a seasonal bonus, a special section on the chaotic journey of... snowflakes! So please come check out our next First Friday Fractal show, this coming Friday January 5th, at 6:00 and 7:30. The shows are held in the LodeStar Planetarium in the Natural History Museum in Old Town, in Albuquerque. These shows are extremely popular, and we have now sold out TWELVE shows in a row (!). So please arrive at least 30 minutes early to make sure you get in. You can also buy tickets by phone starting on Friday morning, which we recommend - just call the Museum admissions desk at 841-2869. The Museum has just raised the ticket prices by a dollar, so admission is now $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, and $4 for kids age 3-12. Each month we set aside 10 spots for teachers to get in free, but they have to reserve their place in advance. So, if you're a teacher who wants to attend, or you'd like your child's teacher to see the show, just let us know by Friday morning. And an update about the fractal merchandise - we've sold several of the framed fine art fractal reproductions, and a number of you managed to order fractal t-shirts through our website in time for Christmas. Thanks for your support! There will be some gorgeous new framed fractals on display, and a cool new t-shirt design available this Friday at the LodeStar show, so come check them out if you want to own some cutting-edge, eye-catching art. This is art that reflects nature, art that explores infinity, art that shows you support math and science education - this is Art for the Smart :) Stay tuned for more exciting updates about how we're sharing fractals to inspire people in math, science and art. I hope to see you soon, and thanks for your interest and support! -Jonathan Wolfe, Ph.D. Executive Director, http://www.FractalFoundation.org *** Fractal Foundation Friends is an occasional mailing list that keeps interested people informed of what the Fractal Foundation is up to - inspiring people about the beauty of math, science and art. As always, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe if you do not wish to receive these emails.*** 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] Democracy and evolution
The Genius of James Madison was to see that a large country with many factions would be freer from factionalism that a small country would be. The factions would cancel each other out. Factionalism was the greatest threat to democracy that the founders saw. Much the same applies to corporations and the marketplace -- we are saturated with islands of self interest, but have a system which has them cancel each other out -- except insofar as they mostly line up, i.e. except for the widely held positions. It's like filtering out all but the DC signal. Democracy as an evolutionary matter, once it is well established, is pretty good at allowing agreement to emerge from the cacophony of viewpoints. It's rapid spread (from one to more than 100 democracies in two centuries) attests to it's evolutionary superiority. There has never been a time when those in power didn't believe in suppressing all other viewpoints. It is the essence of all non-democracies. In democracies people always want to achieve that, but they they are structurally inhibited. If they ever succeed, then they are no longer have a democracy. Democracy is Well Established == No One can Suppress all other Points of View Mike Oliker -- Message: 1 Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2006 08:15:31 -0700 From: Marcus G. Daniels [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [FRIAM] US intelligence agencies discover blogs and wikis To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group friam@redfish.com Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Phil Henshaw wrote: The ideal product of democracy is decision making that reflects a whole understanding of things by integrating all points of view. Trouble develops when the points of view that believe in suppressing all others take over. I have my doubts about the evolutionary value of democracy in the modern world. For example, in the corporate world the motivation is supplied by stockholders and the points of view are supplied by employees. Worse, the corporate leaders, workers, and stockholders are all different people, disinterested in the welfare of one another. Complicating matters is that the corporations have the ear of government. Democracy in these kinds of conditions requires individual courage and idealism. 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] We meet at 7 pm
Title: Message complexity group / chaos club meeting time: 7 pm Thursday July 27 meeting place: Mike Oliker's (directions below) meeting topic: the article "Antichaos and Adaptation" by Stuart Kauffman. The article is available online at www.covchap.com/articles/antichaos.htm DIRECTIONS TO MIKE OLIKER'S HOUSE 8700 Canyon Run Rd. NE, ABQ, NM 87111 (505) 821-3407 [EMAIL PROTECTED] I-25 to San Mateo going East. Left onto Academy, also going East. Go past Wyoming and Wal-Mart's and turn just after St. Joseph Health Stop onto Moon. Take Moon one block south to Canyon Run. I'm at #8700 2.5 blocks up on the right, with a black mailbox 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
