Richard Feynman said that Science is what we have learned about how not to
fool ourselves about the way the world is. To the extent that it achieves
that goal, science works even without individual self-awareness. That's
really quite an accomplishment, to have created a way of being in the world
The current *Discover Magazine* solicited Advice for the next president
from a number of prominent scientists. The longest by far was from Lawrence
Krauss. Among his other points he said that
Science generally functions by unambiguously determining what is wrong, not
what is right. ... And the
Russ says,
Richard Feynman said that Science is what we have learned about how not to
fool ourselves about the way the world is. To the extent that it achieves
that goal, science works even without individual self-awareness. That's
really quite an accomplishment, to have created a way of being
Apropos of this week's thread on governance:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Don Begley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: October 8, 2008 6:20:25 PM MDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: sfx News: Documentary Screening, Friday, October 10 at 7:00 pm
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Frito Friday,
Thus spake Phil Henshaw circa 10/09/2008 04:48 AM:
Right, but totally inconsistent with your first statement just hire an
expert.
You must be confusing me with someone else. I've been arguing _against_
just hire an expert the whole time.
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-219-3846,
Glen,
No, taking on impossible tasks is what true stupidity is about, not
expertise, and the best way to hire a stupid expert is to hire people ready
to do it. Come on... heading into impenetrable walls of complexity is the
stupidest thing any 'expert' could possibly recommend but we've gone
David Green proposed somewhat similar ideas back in around
2000. Someone else (I forget who now) mentioned it again in a slightly
different form within the last year in an Artificial Life article. I
tried running an experiment implementing this idea using Tierra, but
have found that I need to
Glen,
Oh, I read it wrong then, sorry! What about the other stuff, like we have
an unusually large number of experts taking on, and not letting on about,
ever increasingly complex problems.
Phil
-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of glen
Glen says,
The idea was that math is just the transformation of one set of
sentences into another set of sentences by a particular grammar. This
is (weakly) analogous to the transformation of a piece of paper from one
shape to another.
But then the idea driving you to do that is your own
Douglas Roberts wrote:
Take a look around you. Like what you see? I'm afraid this is as
good as it's going to get, at least according to this guy:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4894696.ece
But there's more recombination now, e.g. from the low cost of travel.
Well said Russ. Science as a self-organizing system which is relatively
robust and self-healing.
Russ Abbott wrote:
Richard Feynman said that Science is what we have learned about how
not to fool ourselves about the way the world is. To the extent that
it achieves that goal, science works
Some additional, perhaps helpful, references:
Blackstone, Neil (1997). Dose-Response Relationships for Experimental
Heterochrony in a Cologial Hydroid. The Biological Bulletin, Vol. 193, No.
1.
Gould, Stephen (1977). Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap
Press of Harvard Press.
Steve,
Well, might you also say science is self-organized to be 'robustly' avoiding
the subject of uncontrolled systems too??
If something doesn't come to your attention because you're only looking for
something else, it could seem to not exist. How do you explain the very
large variety of
Greetings, all --
A couple of links to ponder: first, from The Long Tail, Chris Anderson's blog:
October 09, 2008
Best advice I've heard all week
What should you do amidst financial turmoil?
Put
wax in your ears. People are more afraid of
Perhaps Steve G. could implement one of these for the FRIAM list.
http://xkcd.com/481/
--
Doug Roberts, RTI International
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
505-455-7333 - Office
505-670-8195 - Cell
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group
Thus spake Douglas Roberts circa 10/09/2008 01:57 PM:
Perhaps Steve G. could implement one of these for the FRIAM list.
http://xkcd.com/481/
No. That would decrease the SNR by discouraging self-aware people from
posting and encouraging posts from those who merely like the sound of
their own
Russell Standish offered the following question:
What do you think of relaxed selection ?
My inexpert response:
Well, I am uneasy about the concept. When I used to be a teacher of these
things, students LOVED the idea that some ages and places are harsh and
some are mellow, and that
All --
And another interesting reference:
Article in Science: Phenotypic Diversity, Population Growth,
and Information in Fluctuating Environments by Edo Kussell and
Stanislas Leibler, Science 23 September 2005; 309: 2075-2078;
published online 25 August 2005,
Nicholas Thompson wrote:
The metaphor is terrible because
the time-scale of oscillations of good and bad times in economics is WAY
too short for the reproductive capacity of the species to respond. So the
times are sort of independent of the reproduction of the species.
Perhaps not..
One should not confuse economics with biological selection. It would
seem plausible that good economic times might lead to rapid evolution
of economies, such as during the recent Internet bubble for instance,
but not that it would have any influence on us at the genetic level.
The sort of idea
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