BACKGROUND
“Your Man Friday’s Ideas” was originally conceived as a weekly email posting to all faculty at Nipissing University. It was motivated by frustration with all the university emails I received invariably being trivial, usually administrivial. In the distant past, in my youthful naivete, I believed a university would be full of people interested in ideas and in sharing them. Odd then that the major communication media (email) among these academics I work with rarely contained anything vaguely resembling an idea. Was the university an intellectual desert island? Feeling that I couldn’t be alone there, alone in my frustration with the lack of any university correspondence that could stimulate more than a single neuron, I started sending out these weekly emails (every Friday) with three links to fascinating stuff I wanted to share with anyone who cared. We all like to share--if it doesn’t cost us anything.
Over time, because of requests, folk other than faculty have gradually been added to my mailing list. So for convenience I've put up this archival website of each week’s recommendations. That way newcomers can view past links, and those who don’t arrange with me to have yet another email cluttering their spam-clogged inbox each week can just check the site at their convenience.
Caveat! Inevitably, given the ever evolving state of the Internet, some of the links on past postings may be outdated, but--hey, dems da breaks! You get what you pay for.
Offer! If you really want to be added to the emailing list write me at Ken (AT) Stange (DOT) com. Please use “Man Friday” as your header. My inbox tends to overflow, so I use filters to deal with stuff in order of priority.
Newcomers! Try a few links to see if you agree with my idea of what is an interesting idea.
2010-03-19 – THEME: FORGET AI, CONSIDER AC!
The nature of creativity is one of my most passionate interests, and I’ll openly admit that my respect and admiration for the great creative minds in the arts and in the sciences verges on idolatry. However, the more I study creativity, the more doubts I have about this gift really defining our species as unique. And the paradoxes associated with creativity are confounding and counter-intuitive. One such paradox is that the heart and soul of creativity is not in the creating—but rather in the critical evaluation. Enough monkeys pounding on typewriter keys (or computers generating random characters) will eventually write “To be or not to be, that is the question.” But neither monkey nor computer can tell if that line is more worth keeping than “To be or not to be, that is the xjfjisll.” I’ve written software to write grammatically correct lines of poetry, some of which are awesome, but most of which are just silly. Although my program can sometimes produce lines I honestly wish I’d written, my program can’t tell they’re the keepers––only I can. Still, there is evidence of computers becoming capable of critical judgements. The advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are mind-boggling, but even more amazing (and disturbing) are the developments in artificial creativity (AC). They really threaten our probably exaggerated self-esteem, as evidenced by the reaction such developments elicit. Here are some articles to make us feel less secure about our allegedly unique human abilities––and make one seriously ponder what creativity really is.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE CYBORG COMPOSER
I’ve been following this guy’s activities for some time. Thanks to my son for this recent article about his work.
AN OVERVIEW OF ARTIFICIAL CREATIVITY
Worth noting is something I’ve often said: The random number generator is the poetic soul of computers.
COMPUTER STORY WRITER
Just one–somewhat silly, but fun–example of computer-generated fiction. Type in “story generator” in Google and one will see many examples of programs that are in some small way creative writers.
2010-03-12 -- THEME: THE USEFULNESS OF DEPRESSION
We’ve just had a week of sunshine, record temperatures, and an early spring is in the air. Seems like a good time for dark thoughts. Physical pain is necessary for survival. But chronic, unrelenting pain can override the basic instinct for survival. This also seems to apply to emotional pain, but it’s easy to forget that such pain is also necessary for survival. How we manage both physical and emotional pain raises all kinds of questions, especially now that we have much better resources for managing pain than in the past. If you have a toothache now, you can take drugs to kill the ache. But most of us are sensible enough to acknowledge it as an important warning signal and go to a dentist. We don’t just keep taking the painkillers, assuming the problem is resolved. However, we now also have drugs to relieve emotional pain, but in this case some people seem to think that this really does resolve the problem. (Of course, sometimes symptomatic relief is all one can expect and something to be very grateful for.) There is no ‘dentist’ to quickly fix the underlying cause of a person’s depression with some kind of psychological ‘root canal’. I know mental health workers and so-called “spiritual advisors” sincerely try to fulfil this role, but their efficacy is questionable. It’s all very complicated and controversial, but the following perspectives on one form of chronic emotional pain are certainly food for thought while enjoying the early spring.
DEPRESSION’S UPSIDE
“Darwin wrote, it is the sadness that informs as it ‘leads an animal to pursue that course of action which is most beneficial.’ The darkness was a kind of light.”
DEPRESSION AND CREATIVITY
“A number of writers propose that mental illness may even help nurture creative potential for some people.”
MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION
“Am I as happy as I should be? We've become so obsessed with that question that it's making us miserable, says psychotherapist Gary Greenberg.”
RECOMMENDED LINK RE PREVIOUS FRIDAY ON MULTIVERSES
Contributed by Christiaan Stange.
2010-03-05 -- THEME: THE MULTIVERSE
If anything is likely to cause your head to explode, it is thinking about contemporary theories in physics. The Nobel laureate physicist, Richard Feynman, once remarked, "Anyone who claims to understand quantum mechanics doesn't understand quantum mechanics." Well, if Feynman can say that, heaven help us dilettantes who try to grasp these ideas. An easy way to develop empathy with Alice in Wonderland is to venture into the Wonderland of modern cosmological theory. But then, hell, it's fun to get lost in this topsy-turvy world of modern physics. Forget the tired cliché of "thinking outside of the box"; these scientists are thinking outside the boundaries of the whole known universe. Back in the mid-fifties Hugh Everett proposed the many-worlds interpretation (MWI), which suggests there is a multiverse, of which our known universe is only an infinitesimal part. (Interestingly, it was the pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James who coined the term “multiverse” half a century before.) At first Everett wasn't taken seriously, but now his MWI is one mainstream interpretation of the established paradoxes that empirical support of quantum theory throws in our faces--such as the arrow of time not really existing!
ONE PHYSICIST HUNTS FOR THE ULTIMATE THEORY
A clearly written article about theoretical physicist Sean Carroll's theory to 'resolve' the time paradoxes of modern physics by turning to the multiverse idea. (Thanks to my son for pointing me to this.)
ARROW OF TIME TALK
A taping of a full one-hour lecture by Sean Carroll where he clearly and wittily explicates the current theories that attempt to resolve the mystery of the Big Bang, entropy, and time's apparent unidirectionality. It concludes with his own preferred explanation, one that posits a multiverse.
THE MANY WORLDS OF HUGH EVERETT
This article is about the tragic life of the originator of the revolutionary theory which started it all. It is sad that the personal lives of so many of the brilliant people who explored the farthest regions of philosophical science were so tragic. One thinks of Frege, Wittgenstein, Godel, Turing, etc.
2010-02-26 -- THEME: SICK TV
Television is a great and versatile medium. But, as in books, it is content that really matters. (The medium isn’t really the message. It’s only the container that shapes it to some extent.) There are a lot of PBS, TVO and BBC (even CBC) programs that are more literate than the majority of books and magazines sold at convenience store check-out counters. Despite the once-justified contempt for most of network TV, in the cable and satellite era it is hard to say whether the ratio of trash to quality content really is worse for TV than for print media. It may just be that the crap that makes it into print isn’t as much in everyone’s face as it is with TV. The popularity of trash TV shows is more obvious, because it, unlike tabloids, is in our living rooms every time we turn on the Tube. The following links are to popular TV shows that seem to represent some strange ideas––and say something about our baser natures. All these clips are intended for immature audiences and viewer indiscretion is advised. It is worth contemplating what is the ‘idea’ behind each of these nasty shows.
THE JERRY SPRINGER SIDE SHOW
Each episode of this show focuses on some lurid topic and places guests in confrontational situations where they expose ‘dirty’ secrets which frequently result in physical fighting between these ‘guests’. Topics include bestiality, incest, infidelity admitted publicly, dubious parenthood, pedophilia, strange fetishes, dwarfism, or transvestism. Here is a sample episode.
PRISONER’S DILEMMA: GOLDEN BALLS
What could be more entertaining than watching people lie and cheat -- out of greed?! There are no winners in this game show. One person ends up broke. The other shows himself or herself to be a lying asshole in front of the apparently large audience for this sort of nastiness. Here is a sample episode.
SURVIVOR SILLINESS
This is perhaps the original and archetypal “‘reality” TV show, extremely popular throughout the world. In the show contestants are allegedly isolated in the wilderness and have to compete to ‘survive’ for prizes. During each episode the members of the group vote off other ‘tribe’ members until only one final contestant remains as the "Sole Survivor". It, and its various spin-offs, may be a mini-psychodrama about how politicians and grifters behave, but it sure isn’t based on rewarding competitors for being the best at something. Like all these so-called ‘reality shows’, it is cheap to produce and focuses more on our species’ ability to be nasty than being really good at something. Here is an amusing parody of “Survivor”.
2010-02-19 -- THEME: TRAVEL IN THE INTERNET AGE
The science-fiction writers and futurists of several decades ago got one thing very wrong. They believed there would be revolutionary developments in transportation, but it was communication where the revolution occurred. However this revolution did have a major effect on travel. We don’t fly around with jet-packs, but we do a lot of virtual travel that was inconceivable a mere few decades ago. I was thinking about this as we recently flew home from Malta. Planes haven’t changed that much. In fact many of the metal boxes that contain us as we fly over the Atlantic are older than almost any cars still on the road, and a transatlantic flight takes just as long now as it did fifty years ago. But the revolution in communication has made travel a very different experience. The Internet casts a wide net over the whole globe, and access to it is widely available while travelling. I wonder at how I managed the logistics of travel before the age of the Internet. Examples follow.
VIEW FROM THE STREET
You want to quite literally see what you’re getting into at your next destination? By now everyone uses Google Maps which is global, but the area covered by their Street View option continues to expand as well. Upon getting home I happened to notice that they’ve even done Northern Ontario. If homesick, I could’ve walked (virtually) up my street and looked at my house back here in North Bay. (Mind you it was my house last summer, so there was none of that white stuff to make me glad I was in the Mediterranean.) This link below is to the road into Nipissing University’s campus. (The URL is extremely long and has to be pasted in as one ‘word’. It is easier to simply type “Nipissing University” into the Google Maps’ search box and then drag the little man icon to where you want to ‘stand’ and look.)
A MULTITUDE OF PERSONAL GUIDES
It’s nice to have a guide, especially one who doesn’t make you follow a timetable -- or charge you for the service. No matter where you are, you can learn about the place online, get everything from formal detailed information about the place to personal advice from recent travellers to your destination. When in a Wi-Fi zone you can search out all the relevant websites and save them to your mobile device to carry with you as you explore. One such free software application is “Instapaper”.
A DROPBOX IN THE CLOUDS
At one point I needed a file from home. I emailed my son who uploaded it to a ‘cloud’ (a storage folder on a remote server), and I then was able to download it onto my laptop computer. “Dropbox” is a free application that connects one to several gigs of free storage in virtual space. One can upload files to this dropbox, and download from it, it on any computer or mobile device such as one’s iPhone.
2010-02-12 -- THEME: OTHER MEN FRIDAY
Seems this Man Friday isn’t the only Friday guy. (Gosh, and here I thought I was unique.) Check these websites out.
WHAT’S NEW BY BOB PARKS
The physicist, science commentator and author (Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud; and Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science) sends a Friday newsletter to anyone requesting to be added to his list. This one page, usually four-item report, of what is being done right––and what is foolishness––in science, as reported and as funded, is always delightfully frank and entertaining. The link is to the archive, but from there one can subscribe to a regular Friday email.
SPEAKING OF POEMS BY DAVID KOSUB
An incredibly thoughtful and articulate blog about poetry (and life) posted every Friday. Each posting is a beautifully crafted essay, and, unlike so many blogs, the contributors of comments are consistently literate and informed.
SCIENCE FRIDAY RADIO AND PODCAST
This website links to an Internet radio and podcast program broadcast every Friday about what’s new and interesting in the sciences.
2010-02-05 -- THEME: SCIENCE AND THE POPULAR MEDIA
Once upon a time there was a canon, a body of knowledge and a skill set that every educated person was assumed to possess. Any educational curriculum has to specify what percentage of time to devote to what are considered the essentials, the canon. An education exclusively devoted to what someone (or some committee) has decided is essential is bound to be parochial. (The Athenians wouldn’t even consider ‘electives’ in foreign languages, for they considered them barbaric.) But an educational system without a canon is no education at all--and education in Canada and The States is approaching that abyss. We allegedly have more educated people than ever before. More than 90% of Americans 25 or older have completed high school, yet according to one survey by Baylor University, 55% of Americans believe in guardian angels! And look at the widespread belief in astrology, homeopathy, faith healing, parapsychology, and other utter nonsense. Obviously one desperately needed item to be introduced to the mandatory curriculum is science. I don’t mean a whack of courses in specific sciences. I mean training in how science works, how to think critically and skeptically, and––very importantly––how to evaluate what is presented as science in the popular media. It is ironic that science has such cachet that con artists routinely dress up their nonsense in lab coats. It is disheartening that the solid scientific principle of opposing hypotheses battling it out is so misinterpreted by the popular media. One result is the attitude that because there is disagreement between scientists, one should just believe in what feels good. (Hell, if scientists debate whether the Big Bang occurred 13.5 or 14 billion years ago, you might as well believe some Almighty God made the whole mess in 4004 B.C. The hard-core creationists are all in precise agreement with their dates!) Another result is that of giving equal credence (and equal time on the tube) to some charlatan speaking pseudo-scientific gibberish as to a respected scientific expert in the field. Journalists interested in ‘presenting both sides‘ should realize that doing so doesn’t mean giving equal time to every nutcase disagreeing with an established scientific consensus.
DISAGREEMENT IS AT THE HEART OF SCIENCE
The author of this column is also the author of a wonderfully sane book: Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear. “We are the safest and healthiest human beings who ever lived, and yet irrational fear is growing, with deadly consequences—such as the 1,595 Americans killed when they made the mistake of switching from planes to cars after September 11. In part, this irrationality is caused by those—politicians, activists, and the media—who promote fear for their own gain.”
LETTER TO MR. MEDIA FROM MR. SCIENCE
A personification of science writes a letter to the personification of media. This is from from a neuroscientist with a great sense of humour. His whole blog archive is a delight. (Thanks to S. Hevenor for this link.)
“MEDIA SENSATIONALIZING SCIENCE” (PSEUDOSCIENCE ACTUALLY)
This is a short BBC news piece that somewhat acknowledges what is wrong with most news about science. The “see also”s are worth reading as well.
2010-01-29 -- THEME: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Every university in Ontario is being held hostage by the provincial government; in fact, apparently every public sector organization in the province is. The bosses demand 100% compliance from their employees to an indoctrination course on dealing with “persons with disabilities” or the consequences are dire. ($100,000 per day per organization and $50,000 per day for each director and officer of the organization!) Yes, while the course is inane, it is well-intentioned and relatively innocuous; and, unlike in Orwell’s 1984, one doesn’t have to pass a test that says 4 fingers are 5 or indicate one has learned in this course that it is wrong to call the disabled -- “people”! Not yet, anyway. Maybe the next round will require everyone ‘pass’ some PC test. So, just maybe, this is a precedent worth worrying about? Enuf. Friday is about offering up ideas, not about serving as a soapbox. This government’s idea is certainly an ‘interesting’ one. Two of the links below are humourous, for Political Correctness is inherently funny (except to the grim-faced politically-correct or those who are penalized for failing to be PC), and satire of it can be thought provoking. The third link is more serious, because censorship isn’t funny at all.
ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE CLOSER TO HOME
2010-01-22 -- THEME: IT’S BEEN A YEAR!
It has not been a month of Sundays. It’s been a year of Fridays. Time flies when you’re having none.
TIMELINES FOR EVERYTHING
Wonderful resource for putting things in temporal perspective.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
Movie very loosely based on Hawking’s book with a sound track by Philip Glass.
PART1 PART II PART III PART IV
SPACETIME CONTINUUM
The poetry of time.
2010-01-15 -- THEME: IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND!
You can’t cure cancer by “the power of positive thinking”, nor will negative thinking cause cancer. But there do seem to be a lot of medical and psychological disorders that are caused by our attitudes as well as alleviated by our attitudes. The former are called psychogenic illnesses, and the latter are the mysterious result of placebo treatments.
2010-01-08 -- THEME: I ROBOT
Is it time to put Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics on the books and hardwired into all our new devices? Robots are coming along nicely, although not as quickly as the ‘hard AI’ folk forecast several decades ago. Still if would be good to know that the command "Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL!" would have to be obeyed. Interestingly, the development of AI and robotics has been most successful when modeled on biological evolution rather than human engineering. This is to say that natural selection seems to work better than “intelligent design”––assuming of course that we humans qualify as being intelligent.
2010-01-01 -- THEME: HAPPY NEW YEAR AND END OF THE WORLD
You wake up with a hangover. You think you’re going to die from the agony. And then you realize you’re not––and now you’re even more despondent. You'll live. And a hangover isn't The End of the World. That was supposed to happen back at the turn of the millennium, when everyone was buying lots of bottled water and unplugging their computers before the whole technological infrastructure crashed just because some frugal, byte hoarding, computer programmer only used two digits to represent the year. But you know––promises, promises, promises! Well, the promises keep coming. Maybe our Western calender was flawed, and we should rely on the Mayan one, which cycles on the lucky number 13 and promises our end in the year 2012. The Mayans were, after all, a sophisticated people, full of good ideas which we still could gain from implementing. For example, some entrepreneur could make it big time by selling to soccer hooligans tzompantli, a stake the Mayans used to mount the heads of defeated ballgame opponents. It may even be possible to avoid the end of the human race by reinitiating the Mayan practice of human sacrifice, where children were killed by having a priest cut open their chests and tear out their hearts as an offering to the gods. Even if you don’t believe in these bloodthirsty gods and prefer you own slightly less nasty ones, this public policy would still do much to reduce that major threat to our species' survival: over-population.
WILL IT BE FIRE OR WILL IT BE ICE?
Frost favours ice. (Pun intended.)
WILL IT BE...THE LIST GOES ON AND ON!
So what are the chances of it being over in the next 70 years by various means? (Personally I would prefer to wait for the Second Law of Thermodynamics to get around to finishing the great heat death of the universe––but then I’ve always preferred unpleasant things being put off to the last minute.)
DOESN’T MATTER REALLY, FOR THE EARTH WILL BENEFIT ANYWAY!
In his book, The World Without Us, Weisman agrees with Horace: “You can drive out Nature with a pitchfork, but she keeps on coming back.” And then, of course, Gaia breathes a big sigh of relief! (Infection cured.)
2009-12-25 -- THEME: ‘TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOLLY
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and all that jazz!
RESEARCH ON “WORLD’S BEST JOKES”
I’m not sure this study should be considered ‘definitive’, but some damn good jokes are listed. And it is interesting seeing what are the favourites for different nations, which may well tell us something about their sense of humour.
JEWISH HUMOUR
Call me racist, but I think Jews make every other ethnic group look witless (pun intended) by comparison. The link is just to a Wikipedia article, but it has some great examples of Jewish jokes. Incidentally, it seems to me that the humour of Canucks and Brits (two countries both noted for seeming to produce an unusual number of comedians) share the self-deprecating, self-satirizing quality that is the hallmark of much Jewish humour. Yes, the Yanks certainly have some great comedians, but the vast majority are actually Jewish: e.g., Lennie Bruce, Mort Sahl, Woody Allen, etc. etc. etc.
SEEING THE HUMOUR IN DESIGN AND SIGNS
One very funny talk about the humour in design and designing.
CHRISTMAS BONUS
Here are two of my favourite jokes, which my wife is tired of hearing at parties. I’m sure my liking these jokes says something about my character. Maybe shrinks could replace the Rorshach Ink Blot Test or dream analysis with simply asking their dysfunctional and pathetic clients what are their favourite jokes. Surely that would reveal something about their subconscious, their id, their whatever.
Number 1.
A behaviorist gets married and decides to have an old-fashioned wedding and honeymoon. So he rents a cabin in the woods for the honeymoon and a horse and buck-wagon to escort his new bride to their honeymoon hideaway. After the wedding, he and his bride are riding off to their secret place in the woods on the buck-wagon. Being a psychologist he can’t help himself and starts lecturing his wife about behaviour modification as applied to animal training.
Suddenly the horse pulling the buck-wagon trips. He pulls the horse to a stop and jumps out and stands in front of the horse and, holding its head, applies aversive stimulation by screaming “That’s once!” A few minutes later the horse trips again. He pulls the horse to a stop and jumps out and stands in front of the horse and, holding its head, screams in its face “That’s twice!” Then the poor horse trips again. The psychologist pulls out a shotgun from the back of buck-wagon and jumps off the wagon and screams: “That’s thrice!” Then he shoots the horse in the head. His new wife, appalled at his behaviour, says: “Why did you do that?! That’s terrible!” The psychologist looks his wife in the eye and says “Woman, haven’t you learned anything yet?
That’s once!”
``Diagnosis: Misogynist and behaviourist
Number 2.
A man walks into a bar and orders a 12-year-old scotch. The bartender, believing that the customer will not be able to tell the difference, pours him a shot of the cheap 3-year-old house scotch that has been poured into an empty bottle of the good stuff. The man takes a sip and spits the scotch out on the bar and reams out the bartender. "This is the cheapest 3-year-old scotch you can buy. I'm not paying for it. Now, give me a good 12-year-old scotch." The bartender, now feeling a bit of a challenge, pours him a scotch of much better quality, a 6-year-old scotch. The man takes a sip and spits it out on the bar. "This is only 6-year-old scotch. I won't pay for this, and I insist on a good, 12-year-old scotch. The bartender finally relents and serves the man his best quality, 12-year-old scotch. The man sips the drink and says, "Now that's more like it." An old drunk from the end of the bar, who has witnessed the entire episode, walks down to the finicky scotch drinker and sets a glass down in front of him and asks, "What do you think of this?" The scotch expert takes a sip, and in disgust violently spits out the liquid yelling "Why, this tastes like piss!" To which the old drunk replies, "That's right, now tell me how old I am."
``Diagnosis: Alcoholic and prankster.
2009-12-18 -- THEME: THE MORAL IMPERATIVE
My wife teaches a philosophy course on Contemporary Moral Issues. This is far too challenging a topic for someone as “morally challenged” as myself. But that isn’t to say I don’t find the issues important or interesting. Something that I find particularly interesting is what science can contribute to the subject of ethics. Science is by definition an inappropriate tool for any value judgements: it is descriptive, not prescriptive. However, that does not preclude investigating and describing the nature of ethical judgments. Knowledge of such does not prescribe what is right or wrong, but knowledge about moral decisions is certainly useful in making moral decisions.
ARE WE BORN WITH AN INNATE “MORAL GRAMMAR”?
CAN ANIMALS TELL RIGHT FROM WRONG?
LIBERAL VERSUS CONSERVATIVE IDEAS REGARDING MORALITY
2009-12-11 -- THEME: NAILING ART TO THE WALL
When Andy Warhol was asked for his definition of art, he allegedly answered, “Art? Art is just a man’s name.” It is remarks like this, and his own innovative productions, that prompted Gore Vidal to describe Warhol as the "only genius with an IQ of 60!" Warhol’s apparently naive (or sarcastic or evasive) answer actually implies something profound: that art is just a name, and a Western European name that has no equivalent in many cultures. While it is true that all cultures have what we call “art”, all cultures do not have a word for “art”. Words are invented to represent concepts, so apparently many cultures don’t feel the need for the concept of a special category of things all sharing some specific attribute which we call aesthetic value. But really, what criteria do we use to judge aesthetic value, to sort things into art and not-art bins? The worst possible sorting criterion is the most common: what one likes. “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like!” “That disgusts me, so you can’t tell me that is art!” Here is some work some consider art, and if one decides it is not art, on what more reasonable criteria than personal preference is that decision based?
2009-12-04 -- THEME: EVIL QUACKERY
Other people’s belief in nonsense is often dismissed as harmless––or even sometimes beneficial. What harm in someone getting comfort from believing their beloved and dearly departed spouse (or pet) lives on in some idyllic heavenly realm? And if snake-oil remedies like those sold by health food stores and alternative medicine practitioners result in placebo effects that alleviate suffering, why not let the naive and gullible reap those benefits? No harm done, it is easy to say. But often harm is done. The person who rejects chemotherapy for their child with cancer, and opts instead for megavitamin ‘therapy’, or some homeopathic remedy, or their religious friends just getting together and praying -- does do harm. Recently there have been credulous news reports about a man, in a coma for over two decades, suddenly communicating and describing how he has been conscious all that time--locked in an unresponsive body. His sudden ability to communicate, we are told, was made possible through “facilitated communication”. Locked-in Syndrome is a real and terrible thing: a person paralyzed but with a fully functioning brain, yet unable to communicate--and sometimes misdiagnosed as brain dead. There is a wonderful and inspiring book written by a man with Locked-in Syndrome who was finally able to communicate by a single eye movement which his care-taker laboriously converted to letters of the alphabet. It is called The Diving Bell And The Butterfly. (And then a beautiful film was made from his book.) However, facilitated communication is not a real thing: it is exploitative bullshit. There was an excellent journalistic exposé made in the nineties about this so-called “facilitated communication” and the often terrible harm this pseudo-science has done by preying on the vulnerabilities of sincerely caring teachers, parents, and social workers. Even the APA, who I often think rather naive, has a policy statement repudiating this “facilitated communication” quackery. The following links take one on the emotional roller coaster ride of being inspired by the indomitable human spirit and then depressed by the depths to which some people will sink in exploiting others’ pain and wishful thinking.
ABOUT THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
QUIRKS AND QUARKS ABOUT “LOCKED IN SYNDROME”
Scroll down to the segment on “Locked in Syndrome”
FRONTLINE EXPOSé OF “FACILITATED COMMUNICATION”
The full program now saved on YouTube. Link is to the first part.
RECOMMENDED RELATED LINK FROM MY SON
James Randi’s million dollar offer to anyone who can demonstrate the validity of facilitated communication.
RECOMMENDED RELATED LINK FROM MY WIFE
Book review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2009-11-27 -- THEME: SCIENCE AS ART
Some students in my Psychology of Art course have a difficult time seeing the relevance of science to art, which is completely understandable given the artificial division between these two domains that has existed since the Romantic Movement. Furthermore, the relationship is a complicated one, for doing science is to some extent an art, but one that is incomprehensible to those with no personal experience of doing science. And while great scientific theories are themselves works of art, they are works that require more contextual knowledge to appreciate than most art forms. Finally, there are the visual works of art that science has made possible which are sometimes dismissed as 'mere' photography. However, these images are easily appreciated as stunning visual art, and so I believe they are a pathway to appreciating the aesthetic value of science. Such visual art is made possible by the tools of science, and often it is actually a visual representation of the beauty of a scientific or mathematical theory -- as is most obviously demonstrated with fractals. The following are links to such beauty.
THE MATHEMATICAL WORLD
These are courtesy of my wife.
THE MICRO WORLD
These are courtesy of one of my Psyc of Art students, Angela Brunette.
THE NATURAL WORLD
These are also courtesy of my wife.
2009-11-20 -- THEME: SOCIAL NETWORKING
So called ‘social networking’ now seems to imply the Internet variety, although it has been with us since before ‘we’ even were; i.e., our cousins, the great apes, were already big on social networking, thus presumably so were early hominids. But it certainly has become easier with the Internet. Some people believe this ease is resulting in a trivialization of relationships. (Who can take seriously having hundreds, or even thousands, of ‘friends’ on Facebook?) Others feel it is making possible deep personal relationships that otherwise would be impossible. (Consider elderly people living alone making contact with friends of fifty years ago and reigniting deep and enriching friendships long distance through email and instant messaging.) My own viewpoint is that both are correct, for all technological advances are a double-edged sword. Here are some interesting, thoughtful, contrarian ideas about the effects of Internet social networking.
HOW THE INTERNET ENABLES GOOD AND BAD
HOW THE INTERNET ENABLES INTIMACY
HOW THE INTERNET ENABLES DICTATORSHIPS
RECOMMENDED LINKS
Andre Roy suggests this resource: “The Top 200 Education Blogs & More”
2009-11-13 -- THEME: ART AS DISTORTION
Why do some people claim they don’t like art unless it is realistic? No art is realistic. Even a “super-realist” painting of a landscape is two-dimensional, an optical illusion. And if realism is so desirable why on earth would we want an imitation?! Yet every known culture dating back to Cro-Magnon man created art. I think Aristotle answered that question best in saying that art is an improvement on nature. Improvement means distortion. It can be as radical as abstraction or surrealism or as subtle as Michelangelo’s David--or using PhotoShop to remove a pimple from a photo of some supermodel.
A NEUROSCIENTIST’S PERSPECTIVE
Our brains are wired to seek distortion. This, a fascinating foray into aesthetics by the neuroscientist, Vilyanur Ramachandran.
AN ART HISTORIAN’S PERSPECTIVE
In this excerpt from the wonderful BBC series “How Art Made The World”, Nigel Spivey talks about our “grotesque obsession”.
AN ARTIST AND ENGINEER’S PERSPECTIVE
A gallery of abstract works by Michael C. Geraghty specifically focusing on perspective distortion in his “Elegant Distortion” series.
2009-11-06 -- THEME: THE END OF THE PRINTED WORD?
Computers were said to usher us into a paperless world. But of course the first and most essential computer peripheral anyone purchases is a printer. As individuals we probably use more paper than ever before, but when it comes to mass reproduction of the written word, it may well be that our national forests are getting a break from supplying the raw materials for our literacy. It isn’t just e-books, it’s audio books, it’s online newspapers, it’s “netzines”.
HAVE YOUR LITERATURE READ TO YOU
My wife used to read to me in bed, but these days it’s my iPhone that does that. (She’s too busy checking her email on her iTouch and telling me I’m hogging the bed.) Originally the idea of having people volunteer to record their reading of books was intended as a public service for the blind. But it has expanded its audience, just as the scanning and distribution of public domain works expanded from archival purposes to public digital distribution. I’m curently listening to Bram Stoker’s Dracula on my iPhone as I drift off into the dream world. (So far no nightmares.) The reader is good, and the audio book is free and one of thousands available for no cost. (If you want it for your iPhone, the app costs 99 cents.)
NEWS PRINTED ON MONITORS--NOT PAPER
Who can afford to subscribe to ‘hard copies’ of all the newspapers worth browsing for different perspectives? For reasonably objective world news I regularly browse the BBC News site; for a Canadian perspective I check out The Globe and Mail; to see what the Big Bully to the south considers important I look at The New York Times; and for local silliness I skim The North Bay Nugget. This link offers a smorgasbord of newspapers that can be read online or on your internet-enabled pocket device. But there are hardly any newspapers left that don’t publish online editions--and many only online editions!
LITERARY “NETZINES”
For years I published a small literary periodical which presented the work of many important Canadian writers. With the typical print run of lit mags and the logistical impossibility of getting it placed in bookstores, I had to rely on subscriptions, the postal system, and the whims of various arts councils’ funding to get it out to even a tiny fraction of the potentially interested audience. It (and my patience) lasted about a decade, which is longer than most lit mags. Now it costs me a pittance to publish it online, which I have started doing again--albeit most unperiodically. But it is there for anyone who is interested, and it’s free. Since I just brought out a new issue, I figured I’d give a local writer (with several ‘hardcopy’ books to his credit) a plug and link to it as an example.
2009-10-30 -- THEME: RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION NOT SO RIGHTEOUS
It is interesting how often and easily we become indignant and sanctimonious and thus feel justified in finding a scapegoat or passing absurd legislation that limits our own freedom.
BALLOON BOY BALLOON POPS
The same people who made the recent "Balloon Boy" debacle possible now are calling for the crucifixion of the basically harmless jerk who tried to capitalize on their gullibility and baser motives. He is being accused of “child abuse” and facing a felony conviction. One suspects this isn’t motivated by concern about his telling his kids to lie so he could pull off his publicity stunt. More likely the motivation is revenge for his success at conning us.
LET’S MAKE THE POOR LOSE WEIGHT
It’s easier to blame a corporation than ourselves. We eat too much, so we blame MacDonald’s. And then, ignoring our own expanding waistlines from ‘slow’ food at upscale restaurants, we legislate the options for those who can’t afford our ‘lifestyle’.
SHIT HAPPENS, LIVE WITH IT
“When something goes wrong, when anything tragic happens, we demand retribution. We assume someone must be to blame. Public outrage is the defining sentiment of our time. We seem incapable of accepting, as our forebears accepted, that terrible things happen through accident or unfortunate circumstances and in many cases there’s not much that could have been done to avoid them.” The quotation is from an after dinner speech by a New Zealand journalist to the Police Association which on the surface is about the unfair demonizing of the police--but applies to so, so many things.
2009-10-23 -- THEME: VIRTUAL TRAVEL
The printed word and image, such as the ever popular National Geographic magazine, used to be the primary virtual vehicle to travel the world. Brilliant photography, maps, and informative writing let us explore places we’d never get to experience first-hand and gain an understanding of the lives of people whose daily experiences are very different from our own. But a new medium, the Internet, has now become the primary vehicle for virtual travel. Travel, that proverbial horizon-broadener, has always been a catalyst for new ideas. And it gets easier and easier.
SEE FOR YOURSELF
The next best thing to seeing it yourself is seeing a snapshot. The incredibly ambitious Google Earth project is mind boggling. And it continues to expand with street view options, and with Google Ocean, Moon, Mars, and Sky.
GET THE DETAILS
A picture isn’t always worth a thousand words. Sometimes a few words -- or numbers -- are worth a thousand pictures. The OECD project is as ambitious in its own way as Google Earth. You like information, comparisons, data, statistics? Explore this resource. The link is to the contents page, but be sure to check out the OECD Factbook eXplorer, the Trendalyzer, and the Web Book.
TRAVEL BACK IN TIME
Start in darkest Africa and eventually journey to--and inhabit--the far corners of the earth.
2009-10-16
THEME: LITERATURE ON THE NET
It is fascinating to watch how the Internet and computer technology are interacting with literature.
GRAPHIC POETRY
A delightful example of a new melding of words with animated images.
MULTI-MEDIA NOVELS
One example of the multimedia novel, The Death of Bunny Munro, which can be downloaded for one’s iPod or iPhone.
Here is a link to an interview with the author, Nick Cave.
HYPERTEXT POETRY ON THE WEB
A quite elegant piece of work in a really new medium.
2009-10-09
THEME: EXPLORING THE BRAIN
With the recent advances in brain imaging, many of the old debates about the nature of the brain are being resolved--or at least the issues clarified--by solid empirical evidence. The actual physical location in the brain of some functions has been found, supporting the specialized brain function argument. But the evidence for unexpectedly greater plasticity of the brain (one area’s ability to take over for another) has given support to the (apparently) opposed and more holistic view of brain function. But for most of us who are not neuroscientists, the most fascinating and somewhat unsettling result of brain imaging is the discovery of how much of our perception of ourselves and the world, and even our moral judgments, are dependent on (and maybe even caused by) the movement of sodium and potassium ions on the cell membranes of intricately interconnected neurons in a specific and minuscule area of the soggy mess inside out heads.
LEARNING THROUGH BRAIN DAMAGE
Synesthesia, face recognition, phantom limb pain.
LEARNING THROUGH MAGNETICALLY MESSING WITH BRAIN
A moral judgment centre?
LEARNING THROUGH BRAIN IMAGING
Scan it, flatten it, map it.
RECOMMENDED LINK
Good old syncronicity: my son happened to send me this link just before sending this email off.
2009-10-02
THEME: MATH AND ART
They’ve been buds forever. But while mathematicians know math is in and of itself beautiful and can appreciate it undiluted, most of us have to be satisfied with the more superficial but still amazingly beautiful results of its application.
THE GOLDEN SECTION
Oh, dem Greeks!
ANIMATED MATH
The link is just to one of many great videos which incorporate mathematical images. There are plenty of other similar vids linked from this page--or one can simply search “math and art”. What I particularly like in this one is the final zooming out to the basic Mandelbrot set with which it concludes.
FRACTALIZED SOLAR SYSTEM
A series of artworks combining NASA images of the planets with manipulated fractals--and a little mythology thrown in for good measure.
2009-09-25
THEME: NATURE EVOLVED NURTURE
The nature versus nurture debate still rages, with proponents of one side or the other often recruiting along political lines. But it is largely a false dichotomy and a silly argument. Which is the bigger determinant of a variable such as the area of a rectangle? Height or width? Which the bigger determinant of what you are like? Heredity or environment? Obviously, it depends on the individual case. More important, many feel, is understanding how the laws of nature and natural selection shape the nature of “nurture”--which in turn shapes us and our world.
GENES EVOLVE TO MEMES
An interesting and comprehensive article on the concept of the “meme”.
MEMES EVOLVE TO TEMES
A extension of the concept of the meme: techno-memes or “temes”.
EVOLUTION EVOLVES
Dem temes are teeming.
2009-09-18
THEME: THE BURNING MAN IDEA OF COMMUNITY
Libertarians hold that the preservation of individual human liberty should have priority over everything except harming other people. Implicit in this is the belief that preserving individual liberty also results in greater good for the whole human community. This is unlike communism which puts the cart before the horse and sacrifices individual liberty in the hope of improving community good. How well that latter approach works has been empirically tested, and the horrific results are well known. Some think the alternative approach was also tested by hippie communes which, while they may not have cost millions of lives, certainly were dysfunctional––but wait, note the word “commune”. While non-conformity to societal norms was accepted (actually demanded) in these hippie communes, individual freedom was actually curtailed or made subservient to the majority will of the group. A more recent and interesting experiment in individualism and community is the Burning Man event. While it may superficially appear to be no more than an aging hippie party, I think it quite the opposite: it is more an example of how libertarianism can work to create a more civilized community. (Credit for the first link and this week’s idea goes to my wife, Ursula––AKA my Woman Friday...and Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday.)
A ROLE MODEL FOR URBAN PLANNING?
A BUNCH OF NAKED PEOPLE ON DRUGS?
2009-09-11
THEME: CARTOONS AREN’T JUST KID STUFF; THEY’RE FULL OF IDEAS
Well, that’s obvious to all the Simpson’s fans. But this is about unanimated, flat on the paper--or computer screen--cartoons. Ideas abound in the best of them. I know I’m not alone in using them in my lecture PowerPoints to get across an idea by inducing a quick chuckle and an “aha!” experience.
PHILOSOPHICAL CARTOONS ANTHOLOGY
The link is to one that I particularly like, one that while not particularly profound is most apt these days, these “New Age” days. But click on “Thumbnails” for the index--or just explore with the “prev” and “next” buttons.
SO VERY FRANK AND ERNEST
The link is to one I use in teaching elementary stats. These two characters are my heroes. And the cartoonist, Bob Thaves, I’d call a surrealist and philosopher of the first rank. (I can’t understand how he could’ve tolerated a day job for a while as an industrial psychologist--of all things!. Cab driver would’ve made more sense.) Go to the home page and explore. If your neurons don’t get tangled by some of his cartoons, you’re a better man (oops, person) than me.
DON’T BE CHICKEN--OOPS, I MEAN DO BE CHICKEN--AND JUST BARE THE TRUTH
The link is to one that also is somewhat timely in this “New Age” new age. The index to other bird brain ideas is at the bottom of the page.
RECOMMENDED LINK
I can only assume S. Hevenor would consider this site recommended implictly, since she keeps sending me these other (Savage) Chickens. The link is to one relevant to a previous Friday’s Ideas. but do check the others out.
RECOMMENDED LINK
Likewise regarding my daughter, who has a mathematician’s twisted sense of humour. Some of these are very nerdy and even sometimes esoteric (albeit funny if you get the joke), but the link is to one I thought appropriate because of my fondness for linking to TED lectures.
2009-09-04
THEME: WHEN INTUITION AND COMMON SENSE ARE WRONG
Behavioural research is sometimes accused of just demonstrating the obvious, showing something that is intuitively obvious, mere common sense. But then it is intuitively obvious that heavy things fall faster than light ones, right? “That tower has a helluva lotta stairs, Galileo. C’mon, you’re going to get cardiac arrest just to prove what everybody already knows?” And it is common sense that people are more productive if they are rewarded more for their efforts. And it is obvious that we can’t decrease cheating by letting students watch some guy obviously get away with it. And having more wonderful things to choose from is clearly a good thing. Think so, do ya?
REWARDS DON’T WORK?!
Incentivize (who came up with that ugly word?) employees, and reap no benefits.
TO CHEAT OR NOT TO CHEAT, THAT IS THE QUESTION!
The answer depends on things you might never suspect--like sweatshirts.
MORE FREEDOM EQUALS LESS HAPPINESS!?
More choices means you can get something better--that you’ll like less. (c.f., Friday’s Ideas on 2009-06-09 re decisions)
2009-08-28
THEME: SO YOU WANT INTELLIGENT DESIGN?
Forget about some some Big Bearded Daddy up there somewhere behind the constellation Virgo designing us as His ‘masterpiece’. Look to natural selection instead. And you’ll realize we ain’t as smart as we like to think we are. Trees pump water without requiring to be plugged into the power grid. Electric Eels never have a power-outage because too many people have their air-conditioning turned on. (And if you want to be cool man, be real cool, turn off the air-conditioning and study the methods of desert flora and fauna.)
BIOMIMICRY: WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM OUR ‘ELDERS’
SO WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DESIGN?
IDEAS STOLEN RIGHT FROM MAMA NATURE!
RECOMMENDED LINK
Steve Muhlberger sent this link which exemplifies how virtual travel can educate, just as real travel does.
RECOMMENDED LINK
Of course natural selection isn't perfect, for it isn't some supremely intelligent God! (Again I wonder at synchronicity: just got this link from my son as I went to email this posting.)
2009-08-21
THEME: VISUAL ART, ANOTHER SPIN-OFF OF PURE SCIENCE
That nature can be stunningly beautiful is why it has been the most popular subject matter of representational painting from its beginning in the caves of France and Spain on through the great landscape artists to contemporary nature photography. Now thanks to science creating the technology to see aspects of nature previously beyond the range of normal vision, wonderful new images are being captured and created. (Acknowledgment to my son for pointing me to some of these.)
THE WHOLE WORLD AS NEVER SEEN TILL NOW
SIMULATIONS THAT LOOK DEEPER INTO SPACE AND EVEN THROUGH TIME
THE PREMIER SITE FOR ASTRONOMICAL IMAGES AND VIDEOS
BONUS: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BEST SCIENCE IMAGES
Breaking my three link rule. I’ll try to behave myself in the future.
2009-08-14
THEME: NETWORKING ART
Two of the most notable developments in the arts over the last century are the predominance of multi-media art (most obviously in video and film) and the ever increasing interest in interactive art. In the last few decades the Internet has evolved from a merely text-based medium to a multi-media conduit that now easily rivals such other modes of delivery as television and cinema––and reaches a much larger audience. It also has become increasingly interactive and participatory. Art is being redefined more radically than it has been since the beginning of the 20th Century.
WHAT IS THE WORLD FEELING?
Be sure to read the explanation for how the site works, and then share you feelings. Addictive. (Thanks to my daughter for discovering this.)
FIVE PLUS FIVE EQUALS?
“5 short movies by 5 film makers about 5 networked art projects exploring critical approaches to social engagement.”
EVERYMAN A MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST
And some folks with vested interests would like to kill this idea. But ideas are tougher than lawyers.
RECOMMENDED LINK
Interesting syncronicity is this recommendation which came in from Victor Biceaga, who had no idea that contemporary art was this week’s theme. His description of the site is very accurate: “This is a website dedicated to promoting all things avant-garde and they have a great archive of hard-to-find short movies as well as recordings of music and poetry recited by authors.”
2009-08-07
THEME: IT’S ALL A CONSPIRACY
The hypochondriac eventually dies and has as his epitaph: “Told you I was sick!” And yes, even paranoids have real enemies, albeit most of which they create by their false accusations. And, sure, it is true that a––very, very, very––few cranks are right, and the experts wrong. But the incredible number of people who believe in the most outrageous conspiracy theories remains inexplicable if we really believe we are an “intelligent life form”.
THE WORLD’S GREATEST CONSPIRACY THEORIES
AN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN OUR GULLIBILITY
THE REAL EXPLANATION FOR CONSPIRACY THEORIES
2009-07-31
THEME: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
"Talk of artificial intelligence is a bit odd. All intelligence is artificial; what is natural is stupidity." ––Hippokrites.
PROMISES, PROMISES, PROMISES! MAKE THAT A PIPE DREAM
2009-07-24
THEME: DEBUNKERS OF PSEUDOSCIENCE AND REALLY STUPID IDEAS
Just a few links to voices of reason crying out in the wilderness. It's unfortunate that more people can't hear them over the blare of all the hucksters' loudspeakers.
BRIAN DUNNING’S WEBSITE AND PODCAST
RECOMMENDED LINK from S. Hevenor
2009-07-17
THEME: FINDING RAPPORT WITH RAP
Rap is a genre of music with lyrics that are very much in the mainstream English poetic tradition--more so than most popular music lyrics. That is to say, it relies heavily on the use of accentual-syllabic meter (usually iambic) with full end rhyme. The accents are emphasized by a strong music beat in 4/4 time. However, the sub-genres of rap are usually defined not by structure, but rather by content or theme; e.g. Gangsta Rap. Just as one might not like dirty limericks, one may not like some of these sub-genres, but nevertheless they, like limericks, are structurally quite sophisticated and ingeniously constructed. Anyway, for all the science nerds out there, here are some cool examples of that new sub-genre--Science Rap! (With thanks to Stephanie Hevenor for sending me the Neuroscience one, which I’ll be using in my Intro Psyc lecture on the nervous system come September.)
P.S. Received this recommended reading from Ken Waller re previous Happiness posting. Thanks, Ken.
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
2009-07-10
THEME: A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED
"Affluence makes fools of us all." --Hippokrites
2009-07-03
THEME: HAPPINESS
“If only we'd stop trying to be happy we could have a pretty good time.” ~Edith Wharton
THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS
2009-06-26
THEME: THE ‘INTERESTING’ IDEA OF GOD
2009-06-19
THEME: THE ‘AVERAGE’ PERSON ISN’T AVERAGE
“The ivory tower is a prison for ideas captured in the outside world. Isolated in their cells, they soon become weak, senile, and moribund.” --Hippokrites
STUDS TERKEL
...a man with an incredible range of interests, which he explored by talking to everybody he could. Actually, it wasn’t talking: it was listening. And he shared these listening and learning experiences in books such as Working: People Talk About What The Do All Day and How They Feel About It and on his long-running radio show where he conducted interviews with an amazing range of interesting people. In 2002 my wife and I had the pleasure of attending Studs’ 90th birthday party. It was a celebration at the Chicago Cultural Centre, where in the spirit of his working class roots, admission was free to everyone who could fit into the hall. The website devoted to Studs Terkel (who passed away last year) is a rich mine of interesting material.
DAVID LYNCH
...the famous filmmaker whose surreal films such as Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks exposed the bizarre dark side of ‘ordinary’ life in small towns. His latest project is a series of short video clips of ‘ordinary’ people picked at random on a road trip and asked to talk frankly about themselves and their lives--which are invariably extraordinary. He is posting these clips on his website as they are collected.
ERIC HOFFER
...known as the “Longshoreman Philosopher” who wrote ten books that contained more insight into social phenomena than all the sociology texts ever written. His book, The True Believer, an explanation of the source of mass movements, is considered a masterpiece. Born into a poor working class family, he identified with the underclass who he felt had more connection with the real world than academics. He refused to be called an “intellectual”, and remained non-ideological his whole life, equally suspicious of programmatic leftists and righties. The Wikipedia article on him presents a good overview. Aphoristic in style, a lot of quotations from his work can be found on the web, but for the full text of The True Believer one must purchase an e-book version on Amazon.
2009-06-12
THEME: FREE WILL, SELF AND SCIENCE
The clockwork universe paradigm that dominated science until quantum mechanics came along left no room for the idea of free will. Even now, most scientists maintain that such things as the indeterminacy principle do not somehow make free will scientifically or philosophically plausible. And the latest findings in neuroscience further weaken any intellectual justification for believing in some incorporeal ‘self’ inside our physical bodies that causes things without being itself caused. On the other hand, because science is based on empirical evidence, and one would be hard put to come up with any more universal observation than that of our ‘self’ making decisions that cause things, it would be very unscientific to deny the reality of such a universally observed phenomenon. Anyway, here are three very different approaches to this fascinating topic.
ARE WE IN CONTROL OF OUR OWN DECISIONS?
THE SELF, QUALIA, AND UNIQUELY HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
CAN NEUROSCIENCE AND FREE WILL COEXIST?
2009-06-05
THEME: IDEA ART
The Dadaists are usually credited with introducing what has now become a major art movement: conceptual art. Art as idea, as opposed to art as object, was intended to repudiate consumerism and capitalism. From this follows an emphasis on transitory art forms. I’m not sure if the artists responsible for the following works would call themselves “conceptual artists”, but certainly part of the charm of their creations resides in their impermanence.
BEACH ART
Be sure to watch the video clip at the end.
2009-05-29
THEME: SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL ENGINEERING
Every intelligent person associated with the social sciences must sometimes feel embarrassed.
CLICK HERE FOR SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO EVERY PROBLEM!
DEADLY CARTOONS: THE ROAD RUNNER AS BAD ROLE MODEL!
EXAMPLE: LET’S CURE LUNG CANCER BY CENSORING MOVIES!
RECOMMENDATIONS RECEIVED
Three Multitasking Myths: Some food for thought on "Multitasking" and related research.
2009-05-22
THEME: BAD LANGUAGE IS GOOD
“This frigging obsession with APA and MLA is pants, a bag of shite!”* You won’t find any classics of great literature written according to those conventions. Now I know they have their place, and I’m not suggesting journals or profs should accept academic papers that don’t follow the rules. But vernacular language is so rich and so much fun precisely because it isn’t restrained by formal conventions. Anyone who has travelled has been delighted and confounded by local idiom. I know my American visitors look very befuddled when I ask them if they “gotta loonie for the parking meter?” What do crazy people have to do with parking meters? Or if I tell them that “I’m going to run out to pick up a two-four for the party.” They've heard of slumber parties, but lumber parties?! And I was a bit taken aback when I heard a British colleague of my wife’s ask her if she wanted him to “knock her up in the morning”. (I really thought he should have asked my permission.) Anyway, here are some wonderful resources for browsing the poetry of everyday speech.
2009-05-15
THEME: ATTENTION, INFORMATION AND THE INTERNET
IF I WERE IN CHARGE OF THE INTERNET...
NEW DETERMINANT OF SUCCESS OR FAILURE IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET
DON’T ASK YOUR QUESTIONS IN CLASS. ASK THEM ON THE INTERNET
2009-05-08
THEME: DEATH
But nothing morbid about the following. The first is a truly wonderful and cheerful essay, which Stephanie Hevenor recommended to me. It has been much appreciated by other people to whom I’ve passed it on.
DO GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
NOR DREAD NOR HOPE ATTEND / A DYING ANIMAL
2009-05-01
THEME: MATH AND ART
The ancient Greeks knew it. The Renaissance artists knew it. And mathematicians have always known it. Math is the artist's assistant. (And math itself is art, but that’s another story.) Advances in computer technology (also a direct result of mathematics) have made it more possible than ever for non-mathematicians to glimpse the deep beauty in mathematical relationships. Here are just three examples.
CLIFFORD PICKOVER’S GRAPHICS PAGES
AUDIO SLIDESHOW: THE ART OF MATHEMATICS
2009-04-24
THEME: REAL WORLD
This time is time-out from the virtual world. These ‘links’ are to the real world of visual art in North Bay. (One of which is shameless self-promotion.) Places to go this weekend. Ideational art.
WKP KENNEDY GALLERY
Capitol Arts Centre, 150 Main St. E.
Opening Reception: “Travails of Travel” – Ken Stange
Saturday April 25th, 1 to 4 p.m.
WHITE WATER GALLERY
109 Main St. E
Last day to catch "The Power of Man, Memories and Isolation" – Nip Art Club
Saturday April 25th, Noon to 7 p.m.
FERNEYHOUGH GALLERY
157 First Avenue E.
Opening reception: “Eco Podiums” – Robert Game
Sunday, April 26th, 2 to 4 p.m.
2009-04-17
THEME: IDEAS VIA VIDEO
Picks from a site full of fascinating, intelligent videos on a great variety of topics, a site certainly worth bookmarking. These three vids all deal with the Alice In Wonderland ideas of contemporary physics.
RELEVANT QUOTATIONS
“God doesn’t play dice.” —Albert Einstein
“God not only plays dice, He also sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.” —Stephen Hawking
“Anyone who says they understand quantum mechanics doesn’t understand quantum mechanics.” —Richard Feynman (attributed)
EINSTEIN: LIGHT, SPACE, AND TIME
(in 5 segments)
HAWKING: ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE
(in 5 segments)
FEYNMAN: TAKE THE WORLD FROM ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW
(in 4 segments)
2009-04-10
THEME: EXPLAINING ‘MENTAL ILLNESS’
RELEVANT QUOTATIONS
About types of mental ‘illness’:
“Neurotics build castles in the sky. Psychotics live in them.” —Anon.
About ADHD: “Typhoid fever is a disease. Spring fever isn’t.” —Thomas Szasz (author of The Myth of Mental Illness)
About the kettle calling the pot black: “Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion.” —David Cronenberg (Creator of numerous films that explore the shadowy area between illusion and reality such as Videodrome and “Naked Lunch”)
A VISUAL TEST TO SEE IF YOU’RE LIVING OUT WHERE THE BUSES DON’T RUN
AN EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION OF WHY WE’RE NUTS
GETTING CRAZIER WITH EVERY DSM REVISION
Shotgun Acknowledgements:
Thanks to my Psyc of Art students and my family for continually pointing me to interesting stuff.
S. Hevenor recommended two links relevant to modern education: --1-- --2--
2009-04-03
THEME: THE UNIVERSITY IS DEAD! LONG LIVE EDUCATION!
It seems we live in a time where a real liberal education is more readily available outside the formal educational system. And in a time where the formal system seemingly is more concerned with perpetuating itself than in offering learning to those who sincerely desire it.
RELEVANT QUOTATIONS
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." –Mark Twain
"Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system… If you want to get laid, go to college, but if you want an education, go to the library." –Frank Zappa
“The true university of these days is a collection of books.” –Thomas Carlyle (remarked almost two hundred years ago)
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, EXCEPT THE BRIGHT
“People often wonder how to tell if their child is gifted. Truly gifted kids are almost always autodidacts.” This quotation is from this essay in Time Magazine (Aug. 16, 2007) entitled “Are We Failing Our Geniuses?” by John Cloud. Although the essay specifically addresses the American educational system, it has wider relevance.
DON’T LECTURE ME; I CAN READ!
This is a reasonable claim: “The typical and traditional university lecture is an anachronism—and a waste of everyone’s time.”
WIKIPEDIA VS ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA
Intense dislike of Wikipedia is common among academics. Individual scholars, securely entrenched in universities, don’t like their authority questioned by an open and world-wide peer review, especially when it includes as peers those who aren’t tenured and credentialed, but do happen to know what they’re talking about. One would think a learning resource like Wikipedia would be welcomed in a house of learning. Apparently not. Supplementary Link
Recommended links by various faculty:
Dean Bavington recommended this excellent essay—which just happens to be relevant to this Friday’s theme: “On The Rocky Road. A Polemic Against Managerialism in Philosophy and Education”
Stephanie Hevenor pointed me to this depressing report on how as the number of university graduates goes up, so goes illiteracy. “20 per cent of university graduates in 2006 were below Level 3 on the prose literary scale… Level 3 is considered the minimum literacy level necessary for coping in our society. Below Level 3 means struggling to understand even the simplest text.” See second article at this site.
2009-03-27
THEME: POEMS AND PICS
Ideas are not just expressed in expository prose. Here are some Internet resources I recommend to my Psyc of Art students. Amazing stuff can be found at these sites. I’ve put in links to specific things I love, but also included the link to the source site.
IN MY CRAFT OR SULLEN ART
Great poem about the poetic art by a great poet—and great performer of his own work. The site is loaded with audio recordings of great poetry. Site Link
DADDY, YOU BASTARD
Another great poem, this time by the late Sylvia Plath. Her son was in the news recently for following in his mother’s ‘footsteps’ by committing suicide. This site is devoted to contemporary and avant-garde art—audio, video, and mixed media. Site Link
THE SOLUTION TO THE ENERGY CRISIS
The host of this wonderful site is struggling to continue to maintain it, so there are pop-up windows and other annoyances upon entering it. This also means that the way it is set up makes it difficult to link directly to a specific image. Still, those interested in the solution to the energy crisis, should navigate into the site and select Escher from the list of artists and then go to the work called “Waterfall” which presents a great idea of how to use perpetual motion to run a watermill—which could power the grid for North America! (Once we figure out those other dimensions.) Even if one gets lost, the Lord knows getting lost in this huge collection of art works is a worthwhile way to be disoriented. Site Link
2009-03-20
THEME: WHAT IS SPECIAL ABOUT HOMO SAPIENS?
Descartes thought all animals were effectively automatons, which means killing one would be no worse than unplugging a toaster and throwing it away. (Descartes obviously didn’t have a dog.) But even most animal lovers would like to think that we humans are unique. However, whenever we claim some characteristic as uniquely human some damn empirically-minded skeptic goes out and finds an animal with the same characteristic. Bloody monkeys use tools! One starts to feel that one can only fall back on some unsubstantiated mystical belief such as only human beings have souls. Yeah, right! They haven’t met my dogs, Nickel and Maggle! Got more soul than some people I know.
IS IT LANGUAGE?
Even bird brains can talk.
IS IT ART?
Not making art, for even random events do that, but appreciating art.
IS IT COOKING OUR FOOD!?
In the search for uniqueness what a strange last place to retreat to!
Recommended links (alternative answers) by various faculty.
Is it faith?
Is it religion?
Or is it science?
2009-03-13
THEME: AKADEME AS AT WAR WITH FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
It has long been noted that political “correctness” (sic) has not only stifled freedom of expression in general but is most rampant in the last place it should be: places of putatively ‘higher’ education. However, interesting questions arise about defined job responsibilities versus freedom in how one chooses to do one’s job.
THE BETRAYAL OF LIBERTY ON AMERICA'S CAMPUSES
A passionate protest by a man of conviction, no longer in Akademe. (The Website has many other downloadable audio clips worthy of attention.)
TWILIGHT OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM
What the speaker refers to as “contingent faculty” are untenured faculty (e.g., those with sessional appointments and part-time instructors), which university administrators rely on more and more to reduce costs and also control what upsetting things might get said in classrooms. Tenure is often seen as nothing more than a lifetime guarantee of employment without any responsibility to actually do one’s job beyond actually showing up for a few classes. Albeit that it is sometimes so abused, those without tenure are well aware of the dangers of not towing the line and not keeping their lips prudently zipped. A recent protest letter to administration at Nipissing was only circulated to tenured faculty for signing out of consideration for the perceived-to-be vulnerable position of untenured instructors.
TENURED PROFESSOR MAKES HIS MARK, BUT IT COSTS HIM HIS JOB
Raises the question of where to draw the line.
Recommended link by untenured faculty member re education and Nip U.
2009-03-06
THEME: SCIENCE AND MORAL BEHAVIOUR
These from some good science new sources.
IMMORALITY A LOT LIKE ROTTEN FOOD
Wired Science is a consistently well written source of science news intended for the layman and—unlike many science news articles in the popular press—conscientious in having references pointing to primary sources, as well as related articles. (Incidentally, CBC’s Quirks and Quarks program did a segment on this research recently as well.)
HOW DO YOU PROGRAM A ROBOT TO BE AN ETHICAL WARRIOR?
This is one of those websites that collects thematically related links--in this case to science news sites. Naturally these sites vary in quality and depth of coverage, but all the ones I’ve visited are reputable news sources. The links to the “ethical robot” articles can be found by using your browser’s search function for the word “robot”. Incidentally, it’s interesting how certain scientific research catches the popular imagination: there is a link here as well to the research (mentioned above) about immorality being disgusting. Search for “injustice”.
TAMING THE MADNESS OF CROWDS
The venerable Scientific American has a wonderful multimedia website, including a link to their weekly, half-hour podcast, Science Talk, which is consistently interesting. To find the piece on taming the madness of crowds, one simply has to enter “taming madness” in the website’s efficient search engine. Also note the theme of their current 60-second podcast: "Morally Repugnant".
2009-02-27
THEME: ART AND RELIGION
THE CREATIVITY AS A GIFT FROM THE GODS
Refreshing presentation by author Elizabeth Gilbert on exorcising the artist’s ego from art—by bringing back the Muses! I was considering this recent TED lecture already when my colleague Susan Srigley sent me an email suggesting it. (Great minds think alike; or maybe fools never differ.)
THE COMMONALITY OF MYSTICAL AND SEXUAL ECSTASY
Art history and art appreciation needn’t be dull. A great video by art critic Simon Schama that is an excellent example of how to share appreciation of great art. This is high drama about the great Renaissance artist, egotist, and sometime thug: Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Raises the question of the relationship between mystical and carnal ecstasy. It is in nine excellent resolution segments on YouTube. (The other eight are easy to find from the page with the first link. Do savour the whole story.)
THE COMMONALITY OF MYSTICAL AND AESTHETIC EXPERIENCES
It may be that mystical and peak aesthetic experiences are similar experiences, only cognitively-labelled differently depending on one’s religiosity or interest in the arts.
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Bad Science
2009-02-20
GREAT SITES TO FIND A REAL LIBERAL EDUCATION
DOG UNTO OTHERS: CANINES HAVE SENSE OF FAIRNESS
For those who don’t know of it, “Wired” online is a wonderful multi-disciplinary resource. There are dozens of recent thought provoking articles I could have chosen for this link. I chose this one because of my personal fondness for dogs, whose intelligence and empathy and social skills never cease to amaze me. Like the great poet Walt Whitman, “I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained, I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.” Of course I like reading too, but of course as Groucho Marx pointed out: “Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.”
RANDY PAUSCH’S LAST LECTURE: DEAD MAN WALKING -- AND TALKING
Give this 3 minutes and you’ll watch the whole one hour talk. I find that many people who did not grow up in the digital age think of YouTube as a video garbage heap where anybody with a cell phone can capture a video of some absurdity and post it for the world to see. It certainly is true that it’s full of trash, but then so is any library or bookstore or video store. The truth is that it is also a place where someone can be creative (without funding) and share their work to a potentially huge audience. It is full of good, even great, stuff, some of which I download and use in class. One simply has to be able to search effectively and have the critical skills to choose wisely.
SCIENCE IS JUST THE NOISY AND ARROGANT OFFSPRING OF PHILOSOPHY
Philosophy is the home of all ideas. All the arts and sciences are just rooms in this house. Yet even while we call those who get the highest accreditation in Akademe “Doctors of Philosophy”, the philosophy departments in the shallowed halls of akademe are relegated to the back corridors. Those students who come to university because they love ideas only major in philosophy if they’re willing to go down a career path that most likely leads to driving taxi. This site is but one of many that offers mp3 downloads of audio recordings about ideas, and one can subscribe to have the podcasts automatically sent. It’s from ABC (the Aussie Broadcasting Corporation), but CBC (the Canuck Broadcasting Corporation) has some great ones as well. For example, CBC’s “Ideas” program is now available for downloading.
2009-02-13
APROPOS
APROPOS FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH: YIKES!
What is really scary is human naivete. Good day to consider superstition.
James Randi runs an “educational institution” that does more to promote critical thinking than most putatively “educational” institutions. This link is to his awards page, but the whole website is well worth exploring.
APROPOS DARWINS’ BIRTHDAY (yesterday)
LET’S NOT MAKE DARWIN A GOD!
Honour where honour is due, but… Thought-provoking viewpoint. This is an interesting issue in the history of science. Newton, brilliant. Darwin, brilliant. But had they never been, would not someone else (albeit also brilliant) not have discovered what they did?
APROPOS UNIVERSITY 'READING' WEEK:
THE ULTIMATE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND NO NEED TO RETURN BOOKS!
It began with the huge and impressive Gutenberg Project and now is expanding to infinity: a mind-blowing project to make all of the world’s literature safe for posterity and available to everyone.
2009-02-06
SAMPLES FROM SOME GOOD RESOURCES
THE ALIEN WORLD WE’RE STARTING TO EXPLORE
This is a pointer (again) to the multi-disciplinary resource that I plugged last Friday. (I’m the pusher man who would love to get everybody hooked on the TED drug.) The images in this presentation are both examples of nature’s art and something to inspire philosophical contemplation about the origins and diversity of life.
CALL FOR A NEW VIRTUE: “THOU SHALT OFFEND!”
“Elephants In The Room” is an unperiodically updated blog devoted to pointing out the elephants in the room that politically-correct folk pretend are not there. See its “About” page for more info.
JESUS GETS SPANKING: HALO KNOCKED OFF
For visual ideas, we turn to visual images. This is a plug for an amazing project to make the images of the great artists of the past accessible to anyone with a computer and Internet connectivity. An example of how one man, without a grant or academic support or any hope of serious remuneration, is willing to devote his energies to collecting and sharing beauty. After going to the above link, click on home and then Artchive for the full image database.
2009-01-30
MAN FRIDAY SENDS FIRST MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
Samples of great stuff at great resource sites.
SCHOOLS KILL CREATIVITY
This is a multi-disciplinary ‘conference’—not the university—is a true Community of Scholars and the Internet hall from which it is broadcast is a real House of Intellect. It is a place where ideas are all that matter, and it is egalitarian in a way no university is. All these TED lectures are online for anyone interested in ideas. Warning: highly addictive and could result in a liberal education without a degree.
CTBT: THE MOST IMPORTANT TREATY ON EARTH
This weekly, one-page newsletter is posted on the web every Friday by a noted physicist and science advisor. It is a wonderfully intelligent and pointed commentary on science in the real world: the good, the bad and the ugly. It can be subscribed to and is likely to be one of the more intelligent emails you’ll get on any given Friday. Certainly more interesting than who won the 50/50 draw.
THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD. NOW STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE
Richard Dawkins does more to promote clear thinking about science than most academics, probably because he doesn’t have that fear of ‘offending’ those with superstitious beliefs which “makes cowards of us all”—or at least of most academics.
(Photo: 2009, Ursula Stange)
Links
Email: Ken AT Stange DOT com