Tag: understanding
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Domains of Conception
The Borders of Understanding My molecular biologist friend, Barry Bowman, brewed up this stimulating thought: One can understand much about nature without mathematics. Can one understand quantum mechanics only through its arcane mathematics? Can one not comprehend quantum physics other than through its mathematical expression? To explore the thought some agreement is needed on the…
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Meaning from Data
Intelligence: Artificial vs. Real Here is the problem David Cope solved many years ago Given the enormous musical library of compositions left to us by the venerable Johann Sebastian Bach, can new compositions be manufactured as if his signature were upon them? As if they were long lost Bach musical manuscripts only recently discovered? Cope…
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Judgement’s Penalty
Value judgements impede understanding In medieval times and in primitive societies an explanation for events was a matter of morality; of good and evil, right or wrong. A death, say by tuberculosis, was explained as the action of evil forces. Witches maybe. Or perhaps the death was explained as good; justice – retribution for a…
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Bubbles
Irrational Exuberance In a lovely talk to the Concept Exchange Society, economist Daniel Friedman told us about financial markets. He said that a financial market is a “marketplace where promises are bought and sold by strangers”. I like that image. A bond is such a promise; a promise to pay interest at fixed intervals and…
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Robots’ Feelings
Emotion algorithms To answer the question whether robots have feelings or not we must have some notion about the nature of feelings. What are feelings? Or emotions? Are they to be accounted for purely physically; the expression of electrochemical processes that take place within one’s body? Our psyche’s perception of the physiological activity taking place…
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Axioms
Hypotheses I cannot prove; taken on faith I’m thinking about my axioms of faith. On what unprovable hypotheses do I confront the world. My axioms are my prejudices; the fewer the better. The first one is this: 1. That reality exists. That a world exists in whose catalogue of entities I am one. And what…
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Right Wrongs
Drowning in the ocean of injustice. Context: An atomic bomb was dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in August of 1945. This event was the critical one which ended the Second World War. Some claim that it was an act of savagery needlessly killing many because the war could have been ended without that…
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Perspectives
Sadye Stories My mother’s name was Sadie. By some coup of whim I had thought she spelled it ‘Sadye’ when I suggested that name for our new born daughter to her mother. My precious wife, Elfi, acceded so our daughter became Sadye. Quarantine. Sadye was a 5 year old in kindergarten in 1997. The children…
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What is Energy?
An Abstract Reality What IS energy; that you buy it, use it, have it and notice it in others? (“The kids have such energy!”) You never see it, never touch it. Never smell it or hold it. What is the nature of such a substance? Energy is not coal. Nor oil. Nor sunshine. Nor boys…
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Privilege Wants
Peace is what the privileged want. The indignant want war. I consider myself privileged. Not because I am wealthy. I am not. Not because I have power to control others. I have no such power. I am privileged because I am not in pain, I am not disabled physically and I am not in financial…
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Emotion and Reason
“Les passions ont appris aux hommes la raison” Emotion has taught mankind to reason Marquis de Vauvenargues 1715-1747 What is it that captures us about these words? Emotion has taught mankind to reason. It is this. They appear to contradict common opinion which holds that emotion is the antithesis of reason; behavior is either emotional…
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Sunshine
The Worrisome Business Of Logical Consistency Sunshine Every Day The year was perhaps 1938. I was 7 years old then, living in a New York City apartment with my mother, my father and my baby sister. The location was a plebian building with the august address of 35 Hamilton Place in Washington Heights. The upper…
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Adagia
Adagia Set In Stone The path to the house demanded stepping stones. It could be a muddy walk without them. To make a stepping stone is merely a matter of pouring cement into a wood frame set on the ground. You remove the frame when the cement hardens. But a slab of wet cement calls…
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Free-Will-Free
“We must believe in free-will. We have no choice.” ― Isaac Bashevis Singer The words, “free will,” as commonly understood, are without meaning. (Explanation here.) They are words that describe an illusion about reality. Like the word, sunset, describes the illusion that the sun is moving whereas, in fact, the sun is not moving. Rather…
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Sense of Volition
The Sense of Volition: Feeling that You Choose I have not read anywhere that, recognized to exist among organisms, there is a sense of volition. But such a sense must exist. And the notion carries a weighty philosophical import. It expresses the deterministic nature of free will. (See Nature’s Imperatives) By a ‘sense of volition’…
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Indignation
Righteous Indignation As Temper Tantrum Righteous Indignation is a Temper Tantrum What he practiced was Fine Art. It issued from his being. His brush was sure, his color strong. He had the gift of seeing. So when the lady said to him, “May I commission you?” He swelled a bit, elation hid, said, “What would…
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Nature’s Imperatives
This drivable motion graphic embodies an idea. It illustrates the content of the earlier post called Free Will. The idea is that we live in a deterministic world. And free will, properly understood, is not in contradiction to this notion. Free will is behavior not evidently coerced. But all behavior is coerced. By coerced is…
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Free Will
Sequel to previous post: God Determines Almost 400 years ago, the venerable philosopher, Baruch de Spinoza (1634-1677), in his ‘Improvement of Understanding,’ wrote of free will: these are words to which no idea is attached. That the phrase, free will, has no meaning has been demonstrated by philosophers for several hundred years: Locke, Hume, Hegel,…
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God Determines
The ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus (around 300 BCE), introduced the world to a conundrum called the Problem of Evil. It says: Since evil exists, God doesn’t. Here is the entire proof: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able to prevent evil but not willing? Then…
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Waste
Throw-away virtue. Waste is a deliciously ambiguous notion. What is discarded and not used in the venture is waste. Food that is not digested. But waste is also a mark of prosperity. Where much is being done there is waste. Little being done, little being scrapped. So waste is a product of achievement. For those…
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Want
I Don’t Want What I Want Because he is Little Prince he may have anything he wants. He loved birds. So a garden sanctuary for birds was built for him. It was a concert hall of netting to allow the many birds free flight through the lush foliage. He had singing birds and colored birds…
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Texture
“What do you seek in life?,” was the question. “Texture,” said Clarissa, without hesitation, in her deep throated silken British voice as she sunned herself, settled on the lawn chair by the pool. She had studied philosophy at Cambridge. Her title of nobility was authentic. Lady Clarissa. She was 32 years old. Beautiful and intelligent…
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Focus Worry
Alarm is in the air. The financial crises. Job problems. Global warming. Overeating. Nuclear energy generation. Starvation and war in some places. Perhaps we can direct our dread; focus it’s power. Let’s concentrate our anxiety on the single most important issue. If we all worry together its gathered force can avert the threatening disaster. I…
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The Equation
An equation is a statement that says ‘this equals that’. It’s hard to imagine, from that raw and basic idea, that something called an equation could be of any use. Whether ‘this equals that’ or not seems a matter of little consequence! But, in fact, we know that to state what things are equal can…
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Dog Language
On my daily walk along Joy Road I pass many scenes. One of them is shown in the image. Another, further along the road, is policed by a black and white dog. My neighbor tells me he is a Border Collie. As I walk by he barks at me without stop as if to say,…
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Measurement Problem
A commonplace computational practice in quantum mechanics generates the most profound conceptual challenge to the theory. The challenge is called the measurement problem. Here are some quotes summarizing the problem. “The quantum measurement parodox.. stated succinctly… In quantum mechanics all possibilities… are left open whereas in … experience a definite outcome always (occurs).” A. J.…
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Ant’s World View
The interesting thing about suicide bombers is this: that they are so dedicated to their community – islam, anarchism in a former time – that they kill themselves for it. Let us distinguish the practice – facing death – from the mechanism which drives that practice. The drive is spiritual. A world view is required…