tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post136601205189765039..comments2024-03-25T09:11:17.877-07:00Comments on The Curious Wavefunction: On the primacy of doubt in an age of illusory certaintyWavefunctionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14993805391653267639noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-83373625114628682152017-05-28T20:34:12.983-07:002017-05-28T20:34:12.983-07:00An excellent, and very wise post.
Thank you.An excellent, and very wise post.<br /><br />Thank you.CrocodileChuckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10762442097044797842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-6637658974699177812017-05-23T17:52:24.498-07:002017-05-23T17:52:24.498-07:00Of course, you are absolutely right about the earl...Of course, you are absolutely right about the early influences - I was glad to find the principle of turning the other cheek, which one would think of as typically Christian, to be part of the Socratic dialogues 500 years before... And you are right about community and family. But I think there is also something else there: it provides a balance from what Solzhenitsyn in his Harvard commencement address of '78 calls "humanistic autonomy: the proclaimed and enforced autonomy of man from any higher force above him".<br /><br />Anyway, thanks for the reply and a great read. Always a real pleasure to read your blog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-85794078250131514692017-05-23T14:14:27.612-07:002017-05-23T14:14:27.612-07:00I agree. Yuval Harari makes a good case for religi...I agree. Yuval Harari makes a good case for religion in his books when he describes it as one of several fictions uniting very large groups of people. And of course, religion is not just about belief; it's about community, it's about family, and it can be about great art or music. It's interesting to realize how much Greek philosophy (including Greek science) influenced Christian theology during its evolution. The meld of science and religion goes deeper than what some people believe in my opinion.Wavefunctionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14993805391653267639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-51810136263179791692017-05-22T21:18:47.982-07:002017-05-22T21:18:47.982-07:00I think also part of the problem is that we have m...I think also part of the problem is that we have maligned religion so much as a reaction to past ills, that we forgot that none of us are (or ever can or should be) fully and always only rational. Feynman wrote that he acknowledged two main pillars of Western civilization, the scientific spirit of adventure and inquiry and the Christian ethics of action based on love. We have rushed to label one as brainwashing, and the other as pure reason; so the left's equality/science/whatever has become its God, and disagreement has become denial...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-69178505403947565552017-05-22T18:40:08.664-07:002017-05-22T18:40:08.664-07:00Correct. At this point I am hoping that we can at ...Correct. At this point I am hoping that we can at the very least agree to not disagree violently.Wavefunctionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14993805391653267639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-55672675163947645492017-05-19T09:05:11.279-07:002017-05-19T09:05:11.279-07:00...or caring about the other people or their conce......or caring about the other people or their concerns)...Ack.Hapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-36091584474558738482017-05-19T06:12:19.551-07:002017-05-19T06:12:19.551-07:00We might not be able to agree - some principles do...We might not be able to agree - some principles don't have room for compromise (though we may consider the set of uncompromisable principles larger than it has to be) and sometimes we just do see things the same way. That might be helpful. <br /><br />If we see the same facts and disagree on what to do with them, then we should be able to live with that. It seems like (some) liberals and conservatives are seeing different facts, and if that the case, it's pretty hard to talk and hard to decide that it's even worth talking. If we stop talking (or caring about what the other p, then what comes next? I don't see any good options and lots of bad ones.Hapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-459983271470853182017-05-18T13:14:07.792-07:002017-05-18T13:14:07.792-07:00Indeed. Your point about basic honesty reminds me ...Indeed. Your point about basic honesty reminds me of something Obama once said about establishing a baseline of truth, in the sense of saying "Let's agree that we believe in X. Then we can agree to disagree about Y". The problem is that if there isn't even a modicum of shared agreement on an issue, how can you possibly reach common ground? One keeps on trying though, since giving up would be worse.Wavefunctionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14993805391653267639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-38249032820131158872017-05-18T06:12:00.133-07:002017-05-18T06:12:00.133-07:00I don't know whether this is recursive or not,...I don't know whether this is recursive or not, but I interpret this as saying our principles need to be somewhat flexible and contingent, but perhaps our metaprinciples (how we derive our rules, how we observe and interpret what goes on around us) shouldn't be. We have to be honest with ourselves and others, we can't stop looking, and we can't exclude the possibility of new facts or ideas. If these rules are compromised, it's much harder to accurately derive principles or follow them.<br /><br />At this point, doubt and compromise are seen as weaknesses in politics; in that environment, it is difficult for people to admit the limits of their knowledge and logic. Discussing ideas requires honesty , and when people are not honest, it is difficult to talk to other people - no one wants waste time on discussions based on fantasy, and if such discussions happen often enough, people presume dishonesty from others and don't want to talk to them at all.<br /><br />This is a nice synthesis.Hapnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-2286098356128592522017-05-17T08:49:11.619-07:002017-05-17T08:49:11.619-07:00Links:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23...Links:<br />https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235889282_Toth-Fejel_Tihamer_2009_A_few_lesser_implications_of_nanofactories_Global_Warming_is_the_least_of_our_problems_Nanotechnology_Perceptions_537-59<br />and<br />http://www.nanotech-now.com/columns/?article=486<br />Tihamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10455538338951299249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-50328981269050587192017-05-17T08:47:18.905-07:002017-05-17T08:47:18.905-07:00That was a totally awesome analysis of the very co...That was a totally awesome analysis of the very common misunderstanding of science! Thanks for posting it.<br />As an engineer, I look on the work of scientists with large amounts of respect--doing good science (asking the right questions, imagining fitting hypotheses, and designing discriminating experiments) is *hard*. We engineers depend totally on the hard work that scientists do.<br />That being said, there was a sign in the University of Notre Dame's Electrical Engineering school (where I went to grad school): "Scientists discover what is; Engineers create what has never been.<br />In this case, what that means is that your references to global warming/climate change miss the mark. What do you think is the consequence of Moore's Law? There are political, legal, and ethical issues of course, but at the current rate of the more accurate Wright's Law (published when Gordon Moore was only 7 years old) will enable us to stop Global Warming/Climate Change on a dime -- and do other things with much greater impact. See <a href="javascript:void(0);" rel="nofollow"> A few lesser implications of nanofactories: Global Warming is the least of our problems</a>Tihamerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10455538338951299249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-55954069256236471392017-05-17T08:16:40.588-07:002017-05-17T08:16:40.588-07:00That's very flattering - thank you!That's very flattering - thank you!Wavefunctionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14993805391653267639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9633767.post-45918635591027697942017-05-17T07:03:13.828-07:002017-05-17T07:03:13.828-07:00Ash, this is one of the finest things you have eve...Ash, this is one of the finest things you have ever written; well done.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com