5 days ago: Robert : you're quite right, but that just means we are pressuring other countries that don't need airplanes either, to impoverish their citizens for dubious reasons.
I kinow it's not all bad. It was a secret government nuclear aircraft engine project that potentially solved the world energy crisis for us, 40 years ago. The Liquid Fueled Thorium Reactor (LFTR) We forgot about it, but apparently the Chinese have not.
5 days ago: Mathew: No need to beat yourself up about "hypocritical". Contradictions are built into the standard Christian-Atheist-Newtonian World View, that's why its so inadequate. And all the "Enlightened Ones " through the Ages seem to agree that it is a matter of sudden "Insight" to get a more realistic view of what is going on. Slow, steady, Hard Thinking is not going to get you there in any predictable way.
I'm reminded of a Mark Twain quote about how Christians congratulate themselves on their beliefs" just because " they are so unbelievable. But a great deal of present "common knowledge" consists of things once considered unbelievable, such as Heliocentricity.
6 days ago: Robert: It is true that the "Defense" industry employs a lot of peole, but what they are producing is useless or worse. "Not Capital Producing" , I believe is the Economic term. We might as well put them to work, digging holes in the ground one day, and filling them up the next. It is the sustenance of this gigantic drain on the national economy that is bankrupting us, like the British before us. Or the Romans, for that matter. Tell me again why we need more modern fighter planes to find Bin Laden.
6 days ago: Pabitra:
What is the point of anyone wanting to say that any particular proposition is "an absolutely proven scientific fact"?! That is a strong assertion, which may be nice if you want to "win an argument", but has very little value otherwise. Science is an elaborate, evolving network of Theories, Axioms, Rules of Thumb, observations and experiments. Very impressive in its ability to separate out nonsense, I would say. (I had Lasik surgery years ago, and I have to tell you,it is "wellproven". Or that astronomical feat of some years ago of hitting a small Asteroid, millions of miles away, with an experimental Impactor. Science has an impressive record of answering people's questions about the "Why " of things, by showing in detail , the "How'. thus displacing a lot of Religion. We do not know how far this can go, but I see no reason to think the process has to stop somewhere. Maybe not.
Curious that you seem to be against "Spiritualism", but at the same time believe we are all "connected". As a sort of pseudo-Buddhist. I'm sure you are right, though I think it is a matter of being all part of one "Consciousness Field", analogous to an Electric Field. Why not call it Spiritualist, although that can be too vague a term to be easily understood by people who think that the "Individual" is real, but the Group is not.
6 days ago: Mathew: While I admire your enthusiasm, have you thought about what it would be like if your wish came true? I mean doing away with labels. It would be impossible to make the most ordinary observations, instructions to the young, even language itself would have to be foregone. As you suggest Science would be impossible, but so would making the most mundane operations, like baking a cake.
Confuscius in China years ago came to the opposite conclusion: he thought it was the main job of educated people to make sure that the "labels" were accurate, thus avoiding, or at least clarifying, the conflicts that you envision. That is the main reason that the Chinese today "suffer" from a lack of Lawyers, and respect for lawyers.
Labels are also a great labor saving device. It enables conveying efficiently a great deal of information without having to "reinvent the wheel" with every transaction'
What you envision reminds me of the great "Freedom of Choice" that a large Chinese menu presents to an illiterate person: hundreds of dishes to choose from, but you don't know what any of them are.
6 days ago: Prasad:: It sounds as though you regret the invention of gunpowder. Think again. Remember that after the fall of the Roman Empire, new forms of "government" developed, Feudalism, which is very similar to the Mafia, literally. People were very poor after that, and ambitious people found that by investing in expensive steel weapons, like swords and armor, he could become a "leader:, with a small gang of well armed followers with horses, swords, and armor, all out of the reach of ordinary people. So they were helpless. Until guns were invented. Like the motto: " God made Man, Colt made them equal." Thomas Jefferson would be scandalized to hear that many modern people can't seem to understand that.
May 8 2013: .One rather fundamental disjuncture between Knowledge and Action is the average Westerners idea of human nature, based on our Judeo-Christian-Newtonian World View, which takes it for granted that Humanity is made up of Sovereign Individuals, entirely separate and distinct from each other, while simaltaneously ,"Groups" are merely arbitrary and not-quite-Real "Collections" of Individuals. There is no Scientific reason to believe this, or take it as an Axiom..It is merely a cultural artifact, essential especially to certain Religious Sects. (And Atheists).
The Individual may quite serviceably be seen as an artifact, in the sense that it is deliberately, and artistically created, by acts of will and group brainwashing. "Free Will" in action, so to speak, but very likely just as much of an illusion as "molecules" are admitted to be. Even the group may be an illusion of the same sort; that would follow if "Consciousness" should turn out to be a fundamental Field analogous to ElectroMagnetism. There is nothing unscientific about this concept; it would dispose of a lot of tiresome questions. It is not incompatible with Buddhism or Hinduism, though of course it would not contain ritualistic artifacts.
Getting to the "Action" part of the thesis, it would facilitate and enable people to treat each other with much more solicitude, benevolence , even love, since it would not make much sense to injure "yourself". And "Selfishness" would turn into treating everyone else by what the Christians think of as the "Golden Rule", rather than swindling people in Any Rand fashion,.
May 1 2013: I am not sure how TED "edits" its talks, but how is it possible that no one noticed that Kirk Sorensen gave a TED talk about Thorium Liquid Fueled Reactors (LFTR) some years ago. And how was this impressive young man not aware that Alvin Weinberg, the inventor and patent holder of the Uranium nuclear fission plants he was discussing in some detail, had already rejected the whole Uranium idea 50 years ago, and invented and demonstrated the kind of plant that Mr. W. was talking about?! Well, its probably not his fault, but some grownup should have prevented him from embarrassing himself, and TED as well. That said, yes , let's all keep talking about Thorium , fission energy cheaper than coal. It is a shame, that this US invention is being pursued by the Chinese now, much more than ourselves. Especially since the ORNL crew testified that the problems were all about the production phases, not whether the idea would work, which was already demonstrated.
May 1 2013: This commentator seems to be missing some of the critical elements. It is not just "innovation" that we need. We could carry on quite well with only all the innovations of the last century, even if noting more is ever invented. It is a matter of whether we can accommodate the rest of the world to our level of" civilization" (meaning only running water, etc.) And we can do that if we can invent an energy source (the main thing) that is as cheap and powerful as oil and coal were. Luckily , it has already been invented. (See Thorium LFTR).
But the real headwind has yet to be mentioned. One of the big reasons for the retrograde progress lately is only vaguely related to Income Inequality, but it is a big factor. Namely, our capital allocations are seriously deranged. It used to be that all these innovations, cars, running water, etc. were financed by our financial services industry (Banks).. However, they have discovered that it is ever so much more profitable (for them) to drop constructing "stuff" , and use the money for the Casino model of rent seeking structures, guaranteed by taxpayers, and far removed from the "rust belt" industries we have abandoned. As I understand it, there has not been a famine in the whole last century that was not politically created; it seems "productivity" is not the problem, but purchasing power is. And since we have arranged that purchasing power , and the whole Middle Class, depends on "Good Jobs", which the successful Industrial Revolution is eliminating wholesale, (as he points out) , some fundamental shifts in thinking about this are required, fast. My own recommendation is "neo-Nepotism", a recognition that biology proves we are all one "family" , so artificial job creation, of the inefficient, but benign type that wealthy families have always done, is OK for everyone. We can afford a lot of inefficiency, if we can avoid the social dysfunctionality that permanent mass unemployment creates.
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A comment on Conversation: Number crunching the US unemployment figures
I kinow it's not all bad. It was a secret government nuclear aircraft engine project that potentially solved the world energy crisis for us, 40 years ago. The Liquid Fueled Thorium Reactor (LFTR) We forgot about it, but apparently the Chinese have not.
A reply on Conversation: A contradiction within itself-New Age Spirituality
I'm reminded of a Mark Twain quote about how Christians congratulate themselves on their beliefs" just because " they are so unbelievable. But a great deal of present "common knowledge" consists of things once considered unbelievable, such as Heliocentricity.
A reply on Conversation: Number crunching the US unemployment figures
A comment on Conversation: Truths and Facts. Does Science prove anything?
What is the point of anyone wanting to say that any particular proposition is "an absolutely proven scientific fact"?! That is a strong assertion, which may be nice if you want to "win an argument", but has very little value otherwise. Science is an elaborate, evolving network of Theories, Axioms, Rules of Thumb, observations and experiments. Very impressive in its ability to separate out nonsense, I would say. (I had Lasik surgery years ago, and I have to tell you,it is "wellproven". Or that astronomical feat of some years ago of hitting a small Asteroid, millions of miles away, with an experimental Impactor. Science has an impressive record of answering people's questions about the "Why " of things, by showing in detail , the "How'. thus displacing a lot of Religion. We do not know how far this can go, but I see no reason to think the process has to stop somewhere. Maybe not.
A reply on Conversation: A contradiction within itself-New Age Spirituality
Curious that you seem to be against "Spiritualism", but at the same time believe we are all "connected". As a sort of pseudo-Buddhist. I'm sure you are right, though I think it is a matter of being all part of one "Consciousness Field", analogous to an Electric Field. Why not call it Spiritualist, although that can be too vague a term to be easily understood by people who think that the "Individual" is real, but the Group is not.
A reply on Conversation: A contradiction within itself-New Age Spirituality
Confuscius in China years ago came to the opposite conclusion: he thought it was the main job of educated people to make sure that the "labels" were accurate, thus avoiding, or at least clarifying, the conflicts that you envision. That is the main reason that the Chinese today "suffer" from a lack of Lawyers, and respect for lawyers.
Labels are also a great labor saving device. It enables conveying efficiently a great deal of information without having to "reinvent the wheel" with every transaction'
What you envision reminds me of the great "Freedom of Choice" that a large Chinese menu presents to an illiterate person: hundreds of dishes to choose from, but you don't know what any of them are.
A reply on Conversation: What potential does 3D printing have for developing economies?
A comment on Conversation: Our TEDxKhartoum 2013 theme is ""Knowledge Into Action". We are asking how can we put together some scenes or images to visualize our theme?
The Individual may quite serviceably be seen as an artifact, in the sense that it is deliberately, and artistically created, by acts of will and group brainwashing. "Free Will" in action, so to speak, but very likely just as much of an illusion as "molecules" are admitted to be. Even the group may be an illusion of the same sort; that would follow if "Consciousness" should turn out to be a fundamental Field analogous to ElectroMagnetism. There is nothing unscientific about this concept; it would dispose of a lot of tiresome questions. It is not incompatible with Buddhism or Hinduism, though of course it would not contain ritualistic artifacts.
Getting to the "Action" part of the thesis, it would facilitate and enable people to treat each other with much more solicitude, benevolence , even love, since it would not make much sense to injure "yourself". And "Selfishness" would turn into treating everyone else by what the Christians think of as the "Golden Rule", rather than swindling people in Any Rand fashion,.
A comment on Talk: Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors
A comment on Talk: Robert Gordon: The death of innovation, the end of growth
But the real headwind has yet to be mentioned. One of the big reasons for the retrograde progress lately is only vaguely related to Income Inequality, but it is a big factor. Namely, our capital allocations are seriously deranged. It used to be that all these innovations, cars, running water, etc. were financed by our financial services industry (Banks).. However, they have discovered that it is ever so much more profitable (for them) to drop constructing "stuff" , and use the money for the Casino model of rent seeking structures, guaranteed by taxpayers, and far removed from the "rust belt" industries we have abandoned. As I understand it, there has not been a famine in the whole last century that was not politically created; it seems "productivity" is not the problem, but purchasing power is. And since we have arranged that purchasing power , and the whole Middle Class, depends on "Good Jobs", which the successful Industrial Revolution is eliminating wholesale, (as he points out) , some fundamental shifts in thinking about this are required, fast. My own recommendation is "neo-Nepotism", a recognition that biology proves we are all one "family" , so artificial job creation, of the inefficient, but benign type that wealthy families have always done, is OK for everyone. We can afford a lot of inefficiency, if we can avoid the social dysfunctionality that permanent mass unemployment creates.