Mar 12 2011: Krisztian - this is a wonderful topic, and you are good at asking questions to keep it flowing. Thank you so much for such an interesting read, and the opportunity to comment.
I just wanted to throw other subtopics out there. Scientific discovery and military/foreign action. Should the government be dropping money into scientific discoveries and then allow the companies to run with the profits? Should the free market be in charge of spending for that? Should a government put the money up front and then demand a piece of the action later?
As well, should a government hire private contractors to fight in wars for them? Should they spend the money for reconstruction after a war (should they hire contractors to do that as well)? Should they hire locals for that and not see any money return to them, or should they hire people from their own countries for that?
I think given the current US situation, there is need for those questions as well...
Mar 12 2011: Matt,
Could you please expand on this statement?
"But free will, as it is understood by many people seems to include the idea that somehow our mind is free from the constraints of nature and that our choices truly comes ex-nihilo, almost from some different realm than the material world."
Are you stating that many people think of free will as just ideas that come from nowhere, aka nothing? That is the way I read it, but I want to be sure there aren't some kind of religious overtone that I was missing there.
If the definition is how I read it, then no, free-will does not exist in my opinion. However, that does not mean there is not complexity in the brain nor in the world. Complexity is all around us. That is why there are billions of pages of information on the internet, and we still haven't answered all the questions. The brain is not separated from nature, but is a product of it. Very complex electro-chemical neuro-signals are zooming back and forth at the speed of light creating the complicated thoughts and emotions we have. By any definition, very complex.
My claim of no free-will as defined above comes from the fact that we are very complex creatures in a very complex world.
Mar 12 2011: Before I can answer this question, I must ask a couple. What is a citizen scientist? I mean, I understand the concept as having citizens participate in science, but how in the world do we apply this concept in a way that actually gets any results? I can give away some of my computer's processing power, but does this really make a scientist? I can throw out ideas based on my very narrow understanding of the scientific concepts, but will they actually make a difference?
Next, would I even want to be a citizen scientist? As a citizen who watches the scientific world (popular science world), all I see is a lot of egotistical characters who consistently tell me what is not possible. Those that do not understand the fundamentals of how our universe works (any scientist talking honestly would admit that) tell me that I am irrational to think there is a creator. Those that cannot explain to me how gravity operates at it's most basic level tell me that the must be this thing called dark matter and dark energy to make up for the lack of gravity generating objects. That say that if you don't fall into the scientific norm, then you are absolutely wrong and there is no other way that it can be. Why would I want to be part of that?
Now, I think as a scientific community, there needs to be a return to the time when every idea is challenged, including the ones that we hold most dear. There should be more questioning of things we already "know" when we encounter new evidence. Show the world that face. Show the world that you don't have the answers and invite normal citizens to participate in the discussion. Show that you aren't afraid of the "outsiders" coming in with ideas. Don't call us stupid or discount us just because you are college educated. I am going to run out of characters here, but at the same time, we can't just run with every idea. Take the ones that could make sense, and remember that Einstein was an outsider, too (albeit an educated one).
Mar 7 2011: This is such a great talk. I love to hear that more and more people are coming back around to common sense. What I do wonder, however, is why no discussion on what the rules should change into? Being military, I have to deal with a lot of rules. However, most of them (probably about 80%) are treated more like guidelines. Why, as a society, do we not utilize the idea of guidelines? Guideline: "This is what we are trying to do, but if the situation calls for it, do something else." Rule: "This is something you do every time, no matter what." If we really looked at it, I think we would find that most of the "rules" that we cling so dearly to would really fall in the "guidelines" category. Oh, and about the janitors - if we had more people who acted like them, we wouldn't need the rules or the guidelines. I hope we can find a way to get more of them among us!!!
Mar 5 2011: I am not a highly educated person. I don't have a fancy car or a high-paying job. I am not at the cutting-edge of anything. I do sometimes work long hours (military). I am sometimes gone from family for a year or more at a time.
Now that's out of the way, here is my perspective on this. I see some people on here who say it is impossible to make the work-life balance work. I completely disagree. Military demands a lot out of a person (I spend 2 hours of my day just getting a workout in). But, I still talk to my wife. I still play with my kids. I still have the backyard BBQs. I stood up and cheered in my dorm room where I am deployed to right now when Nigel said that it's the little things in life that matter. As a father of both a son and a daughter, I can say that's 1000% true. You save up and take the kids to Disneyworld? Great! But in the mean time, make sure you take them to that movie they've been wanting to see for forever. Take a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon to throw the football around with your son. An hour of playing tea party with your daughter while you are waiting for the dryer to finish won't kill you. Doing the little things mean the world to your kids. They mean the world to your wife. They mean the world to yourself. You do get a day off eventually. What do you choose to do with it? If you work 14 hours that day, do you come home and kiss the wife and kids before you go to bed, or do you just drag yourself up under the covers? Change the way you look at the free time you do have, and change how your relationships work. This talk was amazing, and take it from a guy with very little time on his hands, it can be done. You just have to change your mind to change your world.
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A comment on Conversation: The role of government
I just wanted to throw other subtopics out there. Scientific discovery and military/foreign action. Should the government be dropping money into scientific discoveries and then allow the companies to run with the profits? Should the free market be in charge of spending for that? Should a government put the money up front and then demand a piece of the action later?
As well, should a government hire private contractors to fight in wars for them? Should they spend the money for reconstruction after a war (should they hire contractors to do that as well)? Should they hire locals for that and not see any money return to them, or should they hire people from their own countries for that?
I think given the current US situation, there is need for those questions as well...
A comment on Conversation: There is no such thing as free will.
Could you please expand on this statement?
"But free will, as it is understood by many people seems to include the idea that somehow our mind is free from the constraints of nature and that our choices truly comes ex-nihilo, almost from some different realm than the material world."
Are you stating that many people think of free will as just ideas that come from nowhere, aka nothing? That is the way I read it, but I want to be sure there aren't some kind of religious overtone that I was missing there.
If the definition is how I read it, then no, free-will does not exist in my opinion. However, that does not mean there is not complexity in the brain nor in the world. Complexity is all around us. That is why there are billions of pages of information on the internet, and we still haven't answered all the questions. The brain is not separated from nature, but is a product of it. Very complex electro-chemical neuro-signals are zooming back and forth at the speed of light creating the complicated thoughts and emotions we have. By any definition, very complex.
My claim of no free-will as defined above comes from the fact that we are very complex creatures in a very complex world.
A comment on Conversation: What do you think should be the strategy to make every human a citizen scientist?
Next, would I even want to be a citizen scientist? As a citizen who watches the scientific world (popular science world), all I see is a lot of egotistical characters who consistently tell me what is not possible. Those that do not understand the fundamentals of how our universe works (any scientist talking honestly would admit that) tell me that I am irrational to think there is a creator. Those that cannot explain to me how gravity operates at it's most basic level tell me that the must be this thing called dark matter and dark energy to make up for the lack of gravity generating objects. That say that if you don't fall into the scientific norm, then you are absolutely wrong and there is no other way that it can be. Why would I want to be part of that?
Now, I think as a scientific community, there needs to be a return to the time when every idea is challenged, including the ones that we hold most dear. There should be more questioning of things we already "know" when we encounter new evidence. Show the world that face. Show the world that you don't have the answers and invite normal citizens to participate in the discussion. Show that you aren't afraid of the "outsiders" coming in with ideas. Don't call us stupid or discount us just because you are college educated. I am going to run out of characters here, but at the same time, we can't just run with every idea. Take the ones that could make sense, and remember that Einstein was an outsider, too (albeit an educated one).
A comment on Talk: Barry Schwartz: Our loss of wisdom
A comment on Talk: Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work
Now that's out of the way, here is my perspective on this. I see some people on here who say it is impossible to make the work-life balance work. I completely disagree. Military demands a lot out of a person (I spend 2 hours of my day just getting a workout in). But, I still talk to my wife. I still play with my kids. I still have the backyard BBQs. I stood up and cheered in my dorm room where I am deployed to right now when Nigel said that it's the little things in life that matter. As a father of both a son and a daughter, I can say that's 1000% true. You save up and take the kids to Disneyworld? Great! But in the mean time, make sure you take them to that movie they've been wanting to see for forever. Take a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon to throw the football around with your son. An hour of playing tea party with your daughter while you are waiting for the dryer to finish won't kill you. Doing the little things mean the world to your kids. They mean the world to your wife. They mean the world to yourself. You do get a day off eventually. What do you choose to do with it? If you work 14 hours that day, do you come home and kiss the wife and kids before you go to bed, or do you just drag yourself up under the covers? Change the way you look at the free time you do have, and change how your relationships work. This talk was amazing, and take it from a guy with very little time on his hands, it can be done. You just have to change your mind to change your world.