03 JAN 2017 by ideonexus
Floor Toys
How utterly we despise the silly little bricks of the toyshops! They are too small to make a decent home for even the poorest lead soldiers, even if there were hundreds of them, and there are never enough, never nearly enough; even if you take one at a time and lay it down and say, "This is a house," even then there are not enough. We see rich people, rich people out of motor cars, rich people beyond the dreams of avarice, going into toyshops and buying these skimpy, sickly, ridiculous pseudo...Folksonomies: play
Folksonomies: play
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notes30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Capitalist Peace
Such findings have led some political scientists to entertain a heretical idea called the Capitalist Peace.243 The word liberal in Liberal Peace refers both to the political openness of democracy and to the economic openness of capitalism, and according to the Capitalist Peace heresy, it’s the economic openness that does most of the pacifying. In arguments that are sure to leave leftists speechless, advocates claim that many of Kant’s arguments about democracy apply just as well to capita...Folksonomies: capitalism peace
Folksonomies: capitalism peace
1 notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Intellectual Exploration as Geographical Exploration
My own field of physics is passing today through a phase of exuberant freedom, a phase of passionate prodigality. Sometimes as I listen to the conversation of my young colleagues at Princeton, I feel as if I am lost in a rain forest, with insects and birds and flowers growing all around me in intricate profusion, growing too abundantly for my sixty-year-old brain to comprehend. But the young people are at home in the rain forest and walk confidently along trails which to me are almost invisib...
1 09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
König’s paradox: Ordinals
Let’s start by turning back the clock. It is India in the fifth century BCE, the age of the historical Buddha, and a rather peculiar principle of reasoning appears to be in general use. This principle is called the catuskoti, meaning ‘four corners’. It insists that there are four possibilities regarding any statement: it might be true (and true only), false (and false only), both true and false, or neither true nor false.
[...]
To get back to something that the Buddha might recognise,...Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
1 notes
notesAlso Betrand Russel's "Set of All Sets that Do Not Contain Themselves"
09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Collapse is a Recurrent Phenomenon in Societies
The Roman Empire's dramatic collapse (followed by many centuries of population decline, economic deterioration, intellectual regression, and the disappearance of literacy) is well known, but it was not the rst rise-and-collapse cycle in Europe. Prior to the rise of Classical Greco- Roman civilization, both the Minoan and Mycenaean Civilizations had each risen, reached very advanced levels of civilization, and then collapsed virtually completely [Morris, 2006; Redman, 1999]. The history of Mes... 1 notes
notes21 JUN 2014 by ideonexus
There is a mass exodus into the virtual world
The real world just doesn’t offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures,
the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by
virtual environments. Reality doesn’t motivate us as effectively. Reality isn’t
engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from the bottom
up to make us happy.
And so, there is a growing perception in the gaming community:
Reality, compared to games, is broken.
In fact, it is more than a perception. It’s a phenom...Folksonomies: education gamification
Folksonomies: education gamification
1 notes
notes26 FEB 2014 by ideonexus
MarsOne Response to Muslim Fatwa
And among His Signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variations in your languages and your colors: verily in that are Signs for those who know. (Quran 30: 22)
The Muslim world has a rich tradition of exploration. The verse from the Quran above encourages Muslims to go out and see the signs of God’s creation in the ‘heavens and the earth’. The most influential example of this was the Moroccan Muslim traveller, Ibn Battuta, who from 1325 to 1355 travelled 73,000 mile... 1 notes
notes...against voyaging to Mars because it constitutes "suicide."
19 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Understanding Awe
It can be hard to generalize what people consider jaw-dropping, but Vohs says research demonstrates what consistently creates an awesome experience. Travel ranks high. So does gazing at the cosmos on a clear night or watching a sensational film, as well as anytime we encounter massive quantities: colorful tulips in bloom, a bustling market in India, or a stunning school of fish.
Novelty and perceptual vastness forces us into the present moment. The study underscores the importance of cultiva... 1 notes
notesThe sense of wonder has health benefits, may open us up to learning new information, but what is it exactly?
09 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Demographic-economic paradox
The demographic-economic paradox is the inverse correlation found between wealth and fertility within and between nations. The higher the degree of education and GDP per capita of a human population, subpopulation or social stratum, the fewer children are born in any industrialized country. In a 1974 UN population conference in Bucharest, Karan Singh, a former minister of population in India, illustrated this trend by stating "Development is the best contraceptive."[1]
The term "paradox" com... 1 notes
notesAs societies grow more developed, birthrates decrease, despite the increased resources.
02 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Children Come First
Savage: When somebody writes me a letter and says, “X happened, I’m thinking I should leave.” My first response is always, “Do you have children?” That’s going to color my advice because I think the needs of children and the damage they may experience has to be factored in, and maybe you should suck it up for your kids.
Klein: The tension that’s emerged mostly since the 1950s is between doing what’s best for your kids versus your self-actualization. The therapy industry is p...The time for self-actualization and personal reinvention is over when you have children. You may continue to change gradually and self-improve, but dramatic change is irresponsible. Children need stability.
