19 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
The Chain of Human Rights to Morphological Freedom
The right to life, the right to not have other people prevent oneself from surviving, is a central right, without which all other rights have no meaning. But to realize the right to life we need other rights.
Another central right for any humanistic view of human rights is the right to seek happiness. Without it human flourishing is unprotected, and there is not much point in having a freedom to live if it will not be at least a potentially happy life. In a way the right to life follows from... 1 
notes
notesFrom Anders Sandberg's "Morphological Freedom – Why We Not Just Want It, but Need It"
30 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Nemesis
But why should comets become more likely to hit us every million years?
Here we launch ourselves into deep speculation. It has been suggested
that the sun has a sister star, and the two orbit each other with a
periodicity of about 26 million years. This hypothetical binary partner,
which has never been seen but which has nevertheless been given the
dramatic name Nemesis, passes, once per orbital rotation, through the
so-called Oort Cloud, the belt of perhaps a trillion comets which orbits
the...
1 07 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Visions of Atom
During my stay in London I resided for a considerable time in Clapham Road in the neighbourhood of Clapham Common... One fine summer evening I was returning by the last bus 'outside' as usual, through the deserted streets of the city, which are at other times so full of life. I fell into a reverie (Träumerei), and 10, the atoms were gambolling before my eyes! Whenever, hitherto, these diminutive beings had appeared to me, they had always been in motion: but up to that time I had never been a... 1 notes
notesKekule describes the vision he had of the world of atoms. Fantastic.
29 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Nature Works in Increments
Whatever Nature undertakes, she can only accomplish it in a sequence. She never makes a leap. For example she could not produce a horse if it were not preceded by all the other animals on which she ascends to the horse's structure as if on the rungs of a ladder. Thus every one thing exists for the sake of all things and all for the sake of one; for the one is of course the all as well. Nature, despite her seeming diversity, is always a unity, a whole; and thus, when she manifests herself in a...
1 All living things rely on the chain of all other living things before them.
30 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
All is Connected in Quantum Physics
Quantum theory thus reveals a basic oneness of the universe. It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated “building blocks,” but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of the whole. These relations always include the observer in an essential way. The human observer constitute the final link in the chain of observational processes, and the propert...Folksonomies: quantum physics elementary particles
Folksonomies: quantum physics elementary particles
1 notes
notesNothing exists on its own but is part of a complex web of interacting particles.
12 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Induction VS Philosophizing
There are certain general Laws that run through the whole Chain of natural Effects: these are learned by the Observation and Study of Nature, and are by Men applied as well to the framing artificial things for the Use and Ornament of Life, as to the explaining the various Phænomena: Which Explication consists only in shewing the Conformity any particular Phænomenon hath to the general Laws of Nature, or, which is the same thing, in discovering the Uniformity there is in the production of na...Folksonomies: naturalism induction
Folksonomies: naturalism induction
1 notes
notesInduction studies nature and finds laws that produce natural effects for anyone to see, philosophy pretends to account for the appearances of natural effects.
15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
If Life Can Exist in Sea Vents, Then It Can Exist Elsewhe...
The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight—previously thought to be the font of all Earth's life—has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical process based on geothermal heat, then life could exist under similar conditions on planets far removed from the nurturing light of our parent star, the Sun. 1 notes
notesIncreasing the range of places life can occur in the universe.
30 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Definition of Encyclopedia V2
Encyclopedia. This word signifies chain of knowledge ; it is composed of the Greek preposition ἐν , in , and the nouns κύκλος , circle , and παιδεία , knowledge .
Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe; to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come; and ...Another translation of the introduction to the article on Encyclopedie.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
There Are Many Types of Islands
IMAGINE a world without islands.
Biologists often use the word 'island' to mean something other than just a piece of land
surrounded by water. From the point of view of a freshwater fish, a lake is an island: an island of
habitable water surrounded by inhospitable land. From the point of view of an Alpine beetle, incapable of flourishing below a certain altitude, each high peak is an island, with almost
impassable valleys between. There are tiny nematode worms (related to the elegant Caenorh... 1 notes
notesCreating many ways for species to evolve divergently.
03 JAN 2011 by ideonexus
Physics Work is Like Building a House of Cards
To do high, real good physics work you do need absolutely solid lengths of time, so that when you're putting ideas together which are vague and hard to remember, it's very much like building a house of cards and each of the cards is shaky, and if you forget one of them the whole thing collapses again. You don't know how you got there and you have to build them up again, and if you're interrupted and kind of forget half the idea of how the cards went together--your cards being different-type p... 1 notes
notesBuilding ideas upon ideas to figure out physics is like constructing a house of cards, requiring intense concentration and a chain of ideas.
