25 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Laura Betzig: Culture
What if the 100,000-odd year-old evidence of human social life—from the arrowheads in South Africa, to the Venus figurines at Dordogne—is the effect of nothing, more or less, but our efforts to become parents? What if the 10,000-odd year-old record of civilization—from the tax accounts at temples in the Near East, to the inscription on a bronze statue in New York Harbor—is the product of nothing, more or less, but our struggle for genetic representation in future generations?
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notes05 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Dawkin's Concept of Life
My vision of life is that everything extends from replicators, which are in practice DNA molecules on this planet. The replicators reach out into the world to influence their own probability of being passed on. Mostly they don't reach further than the individual body in which they sit, but that's a matter of practice, not a matter of principle. The individual organism can be defined as that set of phenotypic products which have a single route of exit of the genes into the future. That's not t... 1 notes
notes07 MAR 2015 by ideonexus
Radio-Mimetic Chemicals
For mankind as a whole, a possession infinitely more valuable than individual life is our genetic heritage, our link with past and future. Shaped through long aeons of evolution, oru genes not only make us what we are, but hold in their minute beings the future – be it one of promise or threat. Yet generic deterioration through man-made agents is the menace of our time, ‘the last and greatest danger to our civilization.’
Again, the parallel between chemicals and radiation is exact and... 1 notes
notes09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
Robert Ray Secular Invocation
Thank you Mayor and council members for this opportunity to provide an inspirational start to your meeting.Normally you would bow your heads for an invocation in this chamber, but I am going to ask that you raise your eyes and think about a few things today.
When this body comes together to govern, they do so with the consent of the citizens of Oak Harbor. Oak Harbor is a very diverse community with many different views and opinions.
My Secular Humanism, which is to say, reason and science ...Folksonomies: secularism
Folksonomies: secularism
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notesRobert Ray, president of The Humanists of the North Puget Sound and humanist celebrant, gave the first ever Humanist opening invocation at the Oak Harbor city council meeting on February 4, 2014.
24 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
The Problem With Experimentation in the Real World
Government policies—from teaching methods in schools to prison sentencing to taxation —would also benefit from more use of controlled experiments. This is where many people start to get squeamish. To become the subject of an experiment in something as critical or controversial as our children’s education or the incarceration of criminals feels like an affront to our sense of fairness and our strongly held belief in the right to be treated exactly the same as everybody else. After all, i...
1 Timo Hannay observes that we cannot experiment with classrooms and prisons because finding one experiment works means another didn't, creating winners and losers and offending our sense of justice.
17 AUG 2013 by ideonexus
Zhodani Religion
Death, to the Zhodani, is not a complete ending. The "evil" (that is, failure of duty) of the individual spirit will be lost. The "good" of the spirit will merge for a time with the universal energy field, the Tavrian, and then return to another member of the race. The more dutiful the spirit, the more personality (and possibly even memory) will remain; this resembles reincarcation. An undutiful spirity will be diminished in proportion to its failures. However, actual demotion on the "chain o... 1 notes
notesInteresting concept, that our good survives to live more lifetimes, while our bad dies with us. The more good, the more of us to continue, while the more bad, the less we will exist. Similar to evolution, where our good survives into future generations.
09 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
The Naturalist's Concern for Death
But just because naturalists do not believe in a life after death does not mean that they don't care what happens after they die. I am deeply concerned, for instance, about whether my family members will be happy and successful after I am gone, whether my friends will continue the traditions we have established, and whether the world will be a better place because of my actions. I hope that what I do in this life will make a long-term difference in the world, though I will never know whether ... 1 notes
notesThey are concerned about the welfare of their loved ones, and the causal effects of their life rather than rewards in an afterlife.
07 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Why the Pioneer Anomaly is Worth Investigating
In the short run, knowing the gravitational constant to one more decimal digit of precision or placing even tighter limits on any deviation from Einstein's gravitational theory may seem like painfully nitpicking detail. Yet one must not lose sight of the "big picture." When researchers were measuring the properties of electricity with ever more refined instruments over two hundred years ago, they did not envision continent-spanning power grids, an information economy, or tiny electrical signa... 1 notes
notesThe effect is tiny, but magnified over great distances, and if we are meticulous now, we make it possible for future generations to traverse the solar system.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Teddy Roosevelt's Environmentalism
The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value.Folksonomies: environmentalism national parks
Folksonomies: environmentalism national parks
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notesWe must secure our national resources to be passed on to future generations. (TODO: Find the context of this quote)
31 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
What We Have Discovered
What has been done is little—scarcely a beginning; yet it is much in comparison with the total blank of a century past. And our knowledge will, we are easily persuaded, appear in turn the merest ignorance to those who come after us. Yet it is not to be despised, since by it we reach up groping to touch the hem of the garment of the Most High.Folksonomies: knowledge
Folksonomies: knowledge
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notesIs just a little of what there is, but it is vastly more than previous generations knew, and future generations will know vastly more as we reach for truth.
